Canadian executives will soon be winging home from a week of buying up all the new American product for the fall or so says Etan Vlessing of The Hollywood Reporter, always an impeccable source.
What's that, you might say. Hasn't CTV been running ads on all its stations crying the poverty blues amid dire warnings local TV is in danger of extinction.
But that didn't stop CTV from plopping down cash for such new shows as The Forgotten and Miami Trauma both from executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
CTV also forked over big bucks for a new Disney series Flash Forward and renewed contracts on such high priced returning shows from Desperate Housewives to CSI franchises and Grey's Anatomy.
Guess with so much U.S. fare coming up on CTV's local TV could really be on the back burner.
Similarly Global and Canwest went on a binge of "Buy American" with purchases of such new shows as Brothers, NBC's Community and three Fox comedies: Glee, Cleveland and Sons of Tucson.
Canwest also nabbed CBS's The Good Wife and the CBS spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles.
Next year the CRTC is threatening new programming rules that would force Canadian networks to spend at least as much on Canadian series as they do on U.S. imports which can already be seen on American border stations.
And about those CTV ads which say cable companies take their signals without paying for them: it's cable coverage that guarantees a strong CTV signal in your home. The cable companies also go along with simulcasting meaning incoming U.S. signals get blacked out and Canadian ones substituted if the program is the same.
It's a very big reason why there's so little local programming on both CTV and Global. There's precious little Canadian content left on CTV schedule after all those American shows are added every season.
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