tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7276416275173866739.post7264630842110822962..comments2023-09-28T08:18:00.204-04:00Comments on James Bawden: The Strange Death Of Canadian TVjames bawdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13179197282035331435noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7276416275173866739.post-71263855141159332902012-09-10T19:03:53.781-04:002012-09-10T19:03:53.781-04:00As a Toronto - returned to OTA - viewer, I would l...As a Toronto - returned to OTA - viewer, I would love to see Canada's TV stations open to foreign ownership! Just like GM, McDonalds, The Bay, TSN, Molsons, and Random House. Just because the CRTC rules have CanCon requirements shouldn't mean that only select established full-network Canadian owners may be allowed.<br />SUN News TV can't get fair access to Rogers analog cable (or an OTA licence); neither can Vision nor APTN (unless one's analog system can tune in ch. 96 & 129). Bell has Much, MoreMuch, and MTV Canada, formerly TalkTV, and its ever-alert NewsNet plus its CP24 takeover acquistion.<br />All of Ontario (and Ontario-specific) receives one lousy TVO station; PBS seems to be able to operate out of numerous small cities each with multiple subchannel feeds; we have the world's so-called greatest transmission tower.<br />Some Toronto fringe radio stations still need to emanate from other downtown buildings in low-power; I regularly receive clear a.m. signals from Chicago and New York City in the overnights. Whatever was the original point of building that CN tower?<br />Some U.S. affiliates operate without duplicating news delivery, but conservely, others are vastly more responsive to local matters. Poke around their 2nd-tier stations' schedules and you might just find an equal amount of Canadian Scripted Programming. Does anyone else realize the staggering number of TV signals, simply out of Buffalo, NY alone, as compared to Toronto?CQhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14812751573047844045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7276416275173866739.post-63696293395226007102012-09-10T08:31:19.909-04:002012-09-10T08:31:19.909-04:00Canadian productions will NEVER get pride of place...Canadian productions will NEVER get pride of place in the schedule until we shut down the carriage of NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX on our BDUs. There is no need for the US networks in Canada. What do they carry that is not available from a Canadian broadcaster? Without the need to simulcast to protect the programming rights, Canadian networks would have flexibility to schedule for the viewer rather than having to follow what the American networks schedule. But, sadly, I believe that will NEVER happen because of the lack of political will to do so. The much more likely result will be that the Canadian networks become so weak that we care less about them and they will be allowed to become full affiliates of the American networks. That is a reality that is much closer than most people think.<br />Trying to regulate how to schedule will not work. Freeing ourselves from being the only first world country that allows foreign broadcast networks complete access to our distribution systems as a priority would put us on the right road to finally having a real national BROADCAST industry that could and would embrace Canadian productions. But we better act before it is too late. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com