Canada's major television networks are crying the monetary blues. Suddenly no longer the big fish in the small pond, they are finding that those annoying cable channels are not only luring away eyeballs but taking dollars out of their pockets.
So what do you do, when you find that your audience has migrated to greener pastures, well you ask for a share of the pie and a chance to increase the amount of commercials that you show on the programs that fewer seem to be watching. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
Seemingly unaware that it's the content that dictates whether you get an audience, the big networks are making plans to wreak their revenge. An increase of two minutes an hour in advertising, from twelve to fourteen minutes is one idea being tossed around, since the networks say the current twelve isn't enough, after they load the hour with promos for other programs.
The CBC wants the networks to receive fees from the cable and satellite providers, in effect having the public subsidize their product whether they watch it or not.
CTV came up with the wonderful idea of denying their product to the nation, suggesting they will find a way that won't let Canadians time shift their programming choices, a popular utilization of one's cable or satellite programming. That's a hell of a strategy, no you can't watch our show, too bad for you!
It's enough to boggle the mind the whining and sniffling of the culturally protected behemoths. They have had it so good for so long that the potential end of the gravy train has them positively apoplectic.
Corus entertainment finds itself in the unusual position of defending the beleaguered consumer, suggesting that should the plans being bounced around come to fruition, then the growth of the grey market satellite dish will return to the heydays of the early television revolution.
Frankly, I'm waiting for the day when I have complete control over what I want to watch, no tiers of five or six channels simply so I can receive the one I really want to watch. If the networks are silly enough to play hardball, one would think that the Canadian public will demand freedom from the regulatory hell we live in. If a channel or show can't survive because nobody is watching it, why should we subsidize it simply because a bloated industry wants us to?
One has the image of the big networks beginning to resemble that little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike. Technology is changing so fast that the dinosaurs of the entertainment chain don't realize that they are almost obsolete. Broadband streaming, mobile Internet connections, they all suggest a more consumer friendly future, whether the networks like it or not. On any given teenagers computer these days is some kind of program that surfs the net and downloads the latest television shows, regardless of borders, regardless of time and regardless of the hissy fits of network executives. Parents, prepare to learn from your offspring!
Perhaps these networks, many of which simply rebroadcast warmed over American programming as it is, should look in the mirror. If they were providing the kind of programming that Canadians wished to watch, then perhaps their bottom line wouldn't be out there seeking a street corner with a cup and red pen for the book keeping.
Rather than punish their customers as they seem determined to do, they instead should try to lure them back to their offerings by providing something that they may want to watch in the first place.
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