Almost a year to the day since the crtc passed an exemption order to speed up the launch of Canadian direct-to-home services, the industry faces technical and regulatory roadblocks that will hold up competition until mid-1996.

Power DirecTv has its sights set on a June 1996 launch, three months before Homestar, the newest addition to the dth race which is owned by a consortium of cable companies, plans to beam down. ExpressVu is standing by its target date of later this fall, but may be foiled by a lack of transponder space on Telesat’s Anik E1 satellite, transmission territory Homestar intends to share.

‘In 1998, I don’t have a problem with three dth providers. But in 1995/96, we can’t accommodate everybody,’ says Paul Bush, director of the North American marketing and sales division for Telesat.

On the licensing side, it’s back to the regulatory drawing board for dth executives who spent the summer in and out of Senate committee hearings. The public hearings ordered at the end of that process have been scheduled to open Oct. 30, two days short of what was to be the deadline for the final licensing decision.

Exactly how long the hearings will last is anybody’s guess, but added to the access and Canadian content issues almost sure to resurface are new issues surrounding the cable companies entering the market, including what some dth execs see as the potential for cross-subsidization.

‘You want to make sure competition is on a level playing field, and if Homestar can allocate its costs over seven million subscribersthere’s a policy decision to be made here,’ says Joel Bell, chairman of Power DirecTv.

When the process wraps, decisions must be drafted, translated and then published, all of which will be done expeditiously, says Lise Plousse, director of communications for the crtc. ‘We have to follow the rules in place in accordance with the Broadcast Act. There’s footwork involved and I don’t know how long that will take’

While the licensing process will lumber on in November, what is standing in the way of the launch of any of the services for a longer time is the dirth of space on Telesat’s Anik E1 and Anik E2 satellites. The birds, which hold 16 and six transponders respectively for broadcast transmission, are clearing slowly, says Bush.

ExpressVu requires eight transponders on Anik E1 to start, Homestar 3.5 on the same satellite, a low number because it plans to take much of its 80 channels of programming from the PrimeStar satellite, once a deal is signed with the u.s. service. Power DirecTv requires six to start, and will work off the Anik E2.

ExpressVu is first priority for space on E1, but with all three potential service providers opting for different digital video compression standards, broadcasters are moving slowly.

At this point, 20% of the 30 broadcasters bouncing 60 to 70 services off the Telesat birds have digitized their signals, including all of the new specialty channels, says Bush. Of the remaining broadcasters, between 60% and 70% are in trial with several different systems.

ExpressVu’s execs are accusing the cable companies of strong-arming the specialty services into using their preferred technology, General Instrument’s Digicipher.

‘The confusion and bullying of the cable companies has resulted in programmers slowing down their conversion and staying on analog until it’s sorted out,’ says Chris Frank, vp, regulatory and government affairs for ExpressVu.

And while broadcasters are likely paying attention to the technology chosen by their primary distributor, the major broadcasters have other concerns besides the different system preferences of the cablecos and potential dth providers, says Mark Walewski, a systems engineer for CanWest Global Communications.

CanWest is testing digitization technology from Scientific Atlanta, General Instruments and TV-Comm with an eye to which one guarantees the best signal quality.

‘Can we still edit in the old-fashioned way, record and play back the same way, so that the systems already in place can be used? Before we convert, we have to know the answers to these kinds of questions. The signal may make one pass for a satellite service, but other systems will take more than one,’ says Walewski.

It’s too early to tell which technology will come out ahead, but he says there are clearly differences in quality: ‘They are not all equally good.’

According to Bell, the state the industry is in part due to its inability to reach an agreement on a common technical standard, an idea in play earlier this year, ‘but in the short term, is definitely not going to happen.’

A set-top box could conceivably be designed to accept all signals years down the road, ‘but unless policy puts all of us in the position where we want to do it, it’s not going to work,’ he concludes.

Technical concerns are a little farther down the priority list for Homestar as it wraps up ownership and partnership details in preparation for the October hearings.

Rogers Communications refused Shaw Communications’ offer for 25% of Homestar at the beginning of September, leaving Shaw with a 25% stake, Videotron with 20%, Cogeco and CF Cable with 9% each, Fundy Cable and Moffat Communications with 3.5% each, and 20% reserved for Primestar, should the deal play out favorably.

Michael D’Avella, vp planning, for Shaw, says Rogers’ rebuff is a reflection of how many projects it has in process and is not a show of bad faith in the cable consortium’s chance at a dth licence.

Homestar’s late start won’t undermine its chances for penetration, says D’Avella. ‘Most consumers are probably going to wait until all the players are up and running,’

D’Avella pegs potential dth subscriber numbers at 665,000. Homestar is projecting 32,000 subscribers in the first year, 220,000 by year seven.

On the other hand, Bell is adamant that Power DirecTv’s late start will affect his business. ‘We have been discriminated against by public policy process. The other guys are saying `we’re here,’ and we’re not until next year.’