The ball is dropping in less than 6 hours to ring in the New Year and I’m at home finishing my blog post on the CRTC Bonanza; sexy right?! This battle between broadcasters and the cable and satellite providers was my focus for December, so I’m really cutting it close to the wire to make sure that these posts all get archived in the same month and year.
I am incredibly passionate about this issue, I think that’s clear, but it has literally infiltrated every possible aspect of my life, in ways that I didn’t think were even possible. On nights out with friends we wind up talking about this issue in the back of pubs or the stoop of an apartment building. For the organization that I’m volunteering with, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of Canada, local television is important for promotion and publicity of local events and to raise awareness. As I sit down and write this, there’s not really anything on so I’m checking out HBO Canada on demand and just realized that I can’t wait to watch Bloodletting and Other Miraculous Cures. Each of these regular parts of my life – going out, volunteering, and watching tv – are affected by this issue.
So if you haven’t figured this out by now, let me spell it out: I AM ON THE SIDE OF THE BROADCASTERS because as they so eloquently stated in their ad campaigns, LOCAL TV MATTERS! However, the commercial campaigns that were mounted by both sides were so effective that in the beginning, my uninformed opinion would sway depending on which commercial I’d just seen.
Me: “Yah! Local TV does matter, how can the other side even claim to have an argument?”
Me (2 minutes later): “EFF THOSE GUYS!!! They want to TAX me?! No. Way.”
Oh yah, if you don’t know any better, it’s so easy to be swayed. And the reality of the situation is not enough people knew what was going on. So I wanted to find out what was going on… plus, as previously discussed, my dad forced me to. Once I knew who the players were and what they wanted, I noticed how many people had no idea. I would be out with friends and a commercial would play and someone would say “oh man, I better not get taxed for TV” and that would get it going. I’d explain to someone what the cable and satellite providers are calling a tax is really just the transfer to the consumer of the cost of the fee for carriage of the broadcasters content. The reaction is always the same: “So it’s not a tax?” This happened more than once.
No. IT IS NOT A TAX. When I *finally* got through all the layers of bull, I could not believe that the cable and satellite providers had the audacity to call the fee for carriage a TAX. The fee for carriage is the value that the cable and satellite providers should pay for the content generated by broadcasters, and they are camouflaging the fee that they would charge to their customers under the guise of it being a tax when that simply is not the case. It is a boldfaced lie, because a tax implies a charge from an authority (The CRTC – fair enough) where the money is to be used for public purposes, and that’s the lie. The fee for carriage is going to be transferred to the consumer and will be going to broadcasters for their content. It is entirely possible that the cable and satellite providers will not only pass on the carriage fee to the consumer, but also mark it up – think about it, when’s the last time Rogers or Bell provided something to you at cost?
In addition to infiltrating my social life, this issue may also affect my volunteering efforts. Local Television is important to community events, it raises awareness and helps call to action individuals and businesses in that community. I volunteer with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of Canada with event publicity for an upcoming fundraiser that will be held in Toronto. Local television will play a big factor in the days leading up to events to both sell tickets as well as helping raise awareness of Crohn’s and Colitis in the city. Local TV matters not only to those who watch it but to the people of a community, even if not everybody watches it. Local television can rally a community and be the catalyst to spreading good news and bad news and general information across all other media via word of mouth. I, for one, like to know what’s happening in my neck of the woods, and as much information as I can find online, I also know that it doesn’t give me everything the local news broadcast does.
I understand that the internet is the fastest way to get information these days, but I also think it’s important to note that in smaller communities, news typically gets overlooked in large national news coverage – particularly with community events and human interest pieces. These are all items that are covered in local news broadcasts and I think that some communities would suffer with the loss of local TV because they will not be as closely knit as they once were. The broadcasters provide communities with the glue that keeps them together, and I believe that we underestimate its importance with the emergence of online newspapers and TV channels.
Finally, my passion and the reason I firmly back the broadcasters is because Canadian content is at risk should the cable and satellite providers get their way. If the broadcasters are not provided with a fee for carriage and the ramifications of loss of viewership and as a result advertising dollars take place; it will be the end of original Canadian programming. Television does not define our culture; however it is undeniable that CanCon contributes to the way we are viewed around the world and within our own borders. This is should not be a matter of greed, but rather ensuring that original Canadian content available to all Canadians because I believe that fundamentally all Canadians deserve access to high quality programming that reflects our nature and talent.
Canadian television has a bad reputation, particularly among Canadians. However there have been huge inroads made to its improvement. Even CBC (which I thought was the MOST boring network when I was growing up) is creating high quality programming that millions of people are watching, and get this – it even produces a good sitcom (18 to Life), a great crime-solving drama (The Border), and an even better family drama (Heartland) among others… are you watching? Part of the reason we’re in this mess with the broadcasters and a fee for carriage is that people are not watching Canadian TV and would rather watch big budget American Network drama and comedies that do not have an ounce of Canadiana in it – unless of course it is to make fun of us. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy myself a good episode of Glee, FlashForward, or Dexter, those are all shows that don’t really have a Canadian equivalent, but I think that Canadian television is time equally well spent, and I feel proud whenever I watch great television that represents us as Canadians.
I hope in 2010, you give Canadian TV a chance. There’s great stuff you might not even know about, and my new year’s resolution is to do my best to bring to your attention some content which I think is great, along with stuff I think is not-so-great just so that you can form your own opinion. Start discovering what great stuff we have to offer, it’s a lot of fun, and you might just be surprised!
Also, apologies, I know I said I'd keep it short, but I obviously got carried away. I apreciate you sticking through that big long post!
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well put
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