The cable companies have answered the challenge with http://www.stopthetvtax.ca/ Still no handy song but I have been seeing commercials explaining the cable's side of the story. Now, I know that the broadcasters are not completely blameless in all this but I have some serious problems with the commercials that the cable companies are running. Thus, in list form:
(1) In these commercials, they say that the CRTC is going to be making the common people pay an extra $10 a month. This is not entirely true. In fact, it is pretty much not true. The CRTC would only require that the cable and satellite companies to pay the broadcasters a fee for carriage. The cable companies are the one who say that they will pass the cost onto the consumer. Which I have always thought was a rather childish way to deal with it (but frankly, everybody in this whole debacle seems to be playing the childish card so it doesn't really matter anymore). Or they say that the networks themselves are proposing the monthly cost. To be clear, the cable companies are the ones who intend to make you pay if they have to pay.
(2) What I also find kinda funny in these commercials is how they keep referring to them as the "big" broadcasters. Yes, they are clearly "living large." And they are just closing local stations for fun. But then they claim that these "big" broadcasters made a total of $400 million last year. Wow, that's a big number. But that covers the 3 biggest networks in Canada? Maybe it's just me but considering that covers the 3 main networks in Canada...it doesn't seem like a lot. I mean, I wish these broadcasters were the wealthy giants that the cable companies are making them out to be (I know that they aren't poor by any stretch of the imagination, but after Global is applying for bankruptcy protection and seeing all the people who've been fired this year at CBC and the other broadcasters, I find it hard to believe that they are just bleeding cash).
(3) Though, despite all this, what really made me chuckle is how on the commercial online, portrays the CBC. It's postively rolling around in it's own gluttony. And worse yet, it's all from YOUR money. Just look at all the money flowing into the CBC. How could they possibly need any more?! Well, as my teacher told the class this year, the CBC is one of the worst funded public broadcasters in the world. In fact, I think the only one that was worse was New Zealand but I'm not entirely sure on that. And considering that the CBC doesn't purchase the majority of it's primetime schedule from the foreign markets and instead produces it's own content which is more expensive (Or at least that's what I hear from CTV and Global), I wonder why they need all that money? Possibly to produce Canadian content? How bizarre.
But here's what I think should happen. If the CRTC does allow this whole fee-for-carriage thing to go through, I think the broadcasters should then have to stop trying to reduce the amount of Cancon they have to carry. I'm tired of CTV and Global arguing that they can't afford to produce Cancon. Also, there should be a provision so that the money actually does go towards local television. If we could guarantee those, I'm all for the fee-for-carriage because then it might actually mean more local television. You know, television that matters.
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The problem is in assesing value.
ReplyDeleteI suggest the cable Companies not be allowed to broadcast the Networks without an agreement
At the same time Cable componies should not have to Carry those networks
And to ultimately protect the consume, they should be able to opt out of any programing including local
I don't know if opting out of programming is really protecting the consumers (as local programming is important and worth protecting and the fact that if Canadian broadcasters start opting out of things, there won't be a single Canadian show on the air), but I agree with everything else that's been said here. I especially agree that if fee for carriage goes through there should be strict regulations on how it is spent, and it should be spent on CanCon. That may be the only nugget of wholesomeness in this whole debate, the quest for more CanCon, local or not. I am not going to whine if I have to pay more, especially if its helping CanCon, but I would be much happier with a compromise: something like the consumer paying for half and the Cable Co's sucking it up to pay the other half. But I still have to go back to the fact that the consumers REALLY need to step into the conversation like they never have before.
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