New Heroes episodes started airing again last week. I’m a fan of the show and was psyched to have it back. I have a high-definition PVR from Ontario’s biggest cable provider, Rogers, and it was all set to record. But when I went to watch it last week, it had recorded a letterboxed (black bars down the side), non-HD episode. Luckily, I caught it on a later showing on NBC-HD, and I figured the PVR had made a mistake and recorded the analog channel by mistake.
Today I was home when ‘Heroes’ aired on Global at 8pm, and once again, I had a letterboxed, non-HD signal on my Global HD (HDGLB – Rogers 515) channel:
I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on during a commercial break, when an ad for Bell ExpressVu came on. It was one of those damn ads with the beavers. But something caught my ear: the beaver it said specifically that ‘Heroes’ was available in HD on Bell ExpressVu (a satellite/VDSL company). Then it all clicked in: it’s only available in HD on ExpressVu. It looks like Bell (a satellite provider) made some deal with Global (a media company), to only air ‘Heroes’ in HD on their system.
I scoured the web for a press release or news article about this, but I couldn’t find anything. If they are doing what I think they’re doing, they are complete assholes. Media ownership in Canada is completely f**ked if a cable/satellite provider (Bell/BCE) which is a 20% stakeholder in a media company (CTVglobemedia) can make a deal with a television station (Global) which is owned by another media company (CanWest) that competes with their own stations (CTV) to show content from a U.S. media company (NBC) exclusively in HD!
I urge you to keep your eyes on the changing media landscape in Canada. The CBC, our crown-(media)-corporation (kinda like the BBC for all you international readers), is faltering in ratings and their budget is being cut again and again. CTVglobemedia has purchased CHUM Limited (Citytv, Muchmusic) pending CRTC approval, bringing the number of large media companies in Canada to just three. When the dust settles, how many media voices will there be in this country?
[...] An update to my previous entry, I’ve started seeing others complaining about this: Global is only airing high-definition shows over Bell ExpressVu, not over Rogers Cable’s “Global HD” channel. They obviously made some exclusivity agreement but are too chicken to put out a press release to that effect. [...]