Food for thought

Banff is looming and no one wants to think about anything but elk-tipping, golf and either being an impassioned producer or dodging impassioned producers. Just a few questions then, to discuss on the patio.

– Maybe it’s cable’s wacky sense of humor. Just as Rogers Communications czar Ted Rogers told the audience at the Canadian Cable Television Association convention that new specialty channel applicants should plan for digital and a la carte distribution, the press release announcing CTV Sports Net’s fall launch (complete with 40% Rogers ownership) was coming off the fax. Do the Access Rules have any teeth in this particular area?

The question is how long will cable be allowed to continue deceiving the crtc about the space crunch, while repeatedly finding analog for services in their own interest?

Among other things, a hard definition of ‘undue preference’ needs to be established, one which puts the onus on cable to prove otherwise. More importantly, one which has a mechanism triggered when the cable ownership at the point of licensing and the cable ownership at the point of carriage are two different things (e.g. Headline Sports). Inquiring minds still want to know who owns Cable Pulse 24. Or rather, who will own it a year from now when the attention to cable self-dealing tapers off.

– Why would cable advocate a la carte? Mr. Rogers warned it would mean less money for the channels since consumers would choose to pay for fewer of them unbundled. Wouldn’t it then mean less revenue for the cable companies too? Seems a strange marketing practice. Then again, specialty marketing savvy isn’t exactly Rogers’ bailiwick.

– CanWest Global’s purchase of Fireworks Entertainment is worth a few words.

Just for the sake of argument, let’s say Fireworks finances a program internationally (read: industrial), and Global can count it as Cancon. Why would they do something other than act to fill a quota and support the company they own? Feels like an hour of primetime on one of the major networks just got locked up.

– It’s the same kind of question about the fall season lineup on the Alliance Communications-owned Showcase. Offering Due South, Taking The Falls, Counterstrike, Destiny Ridge, Black Harbour and Once a Thief, a Canadian drama series will be telecast in primetime every night of the week. Excellent.

However, Alliance is producer or coproducer on five out of six of those series. Did producers and distributors have a fighting chance at selling programs for those slots? And although there’s an argument to be made that Due South and Black Harbour are in place because they’re excellent programs, there can’t be any reason to bring back Taking The Falls, other than you own it.

As for all the feature film slots on Showcase and History Television, with Alliance’s new deal with cof (Canadian rights to nearly 300 titles) and Artisan (Canadian rights to over 2,600 titles), it feels like more doors closing.

– Why is it that NYPD Blue is acceptable programming on Bravo! but Canadian news-based satire is pulled off Newsworld?

Some very thin lines are being straddled in the programming department. Word has it complaints are running fast about live news coverage on Headline Sports and News 1. Now tsn and CTV Sports Net are knocking heads.

tsn has a deal to broadcast 20 Montreal Canadiens games to viewers east of Toronto. A similar Maple Leafs deal for local viewers is expected. Isn’t tsn supposed to be a national service with Sports Net having a licence to program regionally? The question is how and to what degree will the program categories contained in the specialty licences be enforced going forward?

Happy trails.