''We believe pro sports will be the driver for our digital boxes,''
Toronto Star Sports:
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December 29, 1998
The new year promises explosion of TV sports
Make no mistake though, it'll be viewers who pay
By Chris Zelkovich
Toronto Star Sports Media Columnist
If the sports-hating spouses of sports-loving couch potatoes thought 1998 was frightening, wait til they get a look at 1999.
The new all-sports network and NFL-junkie package that came on the nation's TV screens last year will pale in comparison to what Canada's cable and satellite providers have in store for '99.
BILL GRIMSHAW FOR THE TORONTO STAR
UNLIMITED FUTURE: Chris Frank of ExpressVu satellite system says there will be significantly more sports programming available on television in 1999.
If they deliver on their promises, here's what will be available to Canadian sports fans before the new year is out:
The NHL's Centre Ice package, or variations of it. Centre Ice last year offered more than 800 hockey games to American viewers for about $125 (U.S.) a season.
Major league baseball pay-per-view packages offering a variety of games not involving the Blue Jays or Expos.
The NBA's League Pass offering, which last year provided more than 1,000 games to American viewers for $159 (U.S.)
That doesn't include networks' plans for more Blue Jays baseball, more golf and more of pretty much everything else.
''Within the year, there will be significantly more sports on television in Canada,'' says Chris Frank, vice-president of government affairs and corporate development for ExpressVu satellite system.
''There will be a lot more choice,'' agrees Colette Watson, vice-president of programming and public relations for Rogers Cablesystems.
Providing they're willing to pay for it, TV viewers will see a glimpse of the future in 1999.
You know that future; the one with 500 television channels offering tailor-made packages including movies and sports coverage of almost everything that moves.
With satellite and cable providers promising to more than double their channel capacity in the next year, that universe is coming closer to reality.
Of course, we've heard this all before. That's why there are doubters.
''They say next year, but they told us they'd be ready two years ago,'' says Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) spokesperson Denis Carmel.
In fact, the CRTC postponed its 1999 hearings to accept applications for new channels because cable companies said they couldn't handle any new ones.
But there's reason to believe cable companies aren't kidding this time.
One is the launching of a new satellite that will increase channel capacity on home dishes.
That prospect may be spurring the cable companies to speed up conversion to digital technology, which will not only increase the number of channel possibilities and reception but add flexibility to the rigid world of cable TV.
The new satellite, which is to go into orbit in April, will increase channel capacity on services like ExpressVu from the existing 100 or so now to about 170 by the end of summer. By mid-fall, that capacity will mushroom to 250, says Frank.
And the conversion from analogue to digital technology on cable, which Rogers is testing here and says will be complete in the Toronto area by September, will increase capacity from 77 channels to about 200 initially, Watson says. Shaw Cablesystems is doing similar tests in Calgary.
That means, the providers say, not only more channels, but more flexibility.
In other words, instead of paying for all those old rerun and cooking stations you never watch, you could order your favourite stations only (with exceptions made for government regulations that require you to take basic services such as the CBC.)
(It doesn't mean, however, that you'll be able to get American sports channels like ESPN or Fox Sports Net. Government regulators aren't likely to allow those into the legal broadcasting equation for some time - if ever.)
But capacity is only part of the equation. There aren't 200 or 250 channels, even if you included all the movie networks and specialty channels.
Oh, the satellite and cable companies can add more movie channels, and they can throw in radio stations with enhanced digital sound, but that still leaves a lot of empty channels.
That's where sports come in.
''We believe pro sports will be the driver for our digital boxes,'' says Watson, referring to the converters that will deliver digital signals into homes.
''Sports fans are very demanding . . . and are willing to pay for more games.''
And make no mistake about it, you will pay if you want to be part of the multi-channel universe.
There will be more sports on so-called free TV - possibly all 162 Toronto Blue Jays games, for example, increased golf coverage and newcomers like lacrosse.
But the biggest increase in sports will come in specialty packages - like Rogers NFL Sunday Ticket and the aforementioned Centre Ice - sold on a pay-per-view basis, both on satellite and cable.
Neither Rogers nor ExpressVu would get into their interest in specific packages, mainly because they fear tipping off the competition.
But ExpressVu's Frank would say that everyone is looking at what he calls ''à la carte services.''
First, the satellite and cable firms have to determine that such a package would make money. In other words, are there enough people willing to pay enough to cover the cost of rights and distribution?
So far, only 12 to 15 per cent of the 8 million Canadian homes with cable subscribe to pay TV, says Harris Boyd of the Canadian Cable Television Association. And Canada's two satellite providers - ExpressVu and Star Choice - have fewer than 300,000 subscribers between them in total.
So while on the surface it may not make sense to supply a variety of costly packages that might attract only a handful of customers, it may when other forces are considered.
Like competition.
While - or maybe because - the satellite companies are dwarfed by the cable giants like Rogers, Shaw and Cogeco, they have been extremely aggressive.
ExpressVu has been a thorn in Rogers' side, twice challenging its exclusive deal with the NFL for Sunday Ticket. It recently started marketing new hockey packages that have riled the NHL, the cable companies and the networks.
The cable association's Boyd says, ''We're going to carry everything that's available because that's what the competition (satellite providers) is doing.''
As for the future, no one is putting limits on anything.
Another satellite is scheduled to be launched in the year 2000, which will mean even more channel capacity on dishes.
The cable companies are ensuring that their digital boxes have interactive capabilities, meaning you can surf the Internet for hockey statistics while watching your 800th NHL game of the season or have a package of highlights delivered directly to your TV.
Then there's high-definition television (HDTV), which will provide theatre-quality sound and pictures. CBS has already experimented with broadcasting football for the handful of HDTV sets in the U.S.
''There is no limit to what technology can achieve,'' says Steve Solomon, the NHL's senior vice-president and chief operating officer. |
