Star Choice and Bell ExpressVu, Canada's two fledgling direct-to-home satellite TV services, intend to refer to the RCMP the case of an Ontario company that is openly advertising imported American DHS services. "Clearly this is blatantly illegal," says Bruce Barr, vice-president of sales and marketing for Star Choice Communications. "There's nothing more we can do other than bring it to the attention of the authorities." "A blatant disrespect for the law," agreed Paula Thompson, director of communications for ExpressVu who called the ad amazing. "We know that the Federal Court of Canada has said it is illegal." They were referring to newspaper ads by a company called Direct Pay, operating out of Campbellford, Ont. which, via a 1-800 number, is offering 200-channel American satellite programming, complete with brand-name dish system and dealer access cards guaranteed for a year. In the past, imported services were described as the "grey market" because of their questionable legality under the federal Broadcasting Act. But last month the RCMP announced plans to crack down on such dealers, since it has been declared illegal to distribute programming without authorization by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. "I think these guys are trying to force a court case," says Barr. Not so, counters Direct Pay, which says it is a member of the Better Business Bureau of Toronto. "It's not a challenge to any law because there is no law to it," said a spokesman who would only identify himself as Alex. "It is grey market which means it's not legal, it's not illegal." Alex quoted international law that he says makes it illegal for countries to ban outside broadcasts. "To me, it sounds completely unconstitutional," he added about efforts to block imported DHS services for an estimated 200,000 dish owners in Canada. "What are they going to do, turn us all into criminals just because we want to watch TV?" He said he hears constantly from customers that they aren't happy with the domestic licensed dish services, Star Choice and ExpressVu. Direct Pay offers signals from U.S.-based DirecTV and USSB, which includes HBO, Cinemax and The Movie Channel. He says their activated cards are not pirated, nor are fake cross-border billing addresses required, as was the case in the past with U.S. DHS services. Alex says business has been fantastic. "I don't plan on any heat. All we're doing is selling TV programming. It's not like I got drugs coming in over the border." For years the grey market thrived in Canada because of the lack of legally licensed DHS operations in this country. But Barr says that since Star Choice and Bell ExpressVu were launched, that market has been eroded dramatically for several reasons. "These services are illegal. Number 2, the Canadian dollar has softened so to the extent you are paying programming costs to U.S. suppliers, those costs are going up. And thirdly we are up to a 100-channel video universe and a 60-channel audio universe."

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