Le Devoir today has a series of articles about the 15th anniversary of Canal D, the documentary/educational network launched on Jan. 1, 1995. About half are subscriber-locked, but there's some open ones worth reading:
- A piece about Canal D's programming, which includes a brief mention of my favouritest show ever, Mayday. Mayday is produced in Quebec for both Canal D and the Discovery Channel, and with the help of its massive tax credits, is exported to countries around the world.
- A blowjob discussion of owner Astral Media's branding strategy. It says it likes to give each network its own brand and let it do its own thing. (Apparently that logic doesn't apply to its radio stations.)
- A look at how the documentary filmmaking industry has changed with the digital media revolution.
Stéphane Baillargeon also discusses the changes happening at Canal Savoir, which turned 25 this year.
Re the digital doc story, I know there's been a lot of buzz around the NFB's iPhone app. I don't have one (I don't even have a cell phone) but the thing is free and CNET's been gushing over it.
The whole thing is a Canal D publi-reportage. And Canal D can't compare to european ARTE-TV, BBC...my nickname for it is Canal Déchet.
Certainly they have a fraction of the budget of those other nets. My guess is that if Canal D is compared to others of similar size, they'd come off looking pretty good.
Cheap or not, it's still crap.