The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 42

1)8 Tl IK VANCOUVER SUN, TUI-SDAY, IT.BRUARY 8, 2000 OFF THE FRONT CRTC from Dl TV picture's a bit fuzzy Licensing of new stations complicated by possible local sales and the bite taken by specialty channels. TELEVISION CHUM Television For CHUM Television, the choice Is between paying up to $25 million for what it really, really wants, and shelling out six times as much for second-best. That's why CHUM wants to start a new Vancouver TV station instead of waiting for VTV or another station to hoist a for-sale sign, Peter Miller says. Miller, who spearheads CHUM's licence bid, is the Toronto company's vice-president for business and regulatory affairs. It costs about $20 million to $25 million to launch a station if you get a Miller said.

"To buy that station VTV, the numbers I've heard thrown around are $100 million to $150 million." For CHUM to have any kind of shot at buying VTV, the CRTC would have to order Can-West Global to get rid of some of its West "And we would also Inherit a building which, quite frankly, we think is a very poor knock-off of Citytv. I mean, It attempts to be street-front, but everything's on the second floor. So, It Is by no means our preferred route." CHUM's application asks for two new stations, one in Vancouver and the other in Victoria. The pitch for the Vancouver station is that "there is no movie station here," Miller said. "We are proposing to commit very heavily to a B.C.-based film industry.

We are Canada's largest buyer of feature films and Canada's largest broadcaster of feature films. there is a tremendous appetite for movies here." As to cultural diversity, CHUM wouldn't broadcast to ethnic communities in their own languages, which Miller said "encourages isolation" of multicultural groups. "We think no one is really doing the job of trying to build bridges between communi ties and really reflecting the cultural diversity of the city," he said. "That's what we plan to do. We did It in Toronto, and we think we can do it here." CHUM has looked at Yaletown and other sites, but right now It likes the idea of locating on Granville Street south of Granville Mall.

"We could become the key anchor to help revitalize that whole area." CHUM's Victoria station would be the B.C. capital's "first truly local station," Miller said, alluding to a common complaint that CHEK has been little more than WIC's second straw into the Vancouver advertising market. It would emphasize local news, everything from ferry schedules to municipal politics, and subjects "that have strong interest there such as the environment and outdoor recreation." Its programming wouldn't duplicate the Vancouver station's for more than an hour a day, Miller said. onithe island Craig Broadcast Craig Broadcast Systems says its two new A-Channel stations in Alberta are doing phenomenally well and it can't wait to set up shop on Vancouver Island. Craig, a family-owned broadcasting business that started in Brandon, lost out to Baton Broadcasting (now CTV Inc.) in the last licensing round.

Things could have been worse. Craig had just been licensed for new stations in Calgary and Edmonton. But it still wants into Vancouver, Canada's second-largest English-language television market. This time around, Craig is heeding strong hints in the CRTC's last licensing decision that there was little chance of a new conventional TV station being licensed in Vancouver any time soon, but that applications for either a multicultural station or a Vancouver Island station would get serious con Trinity Television Willard Thiessen has been around this block before, but now he thinks he knows how to sway the CRTC. Thiessen is president of Trinity Television of Winnipeg, which he co-founded with his wife, Betty.

Trinity has applied to operate a religious TV station based in Maple Ridge, serving the entire Lower Mainland but especially the communities of British Columbia's Bible Belt, the Fraser Valley. Trinity's outlook is evangelical Christian, but Thiessen promises that his station will have a place for other faiths. iThiessen briefly hit the news last spring when he became one of a growing number of Canadian and American televangelists to recant claims that God had miraculously en them gold teeth. He conceded that his brother, a dentist, had implanted his gold tooth and that he had made a mistake. Coast stations.

But Miller said CanWest could delay that process for years by digging in its heels. Even thenMiller said, VTV isn't what. CHUM wants. CHUM operates Toronto's Citytv, a street-level, see-through, show-biz kind of station on funky Queen Street West that emphasizes movies, "cultural diversity" and tabloid-style newscasts. And that's not what VTV is licensed for.

"We would inherit the VTV conditions of licence, which have nothing to do with movies and nothing to do with cultural diversity," Miller said. Systems sideration. Craig is taking the island option. "A-Channel on the Island" would operate in Victoria, and president Drew Craig says it's an opportunity "to get back to our roots, which is doing local television." "We started in local television in 1955 in Brandon. We've got experience serving those types of regional markets." Vancouver Island suffers from "a tremendous lack of service," and Craig aims to fix that.

"We're going to do some 23odd hours of programming per week on Vancouver Island, specific to Vancouver Island," he said. Craig Broadcast will also finance local production of TV movies. It has produced 11 movies in Alberta since the launch of its A-Channels there, "and the same thing would happen in B.C.," Craig said. "Our model says, 'You spend the money where you earn the Back in 1995, the CRTC turned down Trinity's application for a religious station in Winnipeg, partly because it wasn't confident the station would provide balance by "exposing the audience to different points of view on religion." Thiessen said Trinity has learned to adjust. "We've put in seven or eight applications so far, and we haven't won," he said from Winnipeg.

"We're hoping to win this one, hoping to be successful, finally." The emphasis would be on the valley's Christian communities. "The Vancouver area is not as religious as the area outside of Vancouver, although you do have strong Buddhist areas, and you do have the Sikh and Hindu communities as well. I "We will be airing some programs of the other faiths. But we will be targeting primarily the Christian markets. "And there is a very strong religious community all the way from Chilliwack to Ab- reinforcing a negative stereotype of their community," one Rogers survey concluded.

"They wanted to be depicted positively," Viner added. "They didn't want to be perpetrators and victims and that's the only cov-erage they get" Three years ago, a similar Rogers bid was rejected by the CRTC. Rogers proposed to buy the Talentvision cable channel, expand its local programming and provide it free on basic cable. The commission pointed out that some language groups served by Talentvision would see their program hours reduced. And because Rogers would broadcast English-language fare in prime time to pay the bills, the channel would carry nearly 29 per cent fewer hours of ethnic programs than Talentvision.

This time, Rogers won't be taking another channel off the air, though it will offer its share of Friends and The Simpsons. "We cross-subsidize Canadian program CHUM Ltd. of Toronto, which operates Toronto's hip street-level station, Citytv. CHUM wants to start two new stations: A regional station in Victoria to serve Vancouver Island, and a West Coast version of Citytv in Vancouver. Craig Broadcast Systems of Brandon, which is proposing "A-Channel on the Island," a Victoria version of the A-Channel stations it already operates in Brandon, Calgary and Edmonton.

It would emphasize locally made TV movies and syndicated programming. Rogers Broadcasting of Toronto, which wants to start a new multicultural station in Vancouver. It would broadcast in many languages, including English in prime time, with emphasis on south Asian and Chinese communities. Trinity Television of Winnipeg, which is proposing a new religious station based in Maple Ridge and aimed at the Fraser Valley, particularly evangelical Christians. Simon Fraser University communications professor Catherine Murray questioned whether the hearing should be taking place at all, given the uncertainty about who will end up with TV stations owned by WIC Western International Communications.

WIC was the target of two takeover bids in 1998. All its shares are now owned by Shaw Communications of Calgary and Can West Global Communications of Winnipeg. Shaw and Can West took more than a year to negotiate a split of WIC's assets. Their plan, which gives Can West WIC's TV stations, will be the subject of another CRTC hearing, likely in late April. CanWest would love to keep all three of the West Coast stations it now owns its Global System outlet, UTV, and CTV network stations BCTV in Vancouver and CHEK in Victoria.

But CRTC policy is that no company can own more than one station in a single market, although it has allowed exceptions." Most industry insiders expect the CRTC to order CanWest to sell all but one of its West Coast stations. CTV Inc. is said to be eager to buy CTV network affiliate BCTV, which would in turn force it to sell VTV. And since CHUM and Craig appear to be the most likely bidders for VTV, people are wondering whether the CRTC has its priorities mixed up. "Why would the commission be pursuing this application for a new Vancouver station at this time, before it actually has the hearing about the disposition of WIC assets?" Murray asked.

Regional CRTC manager Marguerite Vogel said the CRTC has no choice but to tackle the two issues separate- ly. i. Asked why the commission is proceeding with the licence hearing, Vogel said: "That question has been asked a lot. And I believe the answer from the commission has been consistently, because they are sepai 5 rate proceedings, separate issues, separate CanWest communications official Bruce Leslie said the parties in the WIC proceeding are exchanging information with the CRTC "behind the scenes." Details of the final split propos- al are expected to become public around the end of February, and the CRTC has indicated a i hearing will be held April 25 in Calgary. Murray said CHUM's application for new stations looks more like "a place-holder" while the company waits for VTV or even UTV to be offered for sale.

But CHUM staunchly denies.that. The advertising industry, meanwhile, is eager for a new station in the hot Lower Mainland market but also nervous about the future. "I still believe that there is room for another station in the market," said Bill Fitch, media manager for Genesis Media. By mid-summer, ad slots in fall TV schedules on the coast typically are fully booked, except for premium-priced time. Local media buyers would love to have regional access to national specialty channels such as the Space Channel, History and MuchMusic.

But advertisers are not willing to pay for national ads when they want to reach a B.C. audience, and only CTV Sportsnet splits its signal regionally. The addition of VTV to the local market helped maintain ad A-Channel on the Island would broadcast from a tower in Victoria, with a re-broadcast transmitter at Campbell River to cover Nanaimo and smaller up-island markets. It would get into Vancouver and its advertising market by being carried on local cable systems. Like all the applicants, Craig took a poke at KVOS, the Bellingham, station that beams syndicated programming into Vancouver and siphons off overflow advertising demand.

"KVOS is a player on the edge of the market that is still sucking out probably $20 million worth of ad spending a year," Craig said. Baton-CTV's new station, VTV, "lowered them down the scale somewhat. But I think that they need another shot to sort of finish botsford to Langley, Surrey, that whole area." Thiessen said Trinity took note of a 1998 CRTC decision to license Crossroads Television System and deny Trinity's application for a new religious station in Toronto. The CRTC acknowledged Crossroads will "to a large extent reflect a single-faith Christian viewpoint." But it encouraged Crossroads to "explore in its programming the full spectrum of diversity that exists within both the Christian and nonChristian religious experiences." Thiessen said Trinity's Vancouver proposal is based on that decision. Most of the station's revenue will come from advertising drawn from the religious communities It serves, he said, so it won't ming by licensing some American programming which draws audiences and hence advertisers," Viner said.

"That money can go to help produce high-quality Canadian programming. That's no different than Global or CTV or CHUM, for that matter. They all have American programming." The station would produce an average of 40 hours a week of local programming, according to Viner and Rogers Broadcasting executive vice-president Leslie Sole. Another 35 hours of original Canadian programming would come from its Toronto sister station, CFMT. Like most new TV stations, LMTV would them off." Craig said he'd rather not get into the bidding for any Vancouver-Victoria stations that come up for sale when the CRTC approves a plan for the disposition of WIC Western International Broadcasting's assets.

"Our preference is to start with a clean sheet of paper. We have not acquired any of the television stations in our chain; it has all been grown organically. We think that's the best way to go." However, Craig said he believes the CRTC should enforce its policy of "one station per ownership per market," which would mean CanWest Global Communications, which now owns WIC's TV assets would be forced to sell two of Its three stations: UTV and BCTV in Vancouver, and CHEK in Victoria. be competing with other stations. Even prime-time programming will be religious.

He argued that means Trinity can be licensed even if one or more commercial stations also get the nod, since it won't be competing for the same programs or advertising. But, like virtually all applications for religious stations, Trinity's bid will likely be opposed by commercial broadcasters. CHUM vice-president Peter MiJIer said the impact of "a truly religious station" would be minimal, but that the CRTC should be cautious. Miller said Toronto's Crossroads TV has become more of "a mainstream familyori-ented station" than a religious station, and it's competing for the same prime-time ad dollars as everyone else. "This is what always happens in broadcasting," Miller said.

"People say they're going to do one thing, and then they follow the money. They're going to be as mainstream as possible." create about 100 local jobs, Sole said. Viner said the CRTC should not license a new conventional Vancouver station, since the breakup of WIC is likely to put at least one such station on the market. Rogers wouldn't join the bidding, Sole said, because the asking price would be beyond the reach of a multicultural station. Viner argued against the CRTC licens ing more than one new station.

"Is there enough money for two new stations in the market? Probably not," he said, suggesting the choice is between Rogers and a Vancouver Island station. Viner said LMTV would have the least impact on existing stations because it would compete with them only during prime time, and because LMTV would bring in new ad money instead of vying forthe existing pot The new money would come from national advertisers that want to target ethnic viewers. By teaming up with multicultural stations in Toronto and Montreal, LMTV could offer package ad deals, he said. Rogers Broadcasting Rogers Broadcasting wants to deliver television to the Lower Mainland's large south 1 Asian communities in their own languages, and offer national advertisers a pipeline to south Asians and other ethnic groups. i The Torontobased company part of the Rogers Communications empire would also cater to Chinese community and small-, er ethnic groups.

But the Chinese already have two specialty cable channels. So, Rogers' pitch focuses on local south Asians. Ethnic groups "have to have at least the of seeing themselves reflected in their own language," said Anthony Viner, president of Rogers Media, which oversees Rogers Broadcasting. Rogers presented the CRTC with market surveys indicating ethnic groups, particu- larly South Asians, feel under-served by mainstream TV stations. i When they're covered in newscasts, "the news tends to be sensational in nature Fitch added.

But some unease about the future has crept into the ad business, said Maureen Beston, vice-president and media director of OMD Canada. While they see a need for more outlets, broadcasters are worried a new station could drive costs higher by bidding up the price of programming, Beston said. At the same time, she said, TV audiences are becoming more fragmented. Dean Butler of Glennie Stamnes Strategy, who ran a study for the local ad industry, found that Canadians devoted 50 per cent of their TV-viewing time in 1998 to conventional Canadian TV stations, down from 60 per cent in 1989. In the same period, conventional American stations' share of Canadian viewing hours fell to 20 per cent from 36 per cent But Canadian specialty channels increased their share to 17 per cent from six, and U.S.

specialty channels jumped to nine per cent from one. That means local advertisers don't have access to local viewers for more than a quarter of their viewing time, up from seven per cent in 1989. The study clearly shows there prices, but didn't fill all the demand. As a result, B.C. advertising money is still spilling into cross-border station KVOS in Bellingham, and even into Seattle-based U.S.

network stations. Fitch thought there might be enough space in the market for the CRTC to license two new stations a Vancouver multicultural station and another on Vancouver Island. Since both would attract new advertising, they wouldn't distort the existing market much. A religious station in the valley would have no impact on commercial advertising at all, is "a fragmentation issue for this market," Butler said. If the CRTC does license a new station, he said, it should try to make sure its programming will attract viewers from U.S.

and specialty channels. If it doesn't, "It may do nothing except carve up an already smaller pie." The study has been sent to the CRTC. SFU's Catherine Murray said audience fragmentation adds weight to the possibility that "the Vancouver market may have come to an end for a general-interest station." But she said the Craig appli cation for an island station should be taken seriously, since Craig Broadcast stations in Manitoba and Alberta show "a high degree of autonomy" and decentralization, and don't just beam the same signals into every market Rogers appears to be offering less original local program production than CHUM and Craig, Murray said, but could possibly be leaned on during the CRTC hearings to up the ante. "Too bad we don't have a locally owned entity in the mix," she added. "That usually strengthens everyone's backbone.".