Videon Cablesystems
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Videon Cablesystems, Inc. (also Videon Cable-tv, Winnipeg Videon Inc., Metro Videon Community Antenna Television Inc.) was a cable-tv company serving Winnipeg on the West side of the Red River from November 1967 until 2002 and owned by the Moffat family through their company Moffat Communications Ltd. Randall L. Moffat was its President.
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[edit] History
Metro Videon Community Antenna Television Inc. was formed "quietly" in 1962, after three additional television signals — CBWFT, KCND, and CJAY, started broadcasting in 1960. [1]
The initial partners were Randy Moffat, owner of CKY (radio); Ralph Misener, owner of CJAY Channel 7 television; Famous Players theatres, owner of several cable tv systems including the one at Thunder Bay, Ontario; and Claude Boucher, Videon's first general manager.
At the time they were already operating a small cable-tv service in Pinawa, Manitoba before approaching the federal Department of Transport for a license to operate in Winnipeg.
Metro Videon had waited to apply for a cable-tv license because the Department had "frozen" new applications for community antenna (CATV) companies to serve towns and cities so they could draw up regulations for this type of service. But yet at the same time, the company was so confident that everything would work out, that prior to the announcement of the service, they pre-purchased and installed large amounts of coaxial cable underground in parts of Tuxedo, Fort Garry, and Assiniboia. They paid a rental rate of 60 cents per 100 feet of coax. to MTS. This saved Videon money because MTS was placing their telephone cables underground at the same time.
Preliminary negotiations with MTS for use of telephone poles and underground right-of-way to string coaxial cable through the western half of metropolitan Winnipeg went from 1963 to 1967. Later in the year, Videon had started to construct the headend and cable tv infrastructure. Videon had hoped to include the suburbs east of the Red River, but this fell to another company, Greater Winnipeg Cablevision.
The new cable company announced that they would charge $10 to connect to their service, and $5 per month to subscribe to the signals. This low fee remained much in effect until the advent of Canadian pay television in 1983.
A remote antenna at Tolstoi, Manitoba was built to capture signals from Fargo, Grand Forks and Pembina, North Dakota.
In 1978 Videon applied to the CRTC for a 50 cent fee increase, the fist since the cable company began operations in Winnipeg.[2]
After the major rebuild of 1987, Videon added the Assiniboia Downs Racing Network on January 23, 1988. This made possible for the first time so-callled "off track" betting.[3]
[edit] Coverage Area
Videon served Winnipeg proper, Assiniboia, St. James, Brooklands, West Kildonan, Old Kildonan, Fort Garry, Charleswood, and Tuxedo.
The first area to receive cable-tv was St. Norbert in November 1967.
The headend and administrative offices were located in a former A&P supermarket building at 651 Stafford St. until 1995 when Videon moved to a suburban location at 22 Scurfield Blvd. in Fort Garry.
[edit] Management
- Claude Boucher (first General Manager, 1967-?)
- Sid Boyling (second "VP/General Manager", 1969-1979)
- Jack Baigrie (third General Manager, 1979-?)
- R. Vaughn Tozer, (fourth General Manager, early 1990s)
- Charron Kerr, (fifth General Manager, mid 1990s)
- Richard Guertin, Marketing Manager (late 1980s)
- Richard Edwards, Programming Manager of VPW and VSP (1980s)
[edit] Programming
[edit] Community Programming
Between 1967 and 1976, Videon used to have a simple B&W camera housed on a track go back and forth to display the weather on analog dials. At the end of one way was a small poster for advertising. This was cablecast on channel 13 until 1976 when Videon went to an all electronic text system which is still used today.
It ran a community channel, VPW, which moved to various channels -- 9, then 13, then 11. Videon had a program sharing agreement with Greater Winnipeg Cablevision to retransmit programming on each others community channel.
From 1996 till 2001 Videon produced a weekly public affairs phone-in program, Insight, mainly hosted by Kelly Parker. It featured topics, such as downtown revitalization, urban crime, and other local issues. One of its' most noted episodes was the WREB Mayoral Forum of October 1998, held at the Walker Theatre in downtown Winnipeg. However this program was cancelled when SHAW purchased Videon in 2001.
For a time in the 1980s they used a song from the Alan Parson's Project, Where's the Walrus, while a narrator told of the community programming services offered by Videon Cable-tv in Winnipeg.
[edit] VPW Personalities
- The Cosmopolitans (CARRIED by VPW but originated at Greater Winnipeg Cablevision) — a duo of middle aged women playing organ and drum.
- George Licorice — Hosted a music video program, Music Makers, in 1982, before MuchMusic and CBC's Video Hits existed.
- Guy Maddin — Winnipeg film-maker.
- Kelly Parker — Hosted Videon Insight 1995-2001. Now with Winnipeg's 99.9 BOB FM.
- Natalie Pollock — Hosted Pollock & Pollock in the 1980s.
- Jaret Sereda — Hosted a program about goings on in Winnipeg in the 1980s, now with CJOB
- Marty Green — Hosted Math With Marty in the late 1980s. Moved to Thunder Bay, Ontario in the 1990s.
[edit] VSP-7
In September 1979 Winnipeg was the first city in Canada to receive the House of Commons via the Anik-B satellite and cablecast on VSP-7.
From the early 1980s Videon ran a second community channel called VSP-7 (Videon Special Programming ch. 7). On October 30, 1982[4] Videon transferred some of its programming from VPW-13 such as city hall, community committee meetings and created new programming.
Later in the decade it carried Manitoba Educational Television, Genesis Storytime.
In 1982 there was a consumer info show and another segment on law, produced by the Public Legal Education Association.
When VSP-7 wasn't cablecasting video programming, it would function as the Community Billboard channel.
[edit] Live Coverage Events
City Council, Community Committees, Manitoba Legislature Question Period, House of Commons Proceedings, Canada Day celebrations.
Until 1991 Videon replayed City Council meetings on Saturday mornings. However, for some unknown reason they stopped doing this after signing a multi-year contract with the City Hall Clerk's Department.
Also, until the early 1990s Videon carried Live coverage of Community Committee meetings. These are no longer carried.
[edit] Distant Signals
From November 1967 until March 1986 Videon carried two Fargo, North Dakota stations, KTHI Tv 11 (ABC then NBC), and KXJB Tv4 (CBS). The distance to the headend was long and there was a microwave link at Tolstoi, Manitoba to pick up these two stations from KXJB translator at Glasston, North Dakota (K58BP) and KTHI's signal directly from Fargo. However, during very hot and humid summer weather, the signal quality would degrade to the point of being unwatchable.
After several years of complaints of poor signal quality, Videon applied to the CRTC to replace its NBC and CBS affiliates with those of WDIV 4 and WJBK 2, both from Detroit, Michigan via Anik satellite, and in March, 1986 the Fargo stations were replaced with those from Detroit. However by 1993, complaints over the level of crime reporting on the commercial Detroit stations lead Videon to not revew its agreement to carry WDIV and WJBK [5] , and instead replaced them with other stations, first from Toledo, Ohio, and later from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
[edit] Tiering
By 1989 the CRTC allowed MuchMusic and TSN to be part of basic cable rather than pay television stations. So Videon created a tier of services beginning in July 1989 called the Variety Pak. It was sold for $5.95/mo. and included TSN, CNN, WTVS 56 Detroit, A&E, TNN, Tv5, and MuchMusic. This package was to become known as Tier 1.
On January 1, 1995 several new Canadian satellite-cable (also called specialty) networks started broadcasting. These were Bravo!, Discovery Channel Canada, NCN New Country Network, Life, and WTN Womens Television Network. RDI Reseau d'Information was part of basic cable. This was Tier 2. And by this time, people in other cities such as Toronto and Vancouver were starting to get annoyed at the high cost of cable-tv, threatening to disconnect their cable service and get a grey-market DirecTv satellite service instead.
Tier 3 was implemented in stages between September 1997 and October 1998, beginning with CTV News1, MuchMoreMusic, ROBtv Report on Business Tv, StarTv!, TalkTv.
[edit] Pay Television
In 1983 Videon had two channels left for pay-tv. It used just one of them, choosing to offer the national First Choice service on channel 22. Videon claimed at the time that they might be able to make channel 23 (J) available for another pay-tv service, having to choose between C-Channel or Superchannel. But they did not follow through on this, possibly because of co-channel interference.
A long-time dispute between Videon Cable-tv and MTS over ownership of the wiring and poles used to carry the signal caused Videon to get far behind other cablecos. in offering an expanded channel lineup. Both parties were very stubborn for several years, hindering the growth of cable tv service in Winnipeg.
However, it wasn't until a full cable rebuild in the summer of 1987 that Videon was able to offer the other pay television services (1).
Videon used the Zenith Z-Tac cable scrambling system to keep its pay-tv signals from theft. This was an advanced addressable system where each descrambler has an ID, similar to an IP address on a computer today.
Beginning June 28, 1991, Videon added three U.S. Superstations to its pay-tv lineup: WTBS Atlanta (cable 33), WGN Chicago (cable 34), and WSBK Boston (cable 35).[6]
[edit] Cable Lineups
| Ch. | Call Sign | Network |
|---|---|---|
| 02 | CBWT | CBC |
| 03 | unused | |
| 04 | KXJB | CBS Fargo |
| 05 | CJAY | CTV |
| 06 | unused | |
| 07 | unused | |
| 08 | WDAZ | NBC Grand Forks |
| 09 | VPW | Community Access |
| 10 | CBWFT | Radio-Canada |
| 11 | KTHI | ABC Fargo ND |
| 12 | KCND | ABC Pembina ND |
| 13 | Weather |
| Ch. | Call Sign | Network |
|---|---|---|
| 02 | CBWT | CBC |
| 03 | KGFE | PBS Grand Forks ND |
| 04 | KXJB | CBS Fargo |
| 05 | CKY | CTV |
| 06 | Environment Canada Weather | Weather |
| 07 | VSP-7 | Videon |
| 08 | WDAZ | ABC Grand Forks |
| 09 | Community Billboard | Community Access |
| 10 | CBWFT | Radio-Canada |
| 11 | KTHI | NBC Fargo ND |
| 12 | CKND | Global |
| 13 | VPW-13 | Community Access |
| 22 | First Choice | pay-tv |
A sample cable line-up from 1987 would be:
- 02 CBWT 6(CBC)
- 03 KGFE (PBS)
- 04 WDIV (NBC)
- 05 CKY 7 (CTV)
- 06 WJBK (CBS)
- 07 VSP-7
- 08 WDAZ (ABC)
- 09 Environment Canada Weather
- 10 CBWFT 3 (SRC)
- 11 VPW-11
- 12 CKND 9 (Global)
- 13 CHMI 13 (Ind.)
- 14 CHSC Canadian Home Shopping Channel
- 24 A&E Cable Network
- 25 TSN The Sports Network
- 26 MuchMusic
- 28 CNN Cable News Network
- 29 FNN Financial News Network
- 30 TLC The Learning Channel
- 31 Superchannel pay-tv
- 32 ?
- 33 ?
- 34 ?
- 35 CMT Country Music Television
- 36 Chinavision
- 37 Community Billboard
A sample cable line-up from 1995 would be:
- 02 CBWT 6 (CBC)
- 03 KGFE (PBS)
- 04 WDIV (NBC)
- 05 CKY 7 (CTV)
- 06 WTOL (CBS)
- 07 Viewer's Choice Pay-Per-View preview channel
- 08 CHMI 13 (Ind.)
- 09 Environment Canada Weather
- 10 CBWFT (SRC)
- 11 Videon Cable 11
- 12 CKND Wpg TV
- 13 WDAZ (ABC)
- 14 TSN
- 15 CNN
- 16 TNN
- 17 Horse Racing/Road Conditions
- 18 Headline News
- 19 Life Network
- 20 A&E
- 21 WTN
- 22 Broadcast News
- 23 TLC
- 24 WTVS (PBS)
- 25 NCN
- 26 The Discovery Channel
- 27 Bravo!
- 28 WUHF (Fox)
- 29 Sport Score
- 30 CHSC
- 31 Airport Departures/Arrivals
- 32 Community Billboard
- 33 Telenium stock quotes/University of Winnipeg programming
- 34 RDI
- 35 CBC Newsworld
- 36 MuchMusic
- 37 YTV
- 38 Vision TV
- 39 Showcase Television
- 40 The Weather Network
- 43 Paid Programming
- 44 Prevue Channel
- 45 Family Channel
- 46 MovieMax!
- 47 SuperChannel
- 48 TBS
- 49 WSBK
- 50 WGN
- 51 Viewer's Choice Pay-Per-View previews
- 52-57 Viewer's Choice Pay-Per-View
- 58 Viewer's Choice Pay-Per-View schedule
- 59 CFTM (TVA)
- 60 TV5
- 61 Videon Cable 61
[edit] Internet Service
In the mid-1990s when Internet access from home became affordable, Videon had helped to create a high-speed cable modem service called Wave. Then in March 1999 Videon switched to the @Home network.
For business users, Videon had FiberLink, a SONET (Synchronous Optical Network)-based voice, data communications line, which has the ability to interconnect LANs and PBX's.
[edit] Expansion to Other Towns
In the 1990s Videon bought up several locally owned cable companies, creating Canada's fifth largest cable company. They had expanded their reach to include Headingley.
They also purchased a cable company in Alberta.
[edit] Videon Is Sold
In 2001 the Moffat family sold Videon Cable-tv Inc. to SHAW Cable of Calgary, Alberta.
[edit] CRTC License-related
- CRTC Decision 1986-183 - Permission to replace Fargo ND stations with Detroit MI
- CRTC Decision 1991-043 - 1991-1996 License Renewal
- CRTC Decision 1992-369 - Denial of application for MMDS service
- CRTC Decision 1996-694 - 1996-2003 License Renewal
- CRTC Decision 2001-186 - Assets sold to SHAW
[edit] References
- ^ Tremayne, Terry. "City to get cable TV", Winnipeg Tribune, January 12, 1967, pp. 1-2.
- ^ "Moffat sets sights on East in search of new properties", Globe and Mail, January 11, 1978, pp. B8.
- ^ Gory, Brian. "A flip of a switch at a Brandon cable television company last night ushered in a new era in racetrack betting in Canada", Toronto Star, January 14, 1988, pp. B3.
- ^ MacKinnon, Marilyn. "Cable 7 will 'go local' for first time Saturday", Winnipeg Free Press, October 28, 1982, p. 29.
- ^ Lech, Richard. "Detroit TV stations are getting low ratings from some viewers in Winnipeg", The Montreal Gazette, March 25, 1993, pp. D8.
- ^ "Videon adds superstations", Winnipeg Free Press, June 21, 1991.
- Winnipeg Tribune. Cable TV will bring channels galore. April 1, 1967. Page 23.
