Canadian TV viewers have won a small victory against the likes of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and other control freaks who seek to shove Canadian content (cancon for short) down our throats. The Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has announced that it is easing some of the communistic Canadian content restrictions imposed on broadcasters in this country. Now, TV broadcasters will not be forced to carry any Canadian content during daytime viewing hours. The regulator has also said no to the cancon heads' push to make internet broadcast services like Netflix pay for Canadian programming, which would have raised prices for Canadian subscribers since Netflix and similar services would almost certainly pass on the cost of paying for Canadian programming to the consumer. But I'm not about crack open a bottle of champagne just yet.
The CRTC is still making broadcasters in this country carry 50% Canadian content during prime time viewing hours. In other words, we're still going to be stuck with a lot of mediocre cancon during the times that most of us are watching TV. And I'm sorry, but the fact of the matter is that there just isn't enough good Canadian content, no matter what your taste, so yes, much of what you will continue to see during prime time will be mediocre. So although Canadian TV viewers have chalked up a victory against Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and the like, it is a small victory. Canadians will only have total freedom to choose what they want to watch when ALL Canadian content restrictions are lifted.
We also need to the CRTC to give us the freedom to choose what channels to pay for and what not to. Up until now, cable and satellite providers have been screwing us by bundling channels so that we need to pay for channels we don't want to get the ones we want. The CRTC will also still enforce their mandatory carriage policy, which forces cable and satellite providers to carry certain channels, and will still make these providers fork over part of their revenue to pay for Canadian programming. These are all practices that cost Canadian TV viewers tons of money every year, which is why they need to end and end now!
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting? More Like Enemies of Canadian Consumers
The recent decision to ease Canadian content restrictions for broadcasters will surely raise the ire of special interest groups, like Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, since their agenda is to shove as much Canadian content down our throats as possible, and to make us pay for it whether we like it or not. Now of course, I understand that they're trying to protect the jobs of Canadian TV and film producers. The problem is that although they may be friends of Canadian broadcasting, they are enemies of Canadian consumers. In other words, they don't give a damn about what we the Canadian TV viewers want. They want more Canadian content restrictions and less choice for Canadian consumers. And if that's not bad enough, they want to use our tax dollars to subsidize themselves. Well folks, the fact of the matter is that these people have been subsidizing themselves with our money for years and I for one am sick of it! It's time for us to tell the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and the rest of their ilk to keep their mooching hands off our money and our TV screens.
No comments:
Post a Comment