Star Channel (Canada)

Star Channel
CountryCanada
Broadcast areaAtlantic Canada
HeadquartersHalifax, Nova Scotia
Programming
LanguageEnglish
Picture format480i
Ownership
OwnerStar Channel Services Ltd.
History
LaunchedFebruary 1, 1983 (1983-02-01)
ClosedNovember 27, 1983 (1983-11-27)

Star Channel was a premium pay television specialty channel available in four provinces in Atlantic Canada between February 1 and November 27, 1983. It was one of several regional pay-TV services authorized by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to co-exist with the national service First Choice. While Star Channel was competitive with First Choice in obtaining subscribers for most of its life, the nascent industry struggled financially, and high installation costs stunted subscriber growth in the company's home city of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

History

Star Channel Services Ltd. of Halifax, Nova Scotia, a company consisting of seven shareholders from four Atlantic Canadian provinces, applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in 1981 seeking a licence to broadcast pay television programs to New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. It was one of 15 such applicants across the country.[1] Star Channel was granted its licence on March 18, 1982,[2] and would co-exist with First Choice, the national pay-TV licensee.[3] It committed $1 million to spending on regional productions so as to have locally produced programs on its lineup,[4] though most of its programs were to consist of Hollywood feature films.[5]

Star Channel began broadcasting at 12:01 a.m. Atlantic Time on February 1, 1983, and was thus the first pay-TV channel in Canada.[6] Alongside Star Channel, First Choice and the other regional pay-TV services launched on the same date. These included Superchannel, which held separate licences to operate in Ontario and Alberta. The regionals were more successful than First Choice at signing up customers.[7] By August, Star Channel had applied to offer its service in Quebec, which was unserved by any English-language regional pay TV outlet.[7] First Choice strenuously objected to Star Channel's efforts, accusing the channel and the other regionals of being "disguised national" services and hoping to avoid a repeat of the CRTC's authorization to let Superchannel broadcast into Manitoba and Saskatchewan.[8]

Though Star Channel had been slightly outpacing First Choice in subscriptions, with some 14,500 by October,[9] it had comparatively high fixed costs. The channel spent $5 per subscriber on satellite time compared with 68 cents for Superchannel Ontario.[10] It also underperformed in the largest city in its service area, with only 1,000 subscribers in Halifax. This was because Halifax Cablevision charged as much as $200 to connect subscribers to pay services, much higher than the $35 charged by cable providers in most of the rest of the country.[9]

The brawling and financial problems in the industry led the CRTC, in October, to designate a November 29 public hearing on pay TV.[11] Days later, Star Channel filed for approval to either temporarily simulcast Superchannel's programming until it could improve its financial position[12] or serve as a sales agent for Superchannel, which broadcast on the same spot beam to eastern Canada as Star Channel.[13] To calm nervous subscribers, Star Channel president Finlay Macdonald turned a weekly viewer feedback show he hosted into an hour-long update on the firm's attempts to remain on the air. Unable to simulcast Superchannel, Star Channel ceased showing new movies and discontinued its program guide.[14] The decision to not air new films caused subscriptions to start to decline. Days before the hearing, at 7 p.m. on November 27, Star Channel ceased broadcasting. Cable operators had three hours' warning of the channel's decision to stop providing programs.[15] Macdonald told viewers, "In order to preserve our capital and not erode the subscriber base, we decided the best thing we could do was go off the air for a while to regroup."[10] First Choice was offered to viewers in St. John's, Newfoundland, as a replacement. Cable operators in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island immediately began providing Superchannel Ontario to their subscribers, even though they technically were not authorized to do so, some defending the move as necessary in order to comply with conditions of their own licences requiring them to broadcast multiple pay-TV services. The CRTC urged the systems to stop pirating Superchannel.[16] Star Channel was placed into receivership by Superchannel, news that was talked about at the opening day of the previously scheduled CRTC hearings.[17] The CRTC held off on ruling on the channel's future until it could determine who owned Star Channel Services Ltd., with two receivers fighting for control of the firm—one backed by Superchannel and the other by TD Bank.[18]

In May 1984, a new Star Channel firm was set up to hold the licence and compete with other parties that were expected to seek it in a CRTC call for applications. The new Star engaged in joint research with First Choice as to possible ways to differentiate the programming of the two services.[19] Star Channel proposed an 8-hour broadcast day and expansion into Quebec. Superchannel, which at this point was providing pay-TV programs in Ontario and all provinces to the west, also bid on the licence. First Choice objected to Superchannel becoming a de facto national competitor without the burdensome obligation of maintaining a French-language service.[20] Star Channel reformulated its application to specify a family-oriented service, similar to the Disney Channel in the United States and supplied with many of its programs, available in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada.[21] Disney Channel had previously failed to be authorized for distribution in Canada because the CRTC deemed it a pay channel and not a specialty channel, and it did not meet the CRTC's requirements of 30% Canadian programming and 80% ownership.[22] By May, First Choice and Superchannel were in merger talks, and both disapproved of the Star Channel family proposal.[23] In a deal finalized in early June, they proposed to split the country, with First Choice servicing Ontario and points eastward and Superchannel the west, and both offering a jointly operated family service.[24] This angered Macdonald, who was flattered by their decision to lift many ideas of the Star Channel revival proposal but "angry that we've been ignored" in the merger process.[25] The company asked for this application to be rescinded in January 1985; though no reason was given,[26] the move came after new prime minister Brian Mulroney appointed Macdonald a senator in December 1984[27] and the CRTC named him a member of a task force on satellite broadcasting to rural Canada.[28]

References

  1. ^ "Group seeks pay TV for Atlantic region". The Moncton Times. The Canadian Press. October 7, 1981. p. 9. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  2. ^ Cunningham, Norbert (March 19, 1982). "Pay-TV promises Atlantic boom". The Times-Transcript. pp. 1, 3. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  3. ^ Llewellyn, Stephen (July 8, 1982). "Pay TV May Be Here By Next Winter". The Daily Gleaner. p. 15. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  4. ^ "Atlantic Canada To Get 'Star Channel'". The Daily Gleaner. April 16, 1982. p. Leisure 3. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  5. ^ "Atlantic Pay TV Station To Use New Satellite". The Evening TimesGlobe. Saint John, New Brunswick. November 17, 1982. p. 28. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  6. ^ "Star Channel First On Air". The Evening Times-Globe. Saint John, New Brunswick. February 2, 1983. p. 33. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  7. ^ a b MacKendrick, Stephanie (August 6, 1983). "Pay TV Battles For Survival". The Telegraph-Journal and The Evening Times-Globe. The Canadian Press. p. Showtime 2. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  8. ^ "TV firms fight over Que. market". The Times-Transcript. The Canadian Press. September 21, 1983. p. 36. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  9. ^ a b "Star Channel awaits CRTC decision". The Times-Transcript. The Canadian Press. October 24, 1983. p. 19. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  10. ^ a b "TV's Star Channel Suspends Service". The Evening Times-Globe. The Canadian Press. November 28, 1983. p. 3. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  11. ^ "CRTC Plans New Look At Pay TV Industry". Telegraph-Journal. The Canadian Press. October 18, 1983. p. 3. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  12. ^ "Channel seeking bail out". The Times-Transcript. The Canadian Press. October 22, 1983. p. 5. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  13. ^ "Star Channel slows down but still game". The Hollywood Reporter. November 30, 1983. pp. 1, 14. ProQuest 2587835232.
  14. ^ "Star Channel In Tight Spot". The Daily Gleaner. The Canadian Press. November 3, 1983. p. 10. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  15. ^ "Bouey Warns Inflation Rate Not Yet Low Enough". The Evening Times-Globe. The Canadian Press. November 30, 1983. p. 21. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  16. ^ "Cable TV Operators Carry Superchannel". Saint John Times Globe. November 29, 1983. p. 3. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  17. ^ "Star Channel placed in receivership". The Times-Transcript. The Canadian Press. November 30, 1983. p. 3. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  18. ^ "CRTC Says Ownership Confusion Cloud's Star Channel's Future". Telegraph-Journal. The Canadian Press. December 5, 1983. p. 12. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  19. ^ "Star Channel May Be Back". Telegraph-Journal. The Canadian Press. March 30, 1984. p. 17. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  20. ^ "Superchannel Ontario wants to move into Atlantic area". The Times-Transcript. The Canadian Press. April 5, 1984. p. 29. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  21. ^ "Star Channel May Return". The Daily Gleaner. The Canadian Press. April 28, 1984. p. 11. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  22. ^ Miller, Jack (April 30, 1984). "Star, Disney to team in Canada". The Hollywood Reporter. pp. 1, 9, 11. ProQuest 3303418646.
  23. ^ "Pay TV firms plan merger". The Times-Transcript. The Canadian Press. May 16, 1984. p. 3. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  24. ^ Rechtshaffen, Michael (June 5, 1984). "2 Canadian pay TVs merging to reduce costs". The Hollywood Reporter. pp. 1, 56. ProQuest 2587844342.
  25. ^ "Star Channel head irked by proposed TV deal". The Times-Transcript. The Canadian Press. June 5, 1984. p. 3. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  26. ^ "Networks withdraw licence bids". Calgary Herald. The Canadian Press. January 17, 1985. p. F6. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  27. ^ Cameron, Stevie (December 29, 1984). "Tories pay off party faithful: Mulroney gets the patronage machine going". The Ottawa Citizen. p. B1. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
  28. ^ "CRTC names last three members of task force". Calgary Herald. The Canadian Press. January 9, 1985. p. C3. Retrieved March 8, 2026.
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