Global Television broke new ground last month, becoming the first Canadian network to provide Internet access, under its own brand, to American primetime programming. Global’s broadband site (www.canada.com/globaltv/video) now features NBC’s Deal or No Deal.

The game show is a ratings winner, placing 20th on BBM’s Sept. 11-17 chart for Canada. But Global also took the two top spots that week with Survivor: Cook Islands and House, and these are nowhere to be seen online. In fact, Deal or No Deal is currently the only American content on the site.

Greg Treffry, VP of business development at Global, says the net’s ‘ultimate aim is to provide… a diverse range of both domestic and foreign online content.’

Considering that 17 of the top 20 programs in Canada – week to week, give or take a few – come from the U.S., it seems that the broadband sites of Global, CTV and others still have a long way to go in replicating the broadcast experience.

Securing rights for online availability is one of the biggest challenges for these new platforms, which is why broadcasters such as CHUM and CTV were quicker to put domestic content online, although homegrown deals can still be difficult, according to Maria Hale, VP of content business development at CHUM.

‘There are so many moving parts… there are so many layers to each of our discussions,’ she says, citing talks with talent, music labels, publishers and creators. ‘Once you get one deal in place it becomes very helpful because that becomes the template going forward.’

With U.S. and other foreign programming, the problem is more about territory. Conventional TV distribution lends itself naturally to geographically exclusive deals, as do the closed networks used for the mobile TV offerings of wireless carriers.

The Internet is not as cut-and-dried, and U.S. content owners ‘are embracing [multiplatform deals] tentatively and really want to take measured steps in how they approach new media,’ says Hale.

‘Part of the issue with making [content] available on multiple platforms is, how does that jeopardize their bread and butter today… which is international [broadcast] content distribution deals?’

For now, U.S. networks and distributors are protecting their foreign broadcast partners by restricting access to U.S.-based broadband and download offerings. The major U.S. nets are making advertiser-sponsored episodes of their shows available online, but are blocking foreign access to this content – meaning lost revenue for the content owners and the networks.

Likewise, Amazon’s Unbox TV sales service is currently available only in the U.S., and Apple’s Canadian iTunes store doesn’t carry current U.S. television programming.

Kris Faibish, VP of digital media at CTV, says advertisers have been very supportive of his network’s broadband site. Ford is the biggest so far, buying time on the CTV Broadband Network, the CTV Mobile Video News Service and on conventional stations.

‘Ford has really embraced the new marketing landscape, leveraging a perfect mix of targeted broadcast promotion with the ability to reach younger consumers in new and innovative ways,’ says Faibish.

Doubtless, the lucrative opportunity for downloadable content sales is too big for U.S. content owners to forsake for long. Broadband sites provide a great ‘catch-up’ mechanism for new and existing viewers that conventional broadcasting can’t offer, and gives nets a chance to expand their brands. But for now, in terms of broadband viewing or downloading of U.S. content, the Canadian consumer is mostly still being left out in the cold.

Also…

* MuchMusic launched a music download service on Oct. 4 – the first by a Canadian broadcaster. CHUM partnered with leading download provider Puretracks to create shop.muchmusic.com.

‘We’re evolving as our audience evolves,’ says David Kines, VP of music and youth services at CHUM, ‘and the time is right to enhance the multi-platform experience of MuchMusic to include the ability to discover, sample and purchase digital music.’

The service, which offers more than one million tunes, includes content from every major music label and a selection of independents. Prices range from $0.79 to $1.29 per track.

* Toronto- and Sudbury-based prodco March Entertainment (Chilly Beach) has launched www.ilaugh.com, a comedy site that offers ‘a daily fix of edgy and irreverent humour’ aimed at 18-35-year-old males. The site features nine original web series, interactive games, user-generated content and 300 episodes of The Red Green Show.