In a prime-time shift with an Alberta twist, television demographics targeted at 18- to 34-year-olds could become oh, so yesterday.

Instead, Learning & Skills Television of Alberta Ltd. is zeroing in on a group that’s unofficially been labelled as ‘zoomers’ – the growing population of people aged 60-plus with money to spend.

The Edmonton-based broadcaster, which already has four channels up and running, is looking to bolster its roster with two new digital offerings: Zoomer and The Crime Channel.

Applications for both are scheduled for a mid-July hearing before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission at its Gatineau, Que., headquarters, as Learning & Skills seeks to increase its stake in a growing digital marketplace.

Zoomer, which would offer a variety of entertainment, lifestyle and educational programming aimed at a pre-retired and early-retiree audience, is a concept that is right for our time, said Ron Keast, president and CEO of Learning & Skills Television. It would include a mix of comedies, dramas, documentaries, feature films and sports.

Jack Dagley photo, for Business Edge
Ron Keast of Learning & Skills Television says it’s a good time to target boomers through digital TV

“We’re very much aware that this is a group that’s increasing in size as the population ages,” said Keast. “It’s healthy, wealthy and wise, and has a lot of money to spend on a variety of activities – leisure, travel and fitness. They’re very big on fitness and education.”

Baby boomers are going to become an important demographic for advertisers and programmers to take seriously, added Keast. “We thought now would be a pretty good time to target something like that.”

Meanwhile, Keast is calling The Crime Channel a “bookend” for the company’s CourtTV Canada channel. “It would look at the world from the perspective of crime and the criminals, what’s happening in Canada and what can we do to deal with it,” said Keast. It would show movies including Natural Born Killers and The Godfather, dramas such as Crime Story and documentaries that may include Great Crimes and Trials of the 20th Century, along with new Canadian programming. If the new digital channels make it to air, Keast said he expects each to create about 10 jobs per channel. Economic benefits, however, would be greater as new opportunities would be created for programming from independent producers. Learning & Skills, which employs about 120 people, does not have a large in-house production department.

But getting a licence for a digital channel is no guarantee that it will ever hit the airwaves, said industry analyst Mario Mota, publisher and editor-in-chief of Ottawa-based Decima Publishing Inc.

“I think the CRTC is likely to license more digital channels. They’ve had a very open policy from the beginning,” said Mota.

“But the licence means absolutely nothing. The licence is just the first step. I would argue that it’s the easy part, a mere slam-dunk. The hardest part is finding the money to do it and to get carriage (on cable and satellite). That’s the challenge most Category 2s will face. Category 2s are tough – many will never see the light of day.”

Category 2 channels, under the CRTC definition, are “an unlimited number of services that meet basic licensing criteria and are not directly competitive with any existing pay or specialty or Category 1 services. These services may be competitive with one another and are not assured digital access,” Mota added.

Even with channels being added, the digital television market in Canada is still very small, said Mota, who said he expects the newest numbers should show 3.5 million subscribers to digital cable or satellite services across the country, – up from about 3.4 million at the end of 2002.

The number of Canadian households subscribing to digital television service from satellite, cable, wireless cable or telephone companies increased by about 21 per cent, or 600,000, in 2002, according to Decima Publishing research. But digital TV subscriber growth was down sharply from 2001 levels.

“Both satellite TV and digital cable experienced lower subscriber growth in 2002 compared to 2001,” said Mota.

“It’s clear from our latest research that Canadian broadcast distributors have already attracted early adopters to digital TV. The challenge they face is to convince consumers to upgrade to digital TV service to receive value-added services and features such as video-on-demand and high-definition television programming.”

There have already been casualties among the digital channels, also known as diginets. The High School TV Network, an independent channel carried in Toronto by Rogers, is in the digital graveyard, while Corus Entertainment Inc. is shutting down its alternative rock digital offering, Edge TV, this summer.

Keast, however, said he believes he may have a recipe for success for new digital offerings.

“These are very, very limited distribution so they have to be run very economically. We think this is worthwhile because we run a very efficient operation here and we’re totally digitized, so everything’s automated.”

Learning & Skills operates ACCESS, Canadian Learning Television, CourtTV Canada and Book Television, meaning the infrastructure for new channels is in place and costs would be lower. It also has access to deeper pockets, as CHUM Ltd. is its majority owner.

“We’re in very much a growth mode,” said Keast.

“Digital television is a risky business, but because we’re so well established here we can afford to start new channels in a very restricted universe. And it’s important to do that because you’re really charting new real estate for the future.”

That growth could include the launch of two Category 2 channels for which Keast is already holding licences, the Academy Channel and Careers TV. Focusing on formal courses of study at Canadian university and a guide to learning and earning, the channels have not been launched as adequate carriage has yet to be secured.

“We’re still pushing, we’re out talking to the distributors all the time about these and the new channels,” said Keast.

“It’s hard to tell what we’ll see over time,” said Mota. “I think some of the broadcasters think there is room for more. CHUM is adding MuchMoreRetro, Craig Broadcasting is launching Stampede, and Global is launching a channel or two. Clearly broadcasters like what they see.

“All of them (the digital channels) expect to make money one day,” he added.

“But all of them are losing money – there’s not one profitable diginet out there based on the latest public financial numbers we’ve seen.”