Thanks for your comments. Things are settling down and O.K., touch wood.
Jaime J. Weinman is probably one of only a couple of writers in Canada who thoughtfully write about Television regularly. (Which to my mind, is a very different thing than being a TV critic.) He's got a wonderful piece up at Macleans about "comedy torture." You know what I'm talking about, even if you don't.
How Long Until The Audience Snaps?
And as long as you're on the Weinman tip, why not check out this piece on his blog about why we don't see "Very Special Episodes" of sitcoms anymore. (It's also ineffably sad to see Michael J. Fox in his prime, before the cruelties of Parkinson's and Politics took their toll.)
And over at The Sun, Bill Brioux (who's either writing his way out the door with his true feelings, or maybe might not be feeling the axe's handle quite yet) comes up with a radical, if commonsense answer to the Canadian TV problem.
You know, silly me, trying to write about how complex the situation is. It occurs to me that if people can stand up there, bald faced, and say they need to charge people more for over the air networks, but can't possibly spend a dime more on Canadian shows, then the equal and opposite reaction should be radical suggestions like Brioux's. As the angry parent said to the recalcitrant child, "You brought this on yourself."
I still want to hear someone explain to me why, if we have ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and CW on our cable dial already, and the Canadian networks aren't going to make any homegrown shows at all, well...why do we need Canadian networks again? Really.
#netflixfkdup
45 minutes ago
4 rumbles:
I will get behind any revolution. I will even be Trotsky. Just tell me which basement the meetings are being held in. I'll even bring my printing press.
Let's nail them to the wall for stabbing us in the backs and selling our souls!
Well, I'm sure Lloyd Robertson would give you a long explanation as to why we need the Canadian networks, but since they produce precious little Canadian television I don't get it either. I do prefer that if I'm going to have to sit through commercials anyway, that they be Canadian commercials, and I do prefer Canadian news, but otherwise, I rarely watch Canadian television.
I'd prefer some whip-cracking by the CRTC over your question myself. Given what I've read about the possibly-incoming new chairperson, though, I fear that it won't happen yet.
If it were up to me, I would simply get rid of the simulcast rule. This ridiculous regulation acually encourages Canadian networks to air MORE U.S. programming by allowing them to piggyback their commercials on the simultaneous U.S. feed.
Think about it. If CTV airs an ABC program at the same time as ABC, they get to make money from every person who watches CTV as well as from every person who watches ABC during that hour. If they air a Canadian program in the same timeslot then, even if they get the same number of viewers, they only make half as much advertising revenue, because they don't get to add the people watching ABC at that time to their numbers.
The regulation not only favours U.S. programming over Canadian, it discourages the networks from airing any American programs that aren't already available at the same time on the most easily-available U.S. stations. We get less CanCon and less choice in foreign programs. What purpose does this serve except to give the Canadian networks a right to make money while providing no added value to the viewer?
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