In March 2010, Saskatchewan TV producers gathered outside the offices of SCN in Regina to protest a threatened closure of the public educational broadcaster by a cash-strapped government.

On Tuesday, the same producers received word from Rogers Media of an unspecified tangible benefits package in the works after the broadcaster unveiled a deal to acquire SCN and turn it into Citytv Saskatchewan.

Rogers Media broadcast president Scott Moore isn’t indicating what his company will pay for SCN, which largely dictates the size of a tangible benefits package.

But Moore tells Playback Daily that SCN’s current owner, Bluepoint Investment Corp., still has expenditure obligations outstanding after it acquired SCN a year ago.

Moore says Rogers Media will harmonize that local production spend with its national Citytv expenditures to indicate to the CRTC tangible benefits for yet another change of ownership for SCN.

He adds that Citytv Saskatchewan is ready to receive pitches from local TV producers for projects that could potentially secure a national Citytv audience or land on one of the broadcaster’s specialty channels, such as FX Canada.

“A percentage of overall [programming] revenue will go to [Citytv] Saskatchewan, and producers will have access to pitch us programming for other platforms,” Moore says.

Rogers Media is also promising capital investment in Citytv Saskatchewan, including offering a first-time high definition signal for the provincial TV station.

Photo: Wat Suandok / flickr Creative Commons