A fight on their hands

Declining television revenues, market fragmentation and turf-guarding instincts combined to whip up a formidable wave of resistance as two applicants last week asked the crtc to grant a licence for a new tv service in Alberta.

At a hearing held in Calgary, crtc commissioners began weighing the competing applications in a heated atmosphere which included an unprecedented number of negative interventions and a well-orchestrated campaign from the province’s existing broadcasters aimed at derailing the proposals for a fourth Alberta television system.

Don Brinton, a veteran broadcast executive who came out of semi-retirement to head up CanWest Global Communications’ AltaWest proposal, says, ‘We’ve never seen anything quite like it. There was a tremendous groundswell of negative interventions by these broadcasters who are frightened for their lives and are spending a lot of money to protect their turf.’

In addition to the AltaWest submission, the crtc also heard a proposal from The Alberta Channel. It is owned by Craig Broadcast Systems of Manitoba, MidWest Television of Lloydminster, Alta. and businessman David MacKenzie.

Ironically, Wendell Wilks, the man who spent six years trying to establish the Alberta Television Network and who first got the ball rolling for a crtc hearing into a fourth Alberta service, was, at press time, absent from the hearings. Last October he sold his share of the atn application to MacKenzie, one of atn’s first shareholders, who then found new partners and regrouped under the Alberta Channel banner.

Winnipeg-based CanWest Global, a rapidly growing multinational, sees the lucrative Alberta market as a key prospect, not least because it is the last major English Canadian broadcast market without a CanWest Global presence.

AltaWest promises to provide the independent production community with a total of $10.3 million over seven years to help fund Alberta productions by Alberta producers. Half of this fund would be spent on drama with the remaining 50% on a mix of documentaries, variety, music and children’s programming. Brinton says the other important aspect of its commitment to Canadian programming is that it would be aired in primetime and not relegated to the usual basement slots of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

The AltaWest plan allows for the stations’ creation in two phases. Phase one would see the building of stations in Edmonton and Calgary (with Calgary dominant), with phase two seeing the expansion of the Edmonton station’s production capacity and the expansion of its signal to the rest of the province.

The Alberta Channel has focused its application on the creation of more local programming including news, public affairs and community events as well as more movies and children’s programming. The Alberta Channel intends to create identical station facilities in Calgary and Edmonton, employing a staff of 250. It has also promised to establish a fund of $16.6 million to be spent on independent production over the first seven years.

A united front by Alberta’s existing broadcasters, spearheaded by WIC Western International Communications, which owns five of Alberta’s eight stations, contends that while the Alberta television market seems lucrative – with $138 million available for local, regional and national advertising – it is actually stagnant.

In a fact sheet provided to the media, the incumbant stations say audience share has eroded since 1986. They also say the top 10% to 15% of their U.S. programming currently comes from CanWest Global, which owns the rights in Canada to such shows as Seinfeld, MarriedWith Children and The Simpsons. If the AltaWest application were successful, it would deprive the existing broadcasters of that significant ad revenue.

Brinton disagrees: ‘Alberta is a rapidly growing market and our research indicates that we will only be reducing their (existing broadcasters) income before taxes by 4%.’ He says CanWest Global’s application allows for an ‘easing in’ period during which time its station would not solicit local advertising.

What AltaWest is offering, says Brinton, ‘is an alternative system and quality programming….Even though we can’t produce the volume that everyone else is promising, we can certainly produce programs that will be watched by Albertans.’

Andy Thompson, president of the Alberta Motion Picture Industry Association, says that in a poll of producer members, 75% voted in favor of a new service. He says he’s been surprised at just how vitriolic the hearings have been at times, given that all the studies show this remains one of the most lucrative markets in Canada, one which he says can support another station without killing off existing broadcasters.

Start-up costs on both of the applications are projected at $20 million with annual operating costs estimated at slightly less than that.

Brinton predicts the success of the hearings will hinge on the crtc’s ability to determine the ‘true story of the market’ and whether it can support another service. But with the mounds of conflicting research documentation from the over 900 positive and negative interventions, the crtc will need the full two or three months to wade through all the information before it can rule on the licence. A decision is expected this spring.