Rogers Takes "Unprecedented" Pride in The Ignoble

FROM CITY TV's fall release:

Citytv Unveils Its Fall 2009 - 2010 Line Up

Citytv is pleased to announce a bold new schedule featuring some of the most anticipated and buzzed about scripted comedy, drama and reality series of the season.

"Citytv's line up this Fall is unprecedented with over 16 hours of US network simulcasts in prime time," commented Malcolm Dunlop, Executive Vice President, Programming, Rogers Media Television.

Well, Thank heavens for that! Hear that, viewers? Unprecedented! Meaning "exactly the same as available on another channel!"

In my book, the only thing unprecedented Citytv's done lately is this. And sadly, with the CRTC's record of rolling over for broadcasters, even that's not so unprecedented.

I was less than three months into this blog when I first wrote about the weird, prideful disconnect from Canadian programmers who thought that by buying shows, they were doing something great.

Four more years gone. Then, broadcasters were making money hand over fist and needed their CanCon obligations reduced. Now, the sky is falling, so they need their CanCon obligations reduced. Rogers talks out of one side of its mouth as a rich cabler, and out of the other side of its mouth as a broadcaster, and nobody calls them on anything. Well, except John Doyle, (and thank God for that) and the rotating passel of bloggers.

Unprecedented.

It's tough not to be dark about it. But I'm not. Because at a certain point, the behavior's so shameful that you just have to reframe, and come out of the cower stance.

So. Here it is. Right now I'm trying to stickhandle six scripts for a new show. I've written one, am rewriting another trying to get it down for production. Outlines are in play. Writers are breaking story. Character arcs, discussions of tone and what the audience will see and feel; all of this, all of it is WAY HARDER than sitting in a dark room and writing a cheque for someone else's creativity.

It's nobler work. It's harder work. We have nothing to apologize for. And if Daddy CRTC doesn't realize that, well, screw it. Do it for the craft. Do it for yourself.

That's what I tell my team, anyway.