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The CRTC has ruled that Shaw Cable has not been marketing the gay and lesbian TV channel OUTtv as well as other cable operators have. The Commission said that because OUTtv has been subjected to " 'undue disadvantage' " it was not attracting the audience on Shaw that it was getting elsewhere.
In December 2007, only 0.49% of Shaw subscribers watched OUTtv, which has 500,000 subscribers in Canada. This is much lower than the 18.1% for Telus subscribers, 15.69% for Bell TV, 9.27% for Cogeco, 7% for Rogers, and 6.61% for Star Choice. This is an average of 10.7% of subscribers watching OUTtv on the five other BDUs, or 21 times Shaw's rate.
The Commission said that Shaw did not inform customers of OUTtv, which was grouped with adult programming (even though it contains none), and did not make the channel as available as others during its "freeviews."
According to the ruling, " 'it is clear that Shaw currently markets OUTtv in a different manner than any of the other Category 1 services it distributes.' "
No sanctions were announced and Shaw has 30 days to respond to the ruling with proposed fixes.
Source: Marketing Magazine, 11/07/2008
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