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A Bangor television station could lose most of its Canadian viewers if a cable company succeeds in dropping it from the package of stations offered to subscribers in the Maritimes.
WVII-TV (Channel 7) has launched an advertising campaign on television and in Canadian newspapers to persuade Chamcook Communications Ltd. to withdraw its application to replace the Bangor station with an ABC affiliate in Detroit.
Chamcook, which represents 28 Maritime cable companies, also has asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to drop WABI-TV (Channel 5) in Bangor in favor of the CBS station in Detroit. The Canadian regulators are expected to decide the issue by Nov. 1.
Two other Bangor-based television stations, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network (Channel 12) and WLBZ-TV (Channel 2) would continue to be carried by Maritime cable companies.
In the past, Barbara Cyr, executive vice president and general manager of WVII-TV has declined to reveal how much of WVII’s advertising revenues came from Canadian firms, but said Thursday it was a small percentage. But regular viewers of Channel 7 have seen numerous commercials for Maritime restaurants, motels, car dealerships, fur shops, beer companies and other businesses.
The situation is far less serious for WABI. George Gonyar, its general manager, said WABI was the last Bangor station to enter the Maritime market. It never developed a strong presence there, he said.
“I regret the eventuality of losing our Canadian audience,” said Gonyar. “But from a business standpoint, it will have virtually no impact on us.”
WAGM-TV (Channel 8) in Presque Isle also could lose a portion of its Canadian viewers if the Chamcook application is approved.
“Unfortunately, that is true,” said Kathleen McLain, the station’s general sales manager. “This is something we consider really unfortunate. We are concerned; we’re looking into it and we hope they’ll reconsider.”
The Canadian audience is very important to WAGM, according to McLain. The Chamcook action would not affect viewers along the U.S./Canadian border, she said. But the station would lose its audience in Fredericton, New Brunswick, where WAGM is carried by a cable company.
WVII is not taking its possible ouster from the Martimes lightly. An Aug. 20 press release sent by the station to Canadian newspapers quotes Cyr as saying Channel 7 was the first U.S. television station to broadcast in the Maritimes.
“We’ve developed strong ties by providing air time for Maritime public service announcements, sharing the proceeds of local telethons and making programming decisions with our Maritime viewers in mind,” Cyr said in the release. “Those aren’t services a Detroit station will be able to provide.”
During the past year, the release said, WVII proposed to increase its commitment to Atlantic Canada by:
providing New Brunswick Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island with $15,000 each in free air time to promote their provinces;
producing an annual, one-hour documentary on each province;
placing a voluntary cap on sales to Maritime advertisers and disclosing a three-year history of revenue from that source, pending an agreement to continue scheduling WVII in the provinces for three years; broadcasting programs 24 hours a day; continuing to offer items of community interest to Maritime viewers.
Cyr said that Chamcook had not informed all of its cable companies of what WVII was doing to try to upgrade its services to Canada.
WVII also said it would take technical steps to make its signal equal in quality to that of the Detroit station.
But Dan McKeen, director of marketing for Halifax Cablevision Ltd., said Maritime cable companies are not interested in promises from WVII.
“We don’t really want to get into what they will do in the future,” said McKeen, whose company is an affiliate of Chamcook Communications. “We can only go by what the company did in the past.”
However, Cyr replied Thursday that McKeen was unaware of “communications that have taken place during the past 18 months between Chamcook and WVII-TV. Discussions began in order to further enhance the partnership to a level that would benefit all parties concerned, including Maine and the Maritime Provinces.
“Some of the items were targeted at increasing trade and tourism, while others would improve the signal received by Chamcook. … WVII was, and is, fully prepared to implement all plans discussed, pending the reciprocal commitment from Chamcook that the station would be carried for a specified number of years. An investment of this magnitude cannot be made without some sort of guarantees,” Cyr said.
McKeen said the Detroit stations are the only U.S. network affiliates available through the Canadian company that operates the satellite relay system. But transmission quality was not the only factor considered by Chamcook in deciding which stations it would offer, according to McKeen.
Cyr said WVII understood the technical problems Chamcook was having with microwave equipment, and “realized they would in the near future need to change their receiving and distribution system, which could result in a change of one or all stations carried.
“The actual signal delivered by WVII has been substantially more reliable and stable during the past few years as WVII has continually upgraded its facility,” she said.
McKeen said a poll of Maritime cable subscribers found that 50 percent don’t care if Detroit or Bangor stations are carried. Of those expressing a preference, 65 percent favored the Michigan affiliates, he said.
“We evaluated things like programming, subscriber interest and reliability,” he said.
WVII has appealed to Maritime viewers to call a toll-free number to express their opposition to the proposed change.
Cyr said the response to the public appeal has been “overwhelming” in support of the station.
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