WoW: It's been two years since I first said this...

and there is still no viable A.V. Alliance strat that starts with: "Kill Galv First. Rawwr!!!"

Please, please, stop charging his chambers like lemmings. Before it was just annoying, now it's just getting sad...

PS: Capping FWGY when it's being defended by 20, the RH isn't flipped and the later frequently undefended? Good job genius, you just put 20 Horde in the Keep. Nice of you to solve that for them.

PPS: Recapping SHGY in the middle of a Zerg where we've flipped IBGY, and the RH? Gee, thanks for spawning 20 horde at FWGY. That's really appreciated...

PPPS: I was going to try and finish off leveling my Druid in the BG's. Yeah. I'm quickly remembering why I largely haven't bothered with the places since BC...

Lazy Friday: One Take Edition

WGC to CRTC: Please look at the man behind the curtain...

Noting that money spent by broadcasters, both in total and as a percentage of Advertising revenue, on Canadian programming has decreased on a fairly regular basis (from $75M to $54M), since the CRTC decision in 1999 to remove expenditure requirements while money spent on US shows has nearly doubled (from $285M to $490M), The Writers Guild of Canada joins me in pointing out the obvious:

Should the current trend continue high-quality Canadian dramas will disappear from the air. CTV, Global, Rogers and the smaller conventional broadcasters would cease to be distinguishable from U.S. broadcasters and hence would no longer have a reason to exist.

So, they've provided their own set of guidelines they'd like the CRTC to enforce (from the document above), the baseline being:

A Canadian programming CPE for all conventional services owned by a corporate group, to be set at possibly 35% of gross revenues.

which would then be divided amongst Drama, Docs, and Children's Programming and include any "new" sources of revenue in a effort to prevent the sudden development of things like Internet distribution from stepping in and being abused because they're not specifically stated in the agreement. The immediate question raised by this suggestion is: how easy is it for accountants to cook gross revenues on the books when one considers the tendency for things in the entertainment industry to never show profit?*

The other main suggestion is:

Mandatory exhibition of all drama and documentaries produced under the framework at least once on conventional stations in the group between 8pm and 11pm, Sunday to Friday, within two years of availability. Mandatory exhibition of all children‟s programming produced under the framework at least once on conventional stations in the group at an age appropriate time within two years of availability.

to prevent the current practice of broadcasters purchasing shows just to prevent other networks from showing them.

More detail, including a rather detailed history of the networks whining and the CRTC behaving like all good committees and simply continuing to ask for input, at the link.

* One of the better examples of this from recent history is Peter Jackson's fight with New Line over his share of the "profits" from the Lord Of the Rings trilogy of films - a series of films which are estimated to have cost ~$300M to make and grossed over $1B at US theatres before DVD, ancillary, and foreign revenue was added in.

Lazy Friday: Let Your Inner Child Rock...

Things Left Unsaid: Perhaps that's why you're looking for Husband #3...

Her: "I mean, the entire purpose of a relationship is to help fix the other person, no?"

Me: ".... you're kidding, right?"

For future reference, every single one of these consists of something someone I was talking to said and what the infamous filter kept me from saying in response.

Lazy Friday

On The CRTC and "Local Television"

Understand the following: Being Erica isn't 'Local' Television. Flashpoint, also not 'Local' Television. ET: Canada. Nope, not 'Local' Television either. They're Entertainment programming by definition, Canadian made by happenstance.

'Local' Television is TV about your community. These days, on major networks, that basically covers the Nightly News. Now frequently banished to hours in which you're driving home, or 11:30 if you're lucky and enough of an insomniac to stay up past the National news at 11 to see what's going on in your back yard. Major networks don't, say, carry your local sports team anymore, CBC Hockey notwithstanding, while the various talk programs and community shows have steadily lost their time slots to Infomercials that generate money instead of cost money*.

So, functionally, in saving 'Local' television, you're basically paying to keep getting the News. Interestingly, in the US, Local News on affiliate stations is enough of a profit centre that Jay Leno is currently having nightmares about what happens if he drops below a 1 rating and starts biting into their profits. But then, they actually still know how to run a TV station there.

Here, the reality is that we've lost that. Our main networks are addicted to a steady stream of US produced programming to the point where, now that they control the vast majority of cable specialty channels between them, they believe a threat to withdraw said programming from the public is the best way to line up more cash. Not only that, but they look at the steady revenue from cable subscribers their "subscription" channels get and then declare that their Broadcast stations are a drag on their revenue because they're not as easy to leech money from. Oh, and the Canadian entertainment programming and 'local' programming? That's a Tax on their profits.

Which raises the question: if our TV providers believe producing News and Canadian TV is above them, that they need just be affiliates of the US nets in everything but name, then why not just let in the US Networks and be done with it? At least they still know how to make TV and it's not like they're going to be any more antagonistic towards Canadian Content than this crew...

Or, perhaps it's time to undo the mess the CRTC has created over the last few years and force the networks to divest themselves of the Cable Specialty Channels they think enable them to survive without running TV stations anymore.

*Interestingly, and I'm surprised the Cable Co's aren't making more of this, all those sports talk, high school sports, JR A hockey games, community events, Local style shows are sitting on Community Cable.