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Newspaper Article on MDTV
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9:00 AM Saturday, May 8, 1999
Last update May 8, 1999
Copyright (c) 1999, Winnipeg Free Press
BUSINESS
SATELLITE, CABLE FIRMS CLASH
By Murray McNeill
Business Reporter
THE FUR is flying in an escalating cat fight between a local
cable television company and a national satellite TV service that
is targeting residents of local apartment blocks and other
multi-unit dwellings.
Vancouver-based MDU Communications Inc. has lodged a
formal complaint against Videon Cable TV with the Canadian
Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, accusing
the cable company of predatory marketing, customer harassment,
and violating CRTC regulations.
Videon officials deny the allegations, and accuse MDU of
damaging Videon property and tampering with the cable TV
service to some of its customers.
Caught in the middle are residents of two apartment complexes --
Kingsbury Gardens on Watson Street and Kildonan House on
Main Street.
In some cases, the residents are benefiting from all of the
attention, with offers of free satellite TV service for a month, and for some, offers of free cable TV hookups.
But Videon also alleges some of its customers have unwillingly
had their cable service cut off by MDU, and MDU claims
Videon has been harassing some of the residents who switched
from cable to satellite.
CRTC officials are the ones who will have to sort through the
accusations and counter accusations.
CRTC spokeswoman Cheryl Grossi said a copy of MDU's
complaint has been forwarded to Videon and the CRTC expects
to receive Videon's response in three to four weeks.
Grossi said if the Winnipeg CRTC office concludes that agency
regulations were violated, ''I'm not sure if we would issue a
warning to them (Videon officials) .|.|. or whether it would be
something more severe.''
Eamon Hoey, senior partner in Hoey Associates, a Toronto
telecommunications industry consulting firm, said he's not
surprised to hear that MDU is accusing a Winnipeg cable
company of trying to block its attempts to provide an alternative
television service to local residents.
Hoey said similar complaints have been made against cable
companies in other Canadian centres, and it's time the CRTC
forced cable operators to open up their market to competition.
''The cable companies still don't get it and still don't get that they can't continue to behave like monopolists,'' he said.
Although Canada's former telephone monopolies have had to give
competing firms access to their fibre-optic cable networks, Hoey
said the country's cable operators continue to balk at doing the
same for their competitors.
''Point of fact is they're protecting their vested interests. The
CRTC is fully asleep at the switch here.''
MDU's main complaint against Videon is that it violated the
CRTC's recently passed ''win back'' regulation, which sets out a
90-day prohibition against cable companies marketing their
services to customers who have cancelled their cable service or
have given another company authorization to cancel on their
behalf.
Grossi said the purpose of the regulation, which came into effect
April 1, is to give new entrants into the television services market a chance to establish a foothold. It's all part of the CRTC's efforts to try to encourage more competition, she added.
Gary Monaghan, vice-president of marketing and sales for MDU,
said if the CRTC upholds the company's complaint, they want it
to order Videon to stop violating the win-back regulation.
Monaghan also accused Videon of distributing information
pamphlets to the apartment residents that included false and
misleading information about the quality and reliability of satellite TV service, and about the Star Choice Television Network packages that MDU is offering its clients.
However, Videon general manager Charron Kerr denied the
Winnipeg-based cable company, which provides cable TV
service to about 140,000 customers west of the Red River, broke
the CRTC's win-back rule or distributed false information about
satellite TV services or Star Choice.
''What we have here is somebody who is trying to make a story
out of false allegations,'' Kerr said.
Kingsbury Gardens and Kildonan House are two of seven
apartment complexes that MDU has wired with Star Choice TV
services since it entered the Winnipeg market three months ago,
said Eric Matthies, MDU's regional director of sales and
marketing.
Matthies said the company also has about 50 other apartment and
condominium complexes in the city that are waiting for the new
service, which MDU installs in the buildings free of charge.
In addition to Winnipeg, MDU is also offering its satellite TV
services in multi-unit dwellings in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto,
Ottawa and Halifax. Monaghan said about 11,000 Canadian
subscribers have been signed up since MDU began rolling out the
service about a year, and the company expects that number to hit
25,000 by the end of the year. |
