Saturday, November 14, 2009

Local Motion


The Save Local TV campaign by Canada's major broadcasters is, of course, a farce of the cheapest order.

The broadcasters and the cable and satellite companies will lock horns this coming week in Gatineau, Quebec in front of that most discerning of audiences, the CRTC.

Lord help us.

Three such august groups.

In the late 70's, I worked at CBC Vancouver for a brief year.

I was a story editor on the supper hour newscast, known as Hourglass. I wrote and performed comedy sketches for several TV shows, I read the news and hosted a Saturday and Sunday morning music show on radio. And sometimes I scrubbed down the hallway.

In those days, that concrete bunker on Hamilton and Georgia was the equivalent of a small MGM, studio after studio producing local and national product of every kind. The costume and make-up rooms were huge and always busy.

How can CTV, Global or CBC lay any claim today to "local TV?"

This is and will be entirely a fight for free taxpayer dollars from an industry that has outlived its own business model.

Move on.

Next!

2 comments:

Jeff Taylor said...

if the CRTC grants these 'FAT' private broadcasters what amounts to a TAX on my cable bill, I'm going to begin to seriously ask myself if I could downgrade my cable services and live with that decision. There's a number of channels that I NEVER watch any ways, so why continue to pay for them ? Beside, I find myself getting much of my news via the internet and NOT my T.V. or magazines and newspapers. When I stop and think about it a few minutes more, I'm now probably using the internet on my iPhone more hours a week than I'm watching T.V. Hmmm ......

Anonymous said...

I got rid of the cable 14 years ago and am content with the rabbit ears.
Recently I purchased a digital converter for my old analogue tv, and am receiving 5 local digital broadcasts. The picture is simply amazing. I get all the TV I need.