NIAGARA FALLS – For the first time in memory, the CRTC is coming to Niagara.
And, will they get an earful on Monday when three days of hearings begin because up first is broadcast veteran Wendell Wilks, who is looking to recreate ITV all over again, this time in the Niagara region.
The founder of Edmonton’s ITV (which is now Global Edmonton) says that the Niagara region (pop. 500,000 or so) is so poorly served by the existing Canadian TV broadcasters that it needs its own station and he’s willing to bet $20 million to prove it.
What’s interesting is that there are no competing applications for the station. There are certainly interventions, but no other applications. “Ninety-five percent of commercial TV in Canada is held by four companies. Consolidation has been so complete that none of the existing Toronto operators, except for Quebecor, is eligible to compete against us for a license, because they’ve already maxed out on the number of television signals allowed,” Wilks told www.cartt.ca in a recent interview.
He and his partners have done the research and found that, “it’s a demonstrably underserved region. The only station that actually claims Niagara is our friends at CH and they claim that with a single reporter based in the region.”
TVN analyzed CH’s local programming in a month and of 113 hours, it does 3 hours of local reflection from Niagara region. As for PSAs – 14 seconds a month come from Niagara, said Wilks.
Independent surveys undertaken by TVN say that 97% of the people don’t identify with Hamilton (where CHCH, the nearest TV broadcaster is) or Toronto. But, Toronto and Hamilton – along with Western New York – is where the residents of St. Catharines, Welland, Niagara Falls and so on, get their broadcast television.
And about those Toronto TV stations which claim Niagara as its local market, don’t get him started. “They’ve been selling Niagara’s eyeballs for 55 years but giving us nothing back in terms of what’s going on here, except for the odd bodybag story,” he says.
TVN has an ambitious plan (one which on first glance will probably cost more than $20 million).
Besides being HD-ready at launch, TVN has promised in its application to:
* air 40 hours of local Niagara programming every week
* produce a two hour evening newscast daily with heavy emphasis on Niagara news
* launch with a 25-person news team and 95 full-time and 60 part-time employees
* air 48 “classic movies” per week
* operate 130 cameras showing USA-Canada border crossings
And, of course, since its broadcast signal will cover the entire Golden Horseshoe, plus the Greater Toronto Area, it would – according to CRTC regulations – be a must-carry on basic cable in the region, if licensed.
The Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association has, of course, opposed the application. “The CCTA submits that it would be imprudent at this time for the Commission to approve any additional over-the-air programming undertakings for analog carriage… the CCTA believes that TVN Niagara’s application, as currently filed, should be rejected by the Commission. However, the CCTA understands that its members would consider distributing such a programming service as part of the basic package on digital in those service areas where the programming service would be considered a local service. Alternatively, CCTA suggests that the Commission invite TVN Niagara to file an application for a licence to operate a community-based television programming undertaking,” reads the association’s intervention.
Cogeco Cable and Rogers Cable also object.
“The cable rats have been trying to get this on the agenda forever – to shut down any further analog licensing, but the CRTC came up with a policy in 2003 that was definitive that said it would continue to accept analog applications and deal with them on a case by case basis,” said Wilks.
But it’s not only cable that opposes it. Toronto broadcasters CHUM Television and Rogers Media (OMNI.1 and .2) will also appear and intervene. “TVN’s programming strategy relies on the supply of classic movie titles. Such a strategy is very similar to that already used by Toronto One. In fact, Toronto One instead carries much more recent titles, of interest to a much greater segment of the television audience. In our submission, TVN has not provided research in its application to validate the demand for classic movies or demonstrated that this kind of programming will generate the revenues necessary to sustain the viability of its operations,” says the submission from Alain Strati, vice-president, business and regulatory affairs at Rogers Media.
CHUM’s objection says that TVN is being completely unrealistic in its projections and that with the OMNIs, The New VR, Toronto 1 and CTS all struggling financially, any newcomer will have trouble meeting revenue projections (Wilks predicts $5 million in retail ad revenue alone in year one) and will harm the existing stations.
“I’m going to take a lousy six million bucks out of national advertising… I’m taking six million out for viewers, they’re taking an average, just in the southern Ontario region alone, of $50 million a year just in interest payments on their debt,” said Wilks, referring to the other public broadcasting companies.
The Canadian broadcast system “is dismally failing,” he continued. “When you can’t get more than two of the top 25 programs that we’re watching to be Canadian content, why do these guys need protection? It just defies any kind of logic.
“Convergence has not yielded the fruit, which was supposed to be the creation of programming Canadians want to watch,” he added. “In fact, if you think Train 48 – the big dramatic production at Global Television – is the best they can come up with, somebody should not just compete against them, you should really consider whether they deserve to keep the license.”
Anticipating approval, TVN has already begun production on a soap opera tentatively titled “The Light Over Niagara.” By the time shooting is done, Wilks says he will have 26 weeks of shows.
Much of Wilks’ career was in program production, making programs like Celebrity Concerts, a weekly show called The Baxters and Live at the Forum, but he’s probably best-remembered in Canadian broadcasting for founding and launching ITV in Edmonton in the 1970s. His original financial backer was then chief of surgery at Edmonton General Hospital Dr. Charles Allard, who grew ITV into Allarcom.
The 64-year-old has also been president of Alberta Television Networks (ATN, before it became A-Channel) and was general manager of Crossroads Television from 1993 to 1998.
Will he get a license? You never know. His shareholders are a group of well-heeled current and retired advertising executives who see TVN as a personal investment, TVN’s classic movies programming strategy will mimic that of Turner Classic Movies with “digitally restored masters of greatest movies ever made,” says Wilks.
“It’s been a very successful format in the U.S. and has never been done here,” he says.
What makes him think having older movies than Toronto 1 has been showing is his unusual targeted demographic – aged 39-plus. Twenty-five percent of population in Niagara will be at least 50 in seven years or so, he says. “They’re the most neglected group in history – so we’re going to pay attention to them. We’ve never seen a group like this hit that age before.”
As for bumping up against the “big guys” in front of the Commission? Wilks is ready to say what he thinks. “One of the reasons I’m so outspoken about the conglomerates is that I’m never going to go and work for them,” he says. “One of the reasons why so many people are mealy-mouthed in front of the Commission is that they think ‘my god, I might want to work there so I better not say anything about Rogers or CanWest or CHUM, I better not tramp on any lilies there.’”
Expect some lily-tramping on Monday.
– Greg O’Brien
