Montreal: Looking for a qualified partner to counter the bidding power of the cbc/src tandem, both the Global Television Network and CTV Television Network have come out in support of TVA Group’s application for national network status.

With Global and ctv onside, market reality – and not the language divide – is likely to emerge as the dominant issue at crtc hearings scheduled for July 20.

tva’s application for national network status includes a provision for mandatory carriage on basic, which Rogers Cablesystems and Shaw Communications strongly oppose.

If the application is accepted as it stands, tva’s carriage would become mandatory for all Class 1 and 2 bdus and for Class 3 undertakings in areas where at least 5% of the population is francophone.

tva president and ceo Daniel Lamarre says the ‘first reason’ for the application is that tva needs the ability to acquire national programming rights, especially in partnership with private-sector Canadian networks.

Lamarre says cbc and src argue they are the only networks covering both English and French Canada. ‘So with us becoming a national network, [that] will give leverage to either ctv or Global.’

Both ctv and Global have asked to appear at the hearings, as has Shaw.

In a letter from Shaw senior vp Ken Stein, the cableco/broadcaster asks that tva be added to the list of Eligible Satellite Services and licensed on a modified dual-status basis, as is French-track specialty news service Reseau de l’Information.

Cable’s position would make tva’s signal an optional, discretionary service for larger operators, unless the distributor and broadcaster agreed to basic carriage.

‘As an incentive for carriage, Shaw further recommends that tva be added to the group of services that may be linked to u.s. satellite services on the eligible satellite lists,’ writes Stein, adding: ‘This would enable Shaw and other bdu operators to offer the [tva] service in a consumer-friendly manner.’

Stein points to current Mediastats data which says the more flexible, non-mandatory arrangement has resulted in rdi being available to 6.8 million customers.

Lamarre says it’s simply wrong-headed to see tva as just another niche player.

tva’s dominance in Quebec – a 40% market share in ’97/98 – and the scale of its investment – in the order of $100 million – has to be taken into account, he says.

‘I invest 94% of my program budget on Canadian content, which is unprecedented in this country,’ says Lamarre.

And tva argues there is significant proportional imbalance between the number of English services in the French market and the level of French services in the major English markets.

Four French-language services are distributed in the Toronto market, src, rdi, tfo and tv5.

A letter from Rogers vp Pamela Dinsmore echoes Shaw’s position, saying the addition of tva to the part two list ‘would provide distributors with the flexibility to distribute that French-language service in markets where there is demand for the service.’

Rogers says tva should not be allowed to ‘leapfrog’ over cable channels licensed in ’96, and recommends including tva as part of a digital package of French-language tv services.

Rogers goes one step further than Shaw when it says, ‘tva has failed to demonstrate that cftm [tva’s flagship station in Montreal] is a service of ‘national public interest.’

As a Class 3 service listing, cftm has been available in Canada on an optional – 10 cents per subscriber – basis via Cancom since 1983. tva already penetrates 500,000 subscriber homes serviced by 272 cable systems in Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick.