TORONTO – Bruce Claassen didn’t want to be the bad guy. He wanted to be the white knight who saved CKX-TV Brandon and used it as a springboard to build another national TV network.
With the market for smaller TV stations set in the $1-range (and with Shaw Communications having backed down from its much-ballyhooed calling-of-CTV’s-“bluff”) Claassen announced in July that his investment vehicle, Bluepoint Investments, would purchase the beleaguered station from owner CTVglobemedia as the start of Bluepoint’s grander plan to become a major media player.
But, after “trying everything to make it work,” Claassen said he made the difficult decision to back out of the deal late Thursday. After receiving Claassen’s letter, CTVgm CEO Ivan Fecan made the call that the station be closed after its 6 p.m. newscast the next evening (October 2). Click here for the final sign-off. (Given the way these people were put through the wringer over the past number of months, and with precious few media jobs available in Brandon, this was a classy way to go out.)
Acknowledging that there are many issues facing local broadcasters, especially in smaller markets such as Brandon, (pop. 52,000), Claassen lay the blame for having to walk away squarely with the BDUs – specifically the direct-to-home satellite companies – and the CRTC.
“In the final analysis, if you’re not carried on the satellite, in Brandon, 55% of the market doesn’t see you,” said Claassen. That makes it a poor buy for advertisers, which then makes it impossible to fulfill the station’s regulatory mandate (local, Canadian content).
The Commission has committed to make changes to the carriage of small market local stations on DTH, but they won’t take effect until 2011 at the earliest and Claassen said he couldn’t have waited that long.
“At the end of the day, the television industry is not run by the broadcasters, it’s run by the distributors,” he added. Plus, his appeals to many people in the Commission, the Department of Canadian Heritage and even some MPs to make some more immediate alterations fell on deaf ears.
“It means Jimmy Shaw and Bell ExpressVu can say: ‘You know what? Screw you. We’re not going to carry your local station. We’d rather have TSN2 or HBO or some other channel from the U.S. on our satellite as opposed to using you,’” said Claassen.
“(CKX was) a good operation but faced with the distribution issue, which is largely controlled by Shaw (Direct) and Bell ExpressVu, who determine who the hell wins or loses, the unfortunate consequence of that was that we could not foresee an even remotely viable financial future for the station, which is really sad.
“We are doing this with remorse, to say the least.”
“It’s sad that in the final analysis, they guys that own the shelf space determine what kinds of beverages you’re going to buy on the weekend,” Claassen continued. “It’s the monopolies run by Shaw and by Bell ExpressVu and by Rogers that are really determining what the broadcast environment is in this country… and that pisses me off as a media buyer and it certainly pisses me off as a potential media owner.
“We are exiting this particular business not because we want to, because we tried every single possible thing to maintain our involvement… but the fact of the matter is the regulatory environment and the distributor environment, which is a monopoly for the most part, doesn’t provide the kind of scenario that allows these kinds of stations to survive.”
That said though, Claassen says it is now time for him to turn to bigger and better things. “I’ll just go buy some other station,” he said.
While recent rumours on Bay Street say Quebecor’s Toronto broadcaster SunTV is in play, Claassen declined to comment specifically whether or not he’s interested in that operation. “I can not provide any comment on that,” he said. He did say, however, that he kicked the tires of the recently purchased CHCH (Hamilton), CJNT (Montreal) and CHEK (Victoria) stations as well as the now-closed CHCA (Red Deer).
“Our hope is to build an independent, Canadian-owned, national network in Canada made up of a whole bunch of players,” he explained.
“We are engaged in serious discussions with a number of other television stations – they are part of a mix we are looking at.
“Brandon would have been nice to have as a small little start but the fact of the matter is we do want to build a national network.”
