Comments on: CTV owes its viewers an apology http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/ Can you think of a better name? Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:36:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-115153 Fagstein Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:09:58 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=7159#comment-115153 Their campaign is now to keep pressuring the CRTC until a ruling is reached, and if that ruling isn't in their favour, to pressure the House of Commons and the government to overrule the CRTC until the broadcasters get their money. If that doesn't work, I think they're coming after grandma. Their campaign is now to keep pressuring the CRTC until a ruling is reached, and if that ruling isn't in their favour, to pressure the House of Commons and the government to overrule the CRTC until the broadcasters get their money. If that doesn't work, I think they're coming after grandma.

]]> By: Steve Hatton http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-115146 Steve Hatton Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:44:54 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=7159#comment-115146 "It started off by using CKX-TV Brandon as an example, making me wonder if proving a point in this campaign wasn't a big reason that CTV decided to pull the plug on the station so quickly." The latest Local TV Matters commercial (or at least I assume it's the latest as I've never seen it before) has a university professor from Brandon talking about the loss of CKX-TV, as an example of why we should support local TV. Which seems to imply that your theory was right all along. BTW: Why are these commercials still on the air in any case? In the beginning their raison-d’etre was to convince viewers to sign a petition before the CRTC hearings began. Now the hearings have begun and yet the commercials are still there. "It started off by using CKX-TV Brandon as an example, making me wonder if proving a point in this campaign wasn't a big reason that CTV decided to pull the plug on the station so quickly."

The latest Local TV Matters commercial (or at least I assume it's the latest as I've never seen it before) has a university professor from Brandon talking about the loss of CKX-TV, as an example of why we should support local TV. Which seems to imply that your theory was right all along.

BTW: Why are these commercials still on the air in any case? In the beginning their raison-d’etre was to convince viewers to sign a petition before the CRTC hearings began. Now the hearings have begun and yet the commercials are still there.

]]> By: Joseph R. Bertrand http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-108797 Joseph R. Bertrand Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:01:06 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=7159#comment-108797 I really have to wonder how any of the broadcasters and/or networks feel they can justify any sort of increase for the "joke" called services. Customers using cable, satellite, telephone, or any other form of signal to get programs delivered to a home for so called entertainment are either outright thieves and liars or are totally dilusional. they have one and all been ripping the public off since the very inception of the idiot box. When has the viewer ever had any real input into programing? NEVER!...DESPITE THE CRTC'S ADS ABOUT ENCOURAGING THE PUBLIC TO VOICE THEIR COLLECTIVE OR INDIVIDUAL OPINIONS IN REFERENCE TO WHAT PROGRAMS ARE BEING AIRED. Try telling the broadcasters or the cable and satellite companies that your having problems with reception and all one ever hears is basically "SO WHAT"...NOTHING IS PERFECT...AND NO...WE DO NOT REFUND THE CHARGES FOR OFF AIR TIMES SIMPLY BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE TO. Now the big noise is about saving "local TV stations" with a $10.00 tax. As it happens, where I live has no local TV station. The nearest Local TV station to me would have to be either Vancouver or Kelowna and to be quite honest, my interest in the goings on on either of those communities is extremely limited and certainly not anything I want to pay for. So why should I pay a tax for something I do not have access to namely "local TV". As to CTV or Global or the National News broadcasts, I figure I hear maybe 3 to 4 minutes of national news and thew remainder of the broadcast such as it is can only be described as "inter-national" news and even that segment is pretty well uninformative. The "national news" is actually repeated during the "local news segment" on both CTV & Global to the tune of about 40%. I now figure that any "real news" on either segment amounts to approximately 12 minutes combined once the commercials are factored in. So what the hell am I paying for monthly? And now they want me to pay another $120.00 a year for the same crap. I don't think so. If this tax is approved, I intend the withhold $10.00 from the statement each month, and they can whistle for it! Hell I already pay ridiculous subsidies for phone services, power services, fuel taxes, and the beat goes on. One view I hold is that all levels of governments benefit far more from broadcasting than the public ever will, so perhaps the governments should reconsider where they waste tax dollars now and instead of sending our tax dollars abroad by the ship load and spreading their selected propaganda across this nation through the various mediums, they should pick up the tab on this one and leave the struggling citizens of this country alone...just this once. J.R. Bertrand I really have to wonder how any of the broadcasters and/or networks feel they can justify any sort of increase for the "joke" called services. Customers using cable, satellite, telephone, or any other form of signal to get programs delivered to a home for so called entertainment are either outright thieves and liars or are totally dilusional. they have one and all been ripping the public off since the very inception of the idiot box. When has the viewer ever had any real input into programing? NEVER!...DESPITE THE CRTC'S ADS ABOUT ENCOURAGING THE PUBLIC TO VOICE THEIR COLLECTIVE OR INDIVIDUAL OPINIONS IN REFERENCE TO WHAT PROGRAMS ARE BEING AIRED. Try telling the broadcasters or the cable and satellite companies that your having problems with reception and all one ever hears is basically "SO WHAT"...NOTHING IS PERFECT...AND NO...WE DO NOT REFUND THE CHARGES FOR OFF AIR TIMES SIMPLY BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE TO. Now the big noise is about saving "local TV stations" with a $10.00 tax. As it happens, where I live has no local TV station. The nearest Local TV station to me would have to be either Vancouver or Kelowna and to be quite honest, my interest in the goings on on either of those communities is extremely limited and certainly not anything I want to pay for. So why should I pay a tax for something I do not have access to namely "local TV". As to CTV or Global or the National News broadcasts, I figure I hear maybe 3 to 4 minutes of national news and thew remainder of the broadcast such as it is can only be described as "inter-national" news and even that segment is pretty well uninformative. The "national news" is actually repeated during the "local news segment" on both CTV & Global to the tune of about 40%. I now figure that any "real news" on either segment amounts to approximately 12 minutes combined once the commercials are factored in. So what the hell am I paying for monthly? And now they want me to pay another $120.00 a year for the same crap. I don't think so. If this tax is approved, I intend the withhold $10.00 from the statement each month, and they can whistle for it! Hell I already pay ridiculous subsidies for phone services, power services, fuel taxes, and the beat goes on. One view I hold is that all levels of governments benefit far more from broadcasting than the public ever will, so perhaps the governments should reconsider where they waste tax dollars now and instead of sending our tax dollars abroad by the ship load and spreading their selected propaganda across this nation through the various mediums, they should pick up the tab on this one and leave the struggling citizens of this country alone...just this once.
J.R. Bertrand

]]> By: LC http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-104600 LC Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:31:54 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=7159#comment-104600 "Ask not what you can do for your government but rather what can your goverment do for you" LC The government is demanding too much from its citizens! Ever since it started charging for service charges! Why do you think we pay taxes ? Income tax, property taxes & the big LIE the gst! This is not to mentioned ALL the other prexisting taxes! Time has come for people to realize and do something about this! A few years back I became aware of a troubling fact while working for the city of ottawa. I learned that the federal government was stealing water from the city of ottawa, in the order of millions of dollars. It never appeared in the newspapers since it was settled out of court! This goes to what extent the government has gone corrupted and at all levels. The buck is just passed from one hand to the other( one party in power to the other). This is factual ! Astounding? Let us not forget that a government that operates in a surplus implies that it is profiting from its citizens! This is the major reason come at the end of each fiscal year the government is in a frenzy to spend all of its budget in order to justify replenishing itself. But in the meanwhile it finds ways to find new taxes, increase prexisting ones & have the audacity to add service charges and then slap you with the BIG LIE the gst. When are people going to realize that time has come for ACTION! While the 2 most important aspects of society (Education & Medicare) are being are being overshadowed by government fallacies or better known as PROPAGANDA such narcotics and the war overseas! pay the tv tax, I THINK NOT! "Ask not what you can do for your government but rather what can your goverment do for you" LC
The government is demanding too much from its citizens! Ever since it started charging for service charges! Why do you think we pay taxes ? Income tax, property taxes & the big LIE the gst! This is not to mentioned ALL the other prexisting taxes! Time has come for people to realize and do something about this!
A few years back I became aware of a troubling fact while working for the city of ottawa. I learned that the federal government was stealing water from the city of ottawa, in the order of millions of dollars. It never appeared in the newspapers since it was settled out of court! This goes to what extent the government has gone corrupted and at all levels. The buck is just passed from one hand to the other( one party in power to the other). This is factual ! Astounding?
Let us not forget that a government that operates in a surplus implies that it is profiting from its citizens! This is the major reason come at the end of each fiscal year the government is in a frenzy to spend all of its budget in order to justify replenishing itself. But in the meanwhile it finds ways to find new taxes, increase prexisting ones & have the audacity to add service charges and then slap you with the BIG LIE the gst. When are people going to realize that time has come for ACTION!
While the 2 most important aspects of society
(Education & Medicare) are being are being overshadowed by government fallacies or better known as PROPAGANDA such narcotics and the war overseas!
pay the tv tax, I THINK NOT!

]]> By: OnNousPrendPourDesCons.TV • Social Media Marketing et Vidéo Internet • Laurent Maisonnave http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-98598 OnNousPrendPourDesCons.TV • Social Media Marketing et Vidéo Internet • Laurent Maisonnave Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:54:11 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=7159#comment-98598 [...] et ses journalistes manquent d’indépendance dans cette [...] [...] et ses journalistes manquent d’indépendance dans cette [...]

]]> By: Steve Champlain http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-97983 Steve Champlain Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:47:14 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=7159#comment-97983 The best way for BDU's to get back at CTV and others would be to run ads overtop of their local programming, as they can control what goes out! It may be illegal, but if you have to fight fire with fire... this is the best way! The best way for BDU's to get back at CTV and others would be to run ads overtop of their local programming, as they can control what goes out! It may be illegal, but if you have to fight fire with fire... this is the best way!

]]> By: Disgruntled Viewer http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-96470 Disgruntled Viewer Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:21:09 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=7159#comment-96470 I watched that press conference in its entirety (as the CTV-owned CP24 showed every second of it) and was utterly disgusted by the self-serving spin from these hacks. And to load up soft-ball questions at the beginning from TV reporters whose stations were sitting on the dias was ridiculous. The lack of response time for the other side was also unacceptable for "news" organizations, as these channels are trying to pass themselves off to be. This whole campaign is beyond disingenuous. The broadcasters accuse cable of 'stealing' their programming and yet fail to acknowledge that the cable and satellite companies are MANDATED BY LAW to carry those channels. They do not have a choice in the matter. They also dismiss the idea of cutting down on the hundreds of millions of dollars they pour into American programming spends in order to pump more money into their domestic operations, preferring instead to whine to the CRTC for more money. It's also sickening that they present the loss of local TV as 'devastating' to a community, all the while ignoring the fact that people can get their local news in a number of other ways - by radio, print and online. No one's life is going to end because they don't have a CTV affiliate in their town. Shoot, half the 'local' programming is already generated out of major media centres as it is! I'm no fan of cable and their gouging ways but the fact remains that cable/satellite is a delivery mechanism (just like an antenna is) and that's what we pay for. That the Local TV Matters campaign is trying to make it out to be something else is simply beyond the pale. And despite what they say the money the broadcasters want to raise is not even specifically for the production of local programming - the CRTC has already mandated that cable and satellite co's contribute to a local TV production fund for small markets (look closely at your cable bill and you'll see the monthly charge for it)! This cash crunch they find themselves in has more to do with bad company management and overspending on acquiring other media properties (in CTV's case the CHUM network and in Global's case Alliance/Atlantis) at a time when they should have known better. I would note that neither Ivan Fecan nor any Asper has offered to forego their massive salaries to save their companies. They'd rather screw the little guy instead. I watched that press conference in its entirety (as the CTV-owned CP24 showed every second of it) and was utterly disgusted by the self-serving spin from these hacks. And to load up soft-ball questions at the beginning from TV reporters whose stations were sitting on the dias was ridiculous. The lack of response time for the other side was also unacceptable for "news" organizations, as these channels are trying to pass themselves off to be.

This whole campaign is beyond disingenuous. The broadcasters accuse cable of 'stealing' their programming and yet fail to acknowledge that the cable and satellite companies are MANDATED BY LAW to carry those channels. They do not have a choice in the matter. They also dismiss the idea of cutting down on the hundreds of millions of dollars they pour into American programming spends in order to pump more money into their domestic operations, preferring instead to whine to the CRTC for more money.

It's also sickening that they present the loss of local TV as 'devastating' to a community, all the while ignoring the fact that people can get their local news in a number of other ways - by radio, print and online. No one's life is going to end because they don't have a CTV affiliate in their town. Shoot, half the 'local' programming is already generated out of major media centres as it is!

I'm no fan of cable and their gouging ways but the fact remains that cable/satellite is a delivery mechanism (just like an antenna is) and that's what we pay for. That the Local TV Matters campaign is trying to make it out to be something else is simply beyond the pale. And despite what they say the money the broadcasters want to raise is not even specifically for the production of local programming - the CRTC has already mandated that cable and satellite co's contribute to a local TV production fund for small markets (look closely at your cable bill and you'll see the monthly charge for it)!

This cash crunch they find themselves in has more to do with bad company management and overspending on acquiring other media properties (in CTV's case the CHUM network and in Global's case Alliance/Atlantis) at a time when they should have known better. I would note that neither Ivan Fecan nor any Asper has offered to forego their massive salaries to save their companies. They'd rather screw the little guy instead.

]]> By: MM http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-96356 MM Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:03:13 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=7159#comment-96356 CFCF-TV 12 (oops!) I mean CTV Montreal as dictated by HQ in Toronto ran that stupid music video again at the end of tonights local news. It ate about 5 minutes into the local newscast. I guess that must he the cable companies fault that we got 5 minutes less of local news, local jobs. CFCF-TV 12 (oops!) I mean CTV Montreal as dictated by HQ in Toronto ran that stupid music video again at the end of tonights local news. It ate about 5 minutes into the local newscast. I guess that must he the cable companies fault that we got 5 minutes less of local news, local jobs.

]]> By: Horonymous http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-96338 Horonymous Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:37:59 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=7159#comment-96338 The less Dan Matheson the better. Never been impressed with his announcing and even less of his skill as an interviewer. No much there when he is off prompter. No surprise on CTV's objective spin on things. The less Dan Matheson the better. Never been impressed with his announcing and even less of his skill as an interviewer. No much there when he is off prompter.

No surprise on CTV's objective spin on things.

]]> By: Marc http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-96328 Marc Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:23:20 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=7159#comment-96328 We saw that music video last night right after <del>Pulse</del> CTV News at 6 and wondered what the hell it was. Since the news was over, I just turned off the TV about 40 seconds into it and proceeded to wash the dishes. We saw that music video last night right after Pulse CTV News at 6 and wondered what the hell it was. Since the news was over, I just turned off the TV about 40 seconds into it and proceeded to wash the dishes.

]]> By: MM http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-96315 MM Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:06:30 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=7159#comment-96315 You are correct to question all of this. Is this what we want to save? It may not be worth saving! You are correct to question all of this. Is this what we want to save? It may not be worth saving!

]]> By: TV Dude http://blog.fagstein.com/2009/10/08/ctv-local-tv-press-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-96313 TV Dude Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:45:24 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=7159#comment-96313 So if you are a reporter/anchor at channel 12 and you refuse to go along with this charade, do you get axed? Certainly there are some intelligent people there who can see this for what it is. I can't remember anything so shameful ever on Canadian newscasts than what CTV has been doing with the "Save local TV" farce. By doing this they are losing their credibility as journalists. Don't expect them to apologize. They don't think much of their audience. It's just so pathetic. So if you are a reporter/anchor at channel 12 and you refuse to go along with this charade, do you get axed? Certainly there are some intelligent people there who can see this for what it is. I can't remember anything so shameful ever on Canadian newscasts than what CTV has been doing with the "Save local TV" farce. By doing this they are losing their credibility as journalists.

Don't expect them to apologize. They don't think much of their audience. It's just so pathetic.

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