Summary
1That's not the way the debate is being framed, but it is what it may all come down to. Canada's biggest private broadcaster CTV has mounted a very effective campaign asking for audiences to write to their local member of Parliament to "save local television". The way CTV, its competitor Global and, to a lesser extent, the public broadcaster CBC see themselves alleviating their financial crunch is to get a share of the revenues taken by the cable, telephone and satellite companies: Shaw, Rogers and in Winnipeg, MTS.
Local television in smaller markets is threatened because the local advertising base is no longer big enough for it to be more than marginally profitable. That's why CTV plans to close or sell stations in Windsor, Brandon and Wingham and Global has its E! Channel on the block. Televised local news and sports produced by professional crews in the smallest markets has been marginal for some time. What has changed now is that markets as big as Winnipeg are becoming threatened. Hence the CTV campaign. How threatened? It's difficult to tell. It's hard to imagine, for example, that broadcasting a CFL game out of Winnipeg isn't profitable. News organizations everywhere, however, are being undermined by free information on the Internet.See the full content of this document
Extract
How to Save Local Television
One way or another, viewers pay for programs
1That's not the way the debate is being framed, but it is what it may all come down to. Canada's biggest private broadcaster CTV has mounted a very effective campaign asking for audience...See the full content of this document
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