peterr@utcsrgv.UUCP (Peter Rowley) (06/18/83)
Friday, after losing $11M, the Canadian "lively arts" pay TV channel, like CBS Cable in the US before it, bit the dust. C Channel will end operations at the end of June after only 5 months and 27,000 subscribers (they had planned on around 100,000). News reports claimed the main reason for the collapse was under-financing, which made the need for subscribers highly critical. I think they made a few tactical mistakes, such as starting before the economic recovery really got underway, and starting with only around 7 hours of programming a day. It is interesting to contrast the service with the local (Buffalo) PBS station which has over 90,000 members in Ontario alone, who pay between $30 and $100 a year (in contrast to C Channel's near $200/yr). I've heard reports of a shake-out in the US pay TV market also; the Entertainment Channel folded (which releases the rights to BBC programs so PBS can pick them up again!) and Showtime and the Movie Channel want to merge so they have a chance of making a profit like the only profit-maker, HBO. And there's a surplus of US domestic satellite channels, with 45% of the around 240 channels free. There've been many reports about the shine going off hi-tech stock (TI stock lost around US$40 this week, for example). I wonder if all this means that hi-tech is just a fad? Maybe the real growth industry will not be the information "providers" or "processors" but "creators", i.e. artists. (This is, of course, mostly, but by no means entirely, tongue-in-cheek).
dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (06/21/83)
You can't really compare C Channel cultural pay-TV to Buffalo's PBS
station. People who aren't really sure can watch PBS for as long as
they like, enjoy the shows, and then one day, when they're in a good
mood, respond to the incessant pleas for money ("so we can get back to
the show") by calling up and pledging. C Channel should have tried
offering their product free for a few months (not just one weekend when
they were already in trouble).
Well, at least we get it for free as long as it lasts. In case
anyone (in Toronto) hasn't noticed, it's now running unscrambled.
Dave Sherman
Torontowilly@utcsstat.UUCP (06/22/83)
C channel still looks scrambled to me ....