The great Canadian

couch potato revolt

The system let them down.

The negative-option marketing scheme that was supposed to ensure audiences and thereby help bring viewers to Canada’s new fledgling specialty tv services backfired badly, hurting their chances with consumers.

The much-discussed reversal by Rogers (tired of taking it on the chin out there on the frontlines of the consumer revolt) on the decision to bundle the new services with existing popular specialties may please consumers, but what about the new channels?

Not only do the niche-market services now have to sink or swim on their own merit, but they’ve been seriously tainted, saddled with the baggage of refusal before anyone had impartially sampled the fare.

Even without satellite competition, or being forced on consumers like brussels sprouts or spinach – something you have to swallow because the powers that be deemed it’s good for you – survival for specialties in unprotected markets is tough.

The media, lead by people like cbc’s Pamela Wallin, the Prime Time News co-anchor, had a field day hyping what it called ‘the Great Canadian Cable Revolt.’ Across the country, daily newspapers and tv newscasts gave the impression tens of thousands of good citizen subscribers were storming cable offices.

It’s ironic that Canada’s national public broadcaster couldn’t quite remember the consumer-muddled arguments used against Newsworld when it was launched.

The Canadian broadcasting system is not, and has never been, a creation of so-called public demand. Its acquired strengths and existence are a direct result of firm and decisive regulatory policies and an insistence on Canadian stories, whenever feasible.

Without a false sense of security, would the specialties, cablecos and crtc decisions have been the same, given today’s new environment? Certainly more emphasis would have been placed on the positive marketing of new services in Canada in the months before the launch.

The carrot, although a simple device, does work. Fuelled by drop-dead promos, Canadian-made TekWar just made u.s. basic cable history by garnering the most viewers for a series premiere on the USA Network.

Praise (albeit Canadian – grudging and dubious) for some of the services is beginning to surface, and gauging by the initial ratings Discovery has pulled in, the tv consumer is eager for more choice.