MONTREAL – Viewers Choice, the 23-year-old pay-per-view service owned by Bell and Rogers and carried on cable providers in eastern Canada, is winding up operations and will shut down on September 30, Cartt.ca has learned.
Sources at two distributors said that Bell Media, which holds a majority stake in Viewers Choice, recently sent out notifications of the closure to those offering the service. Those companies include Rogers, Videotron, Cogeco, Eastlink, Bell Aliant, Source Cable and select other smaller providers.
Viewers Choice was set up in 1991 as a partnership between Astral Bellevue Communications Inc. (50.1 per cent), Rogers Pay Per View Inc. (24.95 per cent) and TSN Enterprises (24.95 per cent). When Bell bought Astral Media in 2013, it gained a 70 per cent stake in the service. Rogers still holds its quarter interest, and the rest belongs to ESPN through its stake in Bell’s subsidiary CTV Specialty Television Inc.
By press time, spokespersons for Bell Media and Rogers had not responded to a request for comment on the reasons for the shutdown. There had been speculation, however, that such a move would come after Bell bought Astral, given that Bell has its own pay-per-view service distributed on Bell satellite TV and Bell Fibe. And in February, the CRTC revoked Viewers Choice’s licence for a direct-to-home satellite PPV service at its request.
But while Bell has a backup plan, other providers may have to scramble to find something to replace the pay-per-view service, which offers both movies and event programming such as boxing, UFC and WWE matches.
“At this time, we are looking at other options to replace their PPV event channels,” said Gord Corlett, director of sales and marketing at Source Cable in Hamilton, ON.
A source at Videotron who was not authorized to speak to the media told Cartt.ca that its French pay-per-view service Canal Indigo may seek a licence amendment to be able to provide English programming.
Financial information published by the CRTC shows that Viewers Choice was profitable for the past five years, though those profits had steadily declined. In 2012-13, the service had $12.5 million in revenue and $10.8 million in expenses, (of which $1 million was on Canadian programming), for a 13 per cent profit margin, down from 18.7 per cent in 2008-09. At that time it was available in 2.4 million homes and reported an average staff count of 3.5.
Viewers Choice’s 7.3 per cent annual loss in revenue averaged over the past five years is consistent with the overall PPV market. CRTC figures show an 8.1 per cent annual average drop in revenue among Canada’s eight PPV providers.
