The satellite that cable companies called the 'death star'
CRTC hearing reviewed impact of smaller dishes with hundreds of channels in 1993
It wasn't a star, and nobody was dying. But in 1993 Canadian cable companies were concerned a new U.S. satellite might gain a chokehold on the country's TV industry.
"The cable industry wants the CRTC to let it increase its fees over the coming year, so it too can compete with the so-called 'death star,'" said reporter Bill Casey on CBC's Prime Time News in March 1993.
It seemed the very future of Canadian television was at stake as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission began hearings that year, and Canadians got their first glimpse of what that future might look like.
"The topic right now that is hot is definitely technology," said Pamela Wallin, the show's host. "TV is about to change, and quickly."
'Hundreds of channels'
It's uncertain who coined the term "death star" — a reference to the moon-like orbiting superweapon in the Star Wars movies — in relation to a U.S. TV satellite.
But the Canadian cable industry clearly regarded it as a threat.
"Within a year [it] will be real, a new kind of United States TV satellite floating up with the stars, beaming hundreds of channels directly into homes across Canada," said Casey.
An animation from a promotional video for a service called DirecTV showed a satellite directing a dotted-line signal directly to the dish on the roof of a home.
The promotion also showed logos for the U.K.'s Sky One channel, Sky News and Sky Sports, as well as the fare one might catch on some of the satellite's "up to 50" pay-per-view movie channels.
At a mere half-metre across, the dish that consumers would use to pull in such signals was smaller than the satellite dishes of the late '70s and the early 1980s.
Cable company concerns
A Rogers executive was shown displaying such a dish, which Casey said would give consumers "more control over what they view."
The dish also threatened to give cable companies "more competition than they can handle," said Casey.
Hence the companies' request to the CRTC to let them boost their fees. They also wanted to supply subscribers with the "digital decoders" that would let viewers "give orders to the TV set."
Technology aside, the threat of the "death star" was that it was unlikely to offer much of anything in the way of Canadian content.
No room for CanCon
"Private broadcasters say the system doesn't need more black boxes, but more money for Canadian programming," said Casey.
The former chair of the CRTC, by then "associated" with a pay-TV channel, agreed that the Canadian TV industry stood to suffer.
"It won't be Canadian programs that come from these U.S. satellites," said Andre Bureau. "Our programs will not have the funding that they require."
