cablesat’s new pay-per-view programming package will beam down next month amidst industry speculation that a consortium of three of Canada’s largest cable companies will apply for a satellite service licence alongside Expressvu and Power DirecTv by the Aug. 25 deadline.

Expressvu has shelved its original September launch date but it’s all systems go for CableSat’s distribution of 16 ppv movie and special events services, which have been digitized for distribution by Rogers Cablesystems, Shaw Communications, and CF Cable TV, a triad formed last May to share the cost and responsibilities of the $22.3 million project.

The package, which will be available to smaller cablecos across Canada on a rolling launch, meets crtc conditions stipulated in the approval of the exchange of cable distribution undertakings between Rogers and Shaw last year. But there is speculation that the CableSat setup has positioned the consortium to offer a dth package. CableSat execs deny this.

Ken Stein, senior vp corporate development and regulatory affairs for Shaw, says CableSat won’t apply for a dth licence, but admits there are cable companies ‘looking at the dth call and what might be possible. But no one has made a decision yet.’ Stein says he doesn’t know whether Shaw will be part of any dth initiative.

Colin Watson, president and ceo of Rogers Cablesystems, had no comment as to whether Rogers is contemplating entering the dth business.

The History Channel

Also fueling the fire is speculation that Rogers is petitioning the crtc to add The History Channel to the eligible services list. Watson admits that Rogers is weighing the odds of successfully applying to have thc added to the A-list, but says increasing penetration on the second tier of services is the motivating factor.

‘We’re trying to determine whether conditions exist for a successful application. Our interest in adding The History Channel would be to bolster our Canadian tier and get it from 50% to 70%. That’s where our interest stops and starts on The History Channel.’

The big picture aside, the CableSat package will be available, theoretically, to 1.9 million subscribers in Montreal, Halifax and Regina, and a scattering of smaller systems in the West and Ontario beginning in September.

Primary distribs

Shaw and CF Cable will start out as the primary distributors. Rogers is holding off launching in Toronto and Vancouver until Oct. 1, timing the CableSat launch with the release of a new set-top box which will increase subscribers’ ppv channel capacity, says Watson. The addition of Toronto and Vancouver will bring CableSat’s reach to 2.7 million potential subscribers. Fundy Cable and smaller cable systems in the east will yank it up over three million by year’s end.

On the surface, penetration numbers look impressive, but the reality is that only 10% to 15% of those subscribers will physically be able to accommodate the CableSat signal, says Larry Smith, project manager for CableSat. Ironically, in the midst of the digital revolution, only those with the old analog set-top boxes will get the package (Rogers new boxes are analog decoders).

The 16 signals are being compressed 8:1 on two half transponders on Telesat’s Anik E2 satellite (double the average 4:1 compression rate because films are easier to compress without losing quality). The digital conversion is for naught in the short term since the cable companies distributing CableSat will have to convert the digital signals back to analog at their head-ends in order for subscribers to receive them.

The long-anticipated dvc set-top box is planned for the spring of ’96, making CableSat eventually more widely available, but conditional on the pace of the mass deployment of the boxes which are coming out more slowly than anticipated as the industry struggles to reach a consensus on technical standards.

Full cost recovery

Nevertheless, the CableSat consortium is looking for full cost recovery on its investment by year four. Cablecos with less than 2,000 subscribers have free access to the service, but bigger cable companies will be charged one-half cent per basic subscriber per signal per month in the first year, with a cap on cost at six signals. In year two, the base charge will go to one cent, one-and-a-half cents by year three and two cents by year four.

Programming is being handled by the two licensed ppv services in Canada, Viewer’s Choice and Home Theatre. One transponder will be uplinked from Toronto and programmed by Viewer’s Choice, owned by Astral Communications, Labatt Communications and Rogers. The other will be uplinked from Edmonton and will presumably be programmed by Allard Pay Television, owner of Home Theatre, although an agreement has yet to be signed.

Signed affiliation agreements, or lack of them, in the dth arena have dragged access issues into the spotlight in the last month.

The crtc has announced a public hearing on equitable access rules for all broadcasting service distributors, slated for Feb. 5, 1996. The submission of written comments for phase one is Sept. 22. The Canadian Cable Television Association is expected to submit a revised access policy for exempt programming services before Nov. 1.

Phase two

In phase two, the commission will address issues in submissions or on the ccta’s revised policy, with a Dec. 1 deadline for phase two submissions.

In the meantime, satellite wars over the last 10 months have spooked some u.s. services from signing agreements with dth providers until the licensing process winds up.

Bill Goodwyn, senior vp of affiliate sales and relations for The Learning Channel in Rockville, Maryland, says tlc will eventually sign agreements with everyone, ‘but right now there’s some uncertainty about the dbs process in Canada. We’re not 100% familiar with the regulatory process there, and since the crtc licensing process will wrap in 60 days, we’d rather wait to see if there’s changes to things like access issues before we sign an agreement.’