Also in this report:

– This time, they’ll do things right: The newest tier of specialty services is determined to avoid the problems that plagued the launch of the class of 1995 p.16

– The Golden Age of TV – Part II: The specialty channels are revisiting the idea of linking content to sponsors’ names and objectives, just like in the ’50s p.20

– Addendum to Fall TV Preview p.27

As the third wave of French-track specialty channels prepare for their Sept. 8 launch, their marketing departments have completed pitches to most of Quebec’s media buyers ­ and now they’re looking to national marketers in Toronto.

The new specialty channels ­ Le Canal Nouvelles (owned by tva), Canal Vie (Radiomutuel), Musimax (MusiquePlus), and Teletoon (Family Channel/YTV) ­ will be tiered with existing specialty channels. Projections suggest that each will capture roughly a 1% share of the francophone tv market.

So far, buyers are adopting a cautious attitude toward the new players.

Alain Tardy, vice-president, media services with Montreal-based agency Marketel, says his agency regards specialties the same way it d’es magazines.

‘Yes, we buy audience, but we buy mostly environment,’ he says. ‘The question I’m asking when I see these guys who are coming to make their presentations is: Who are you taking your share from? And the answer is: They don’t know.’

In terms of the roll-out, the new CanWest Global station ckmi-tv will be added to the basic cable package, while rds, MusiquePlus and Canal D are being bumped to a newly created extended tier.

The extended tier package on the French side includes lcn, Teletoon, Canal Vie and MusiMax, plus The Learning Channel, tsn and two other English channels, yet to be determined. Canal Famille, TV5 and rdi stay on basic.

Tier 1 and tier 2 combined francophone subscriber numbers will be in the 1.2 million range.

‘The basic service charge is $25.09. To get the 11 [additional] channels it will cost you $3.90 more,’ says Jean Paul Galarneau, general manager of communications with Videotron, which controls up to 80% of the Quebec cable market.

Current audience penetration estimates for specialty channels in Quebec are 12% to 14% of the entire French-speaking population.

Canal D, a commercial-free PBS-like service, is in the lead with a share of approximately 3%. Radio-Canada’s 24 hour all-news service Reseau de l’Information (rdi) and Reseau des Sports (rds), the sports network, are next, both hovering between a 2.2% and 2.5% share. They are followed by MusiquePlus, the commercial-free international French-language service TV5, and the weather channel, Meteomedia. Canal Famille, the family channel, is popular with kids, but has no commercial airtime.

Of the new channels, Le Canal Nouvelles is expected to prove the most attractive to advertisers and the viewing audience, says Tardy.

lcn will offer a mix of headline news, business and weather reports and high-tech news in a 15-minute rotating ‘wheel’ format. It is aiming for a 0.75% to 1% share of the francophone viewing audience.

Hugues Beaudoin, lcn product manager, says the audience should resemble that of cnn’s Headline News service ­ generally upscale and more mature.

lcn has readjusted its advertising revenue estimate for year one to $800,000, double the amount originally cited in its licence pitch to the crtc.

Teletoon, the new animation service, expects to draw its share from all age groups and all walks of life, just as a general broadcaster d’es.

‘Research has shown that the Quebec market is incredibly excited about an animation network,’ says Hillary Firestone, vice-president of network marketing for Teletoon. ‘It fits well with the humor and lifestyle of Quebec.

‘We’ve definitely received a good reception from advertisers,’ she adds. ‘Everybody says it’s about time [for a service like this]. From a kid’s perspective, it’s a natural ­ and we believe it will have strong appeal to adults as well.’

Teletoon is preparing a tv and print ad campaign, in conjunction with ad agency Griffin Bacal Volny, to support its launch in September.

While Quebec media buyers see MusiquePlus as playing an important role in delivering the always hard-to-reach youth audience, some question whether there’s a place for MusiMax, the new adult contemporary music service, which will offer pop, jazz and classical.

‘Adults don’t have the habit of sitting and watching videos,’ says Helene Clement, vice-president, media director with Montreal agency pnmd. ‘And they’re not going to start just because there’s a station called MusiMax.’

Clement is also doubtful whether the adult francophone market is large enough to support such a station economically, even if it were enthusiastically embraced.

Over at Canal Vie, sales and sponsorship coordinator Jo-Ann Marchand says her new service’s programming will be keyed on health and well-being, with a slant to the female demographic, 34 to 64.

Canal Vie will be on air 24 hours a day, with three eight-hour programming blocks, starting at 3 p.m. Traditional 30- and 60-second spots and full program sponsorships are available, as well as something new to this market: two-minute commercial blocks.

Marchand says much of the programming is unique to the market, and expects Canal Vie to take audience share away from the conventional broadcasters Radio-Canada, tva and Television Quatre Saisons.

Canal Vie, which offers 12 minutes of commercial airtime an hour, is wholly owned by Radiomutuel, a major radio broadcaster and partner in MusiquePlus and MusiMax. (Astral Communications, the country’s largest specialty and pay-tv operator, has recently acquired a significant minority partnership in Radiomutuel.)