There was no shortage of issues to discuss at this year’s Canadian Satellite Users Association conference, March 20 and 21 in Toronto. Hardware may be topping the list of short-term complications (particularly since Anik E1 became permanently maimed after the conference), but if and when a national dth service launches, there’s a number of rights and marketing conundrums to deal with before the private broadcasters sign on for distribution.

Satellite services are ‘no real immediate friend to private broadcasters,’ comments Global president Kevin Shea, saying broadcasters reach 100% of the audience through cable and off-air distribution. If distribution eventually splits between cable, telcos, dth, and off-air, various channel lineups are going to send marketing costs through the roof, he says. ‘Satellite distribution is a new revenue source only for the pay and specialty channels.’

The mechanics of programming rights are a bigger problem. Although the private broadcasters buy national rights, the territories are sold off to affiliates or smaller broadcasters. It won’t work to beam in, via satellite, the same programming sold by territory to other distributors, says Shea. ‘There is a major program rights issue which virtually wipes out a conventional Canadian broadcaster being part of dth.’

If Canada has a dth service, the somewhat ominous sentiment gathering steam among some of the broadcasters is better a foreign than domestic service. Theory is that a foreign service, free of Canadian signals, will be more likely to push the audience back to the local broadcasters for news and the like. A Canadian service offering a 100-plus channel lineup filled with some domestic services but also ppv and more of the American signals, may dilute the incentive to go back to the return to the local services.