Save Local TV? Or Save Huge Media Companies?

BY NOW YOU'VE started to see all the "Save Local TV Ads" on your screens. (Wow, what do you think would happen if just once they had promoted a Canadian homegrown show that much?) For a different perspective, I direct you to this very interesting post by an admitted representative of several small cable companies.

Consider this. CTV and Canwest are publicly traded, for-profit companies. The first question is why should they be rescued at all? Should Canadians put money into their shareholders pockets? Should we permit a massive transfer of wealth from one set of for-profit companies to another just because one group yelled long enough?

Note that the main reason that the CRTC chose not to mandate these fees is that the conventional stations would not commit to ANY improvement or increase to local programming if they got the money (about $350 million this year).

The next question is, why should cable and satellite companies bail them out of financial difficulties that cable and satellite did not cause? If fragmentation of audience is the problem, why should cable pay to fix it?

The next question is, if cable and satellite customers are to be charged an extra few dollars on the monthly bill (which is, in all probability, where the money will come from) why should ONLY cable and satellite customers pay to save an over-the-air broadcasting system designed to push signals to the remaing 8% of Canadians who do not pay for TV at all?

If the system truly needs fixing, isn't that something that ALL Canadians should decide and then pay for? Isn't that a matter for Parliamentary debate and, then, amendment to our cultural and taxation policies?

And a final note: do not think for a moment that this is a one-time payout. First, the fees would be charged monthly, forever. Second, if the conventional broadcasters succeed in getting fees authorized, the next step will be incessant requests for increases to those mandated fees. Customer pays!

So now my "blather button" is really pushed. Honestly, the more I think about this, the angrier I get, as a cable representative, as a cable customer and as a Canadian television viewer.


Part 2 – Digital Conversion

As you may know, the US broadcasting system, by legislation, must go digital on June 12. That means that all over the conventional stations in the US must build digital transmitters (studio facilities and towers) for their signals.

As you can imagine, the US broadcasters balked at the cost of doing that. However, after some struggles, most, if not all, of the US conventional stations have now spent the money, gotten the job done and are broadcasting digital signals. On June 12, the analog over-the-air signals will shut down. Basically, the US is ready and it shouldn't be a huge issue.

In Canada, the digital cut-over is scheduled for August 2011. Under existing CRTC regulation -- that is, the law -- the Canadian conventional television stations MUST have digital transmission facilities built and ready for the cut-over at that time. The main point of the regulation here is that the CRTC does not want Canadians who presently get their signals only by antenna to lose TV service altogether when the analog transmission is shut down.

However, pleading poverty, the conventional broadcasters are now saying, regardless of their regulatory obligations, that they simply ARE NOT GOING TO DO IT.

So, at this time, the digital transition in Canada is pretty much up in the air. The conventional broadcasters will not divulge whether or where they intend to build any digital transmitters. Instead, they want the cable and satellite companies to solve their problem by distributing their signals for them, both to existing customers and to those Canadians who, today, do not subscribe to cable or satellite but take signals only by antenna.

However, despite the fact that they will again save hundreds of millions of dollars by avoiding their existing regulatory obligations, the broadcasters refuse to contribute ANY funding to solving the serious problem that antenna-only viewers will face when analog transmission shuts down or, for that matter, even to commit to delivering their signals at their own cost to the cable and satellite companies for onward distribution to Canadians.

Canada is beginning to lag the US seriously with respect to digitization of its broadcasting system. The conventional broadcasters are not helping us to catch up. Meeting the CRTC's August 2011 cut-over deadline appears less and less likely.

The whole thing is really worth a read.