Barb Gustafson
Since Calgary’s football teams won two important games this week – but Saskatchewan is going to win this coming weekend in Regina! – it’s time to talk about something else. Editor Markham Hislop’s contribution on media subsidies spurred my own thoughts on that issue. Like everyone else, I’ve seen the ads on TV and in print warning of the demise of local television unless we all lobby our MPs for more funding for CTV, CBC and Global TV. And, there are the opposing ads from Shaw saying it’s just a ploy for more profits.
Also like almost everyone else, I would suspect, I don’t really know who to believe.
I do know that media outlets are already subsidized. CBC is highly, highly subsidized which is supposed to guarantee us Canadian content and unbiased reportage. I sometimes wonder.
I dislike CBC Radio (I can hear the gasps now from friends who are devoted listeners) because I find it to be high-brow and focused on items of limited interest. And, because the hosts seem to have voices that would put an insomniac to sleep. I just get angry when I listen to CBC Radio, thinking “and how many of my tax dollars went to this?”
My reaction is similar for CBC TV. I rarely, rarely watch it and then only for its original programming such as the Rick Mercer Report. If I want to watch Wheel or Fortune, Ghost Whisperer, or some outdated movie, which I don’t, I can get that on the originating American channel and without tax dollars supporting it.
But there are other subsidies out there, as well – CTV and Global get funding for Canadian productions, even if they are virtually indistinguishable from shows that might come from the States. They get the right to run their commercials over the American commercials on simulcasts, even for broadcasts like the Superbowl, where watching the commercials is part of the show.
In print, thousands of magazines and small newspapers benefit from federal government subsidies, again designed to help maintain our Canadian content. Especially for small-town newspapers, there are many which would fold without this government help.
But the part that really, really irks me about the “Save Local TV” ads is that, for a lot of Saskatchewan, the rallying cry is way too late. We lost our local TV a long time ago. Here in the third largest city in the province, our local programming has been reduced to about 5 hours a week, half of which is paid advertising of one sort or another, and which has all the professional appearance of a broadcast from someone’s basement.
I’m sorry, CTV, but you lost my sympathy when you decided Saskatoon and Regina were all you needed in Saskatchewan.
Global TV is no better, having never had a presence outside of the major centres and making even less effort to provide any news coverage beyond the borders of Saskatoon and Regina.
If Canadians want Canadian content, they need to make that choice with their eyes and their dollars. Give us a choice of having Canadian channels in our cable packages and see if we pick them and watch them. If not, well, then maybe you need to do a better job of giving us something worth watching.
More effort on that front, and fewer annoying ads about the need for more cash, would probably be a more valuable use of your time.
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