With one of Canada’s best-paid and most-educated municipal populations, Cowtown is continuing to thrive, with some healthy wads of cash being dispersed among all the major media.

Television, in particular, is about as hot as it gets – to the point where local retail is being shut out – while radio is witnessing an upset due to the sudden success of Rogers entry JACK. Newspaper continues to be stable, though, and buyers are hoping that the tight outdoor market may see some relief as Viacom continues to make inroads into Pattison country.

Television

The CRTC is set to hand out another TV licence, and CHUM’s in the bidding for it, which could ignite yet another confrontation with rival Craig and it’s flagship Calgary offering, A Channel.

A new channel would help cool the market, buyers say, but William Fitch, GM and media director at Calgary-based DSA Baron Communications, would rather the CRTC not hand out any licence at all. Instead, he’d like to see the regulator allow the specialty networks to sell inventory regionally.

‘That would take the pressure off [prices] because we can’t buy any of the specialty networks except for national,’ he says. ‘So let’s get into the U.S. model where we can buy Bravo Calgary or even Bravo Alberta and break it down like that. We don’t need more stations to fragment it more.’

And prices have indeed been sky high, with several buyers saying Calgary is the number-two market this season after southern Ontario.

Luke Moore, MD and VP, director of media, western region for M2 Universal, says his agency managed to keep increases under 5% but suspects it was ‘a lot more’ for others.

Radio

The big story in radio continues to be the success of Rogers’ JACK format, which has rolled to victory in Calgary and knocked off previous ratings champion CJAY 92 (see ‘Analysis: BBM Summer 2003 Radio Survey,’ p. 21 for more).

In hindsight, Rogers appears to have executed a savvy feint in beating Standard to the punch to introduce an urban station last year before abruptly switching to the more popular JACK. Standard’s urban station, Vibe, has had to settle for mediocre ratings, but its ace in the hole is that it’s niche and has no real competitors.

‘There’s money to be made targeting the younger market,’ says Moore, who is positive about Vibe’s chances for survival. ‘It’s not as though there are a lot of media avenues that one can take from a media-buying perspective [in Calgary] to reach those people.’

The other significant radio news is the launch of a small station in Okotoks, with another planned for Olds, both outlying communities. Buyers say these will provide a welcome outlet for local advertisers squeezed out of the expensive television market.

Newspaper

The city’s two leading papers, the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun, remain stable, with neither moving much since the last NADbank numbers. There have been no significant formatting or columnist changes.

‘They’re both very active from a marketing/promotion perspective by associating themselves with events,’ says Moore, adding that the Herald in particular has increased its activity in that vein over the last four months.

The Sun is more aggressive than the Herald in cutting ‘local deals’ where local retailers are given extremely good rates. It’s in cases like these where you’re more likely to see a local retailer in only one of the papers. Beck describes both as a ‘good buy’ though costs have gone up slightly. ‘When we’re planning, if we have a very broad audience, we’ll use both just to get the reach with that medium.’

Out-of-home

Outdoor has shifted in favour of buyers with the arrival of Viacom, which is attempting to take on the already established Pattison. However, little in the way of savings has been realized so far. ‘[Viacom] has greatly improved its locations but Pattison still by far dominates in terms of premium positions,’ says Moore.

One buyer says Pattison has been consistent in matching Viacom on price while still maintaining the advantage of more numerous locations. And because clients want to maximize their discounts, they’ve tended to avoid split buys. ‘So a lot of times one of them may get shut out,’ says Fitch.