Fagstein » RDS

Ethics don’t matter on TV

Fagstein — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 06:23:58 +0000

A couple of disturbing stories have come to light recently about Quebec television broadcasters' attempts to censor things that might affect their bottom line.

The first was the revelation from La Presse's Hugo Dumas that producers of dramatic programming for TVA were being asked to not show characters using iPhones. This, apparently, because Quebecor owns both TVA and Videotron and Videotron doesn't offer the iPhone to wireless customers.

That prompted a reply from Quebecor VP Serge Sasseville that actually admitted Dumas's story was true, but said that this was simply a case of a sponsor (Videotron) wanting its products depicted in the programming it sponsors. He offers the example of Ford sponsoring Radio-Canada's series 19-2, and seeing Ford vehicles being driven in the show.

Dumas in turn replied to the reply, saying the argument seemed to suggest that Videotron sponsors all of TVA's programming, and calling that reasoning preposterous.

Interference from a broadcaster into dramatic programming for business reasons is bad enough. But as Sasseville's comparison points out, we're well past that point already.

The second story is the decision of RDS to refuse to show a commercial from comedian Mike Ward that makes fun of the Canadiens. To be precise, they refused to show the ad during Canadiens games.

Their argument, and it's a really stupid one, is that RDS is the official broadcaster of the Canadiens, and it's unacceptable that an ad that runs during Canadiens games makes fun of them.

Some have noted that RDS is now owned by Bell, which is a stakeholder in the Canadiens and owns the naming rights to the Bell Centre, among many commercial deals between the telecom giant and the hockey team.

Both of these moves are ridiculous, and both reek of giant media empires abusing their ownership powers to mold programming in one area so it matches the business interests of another.

It's not that many steps from this to each media giant having its own imaginary universe, each with its own set of maybe-true facts.

The Alouettes parade and the two solitudes

Fagstein — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 07:35:58 +0000

A TV camera setup for live coverage of the Grey Cup parade and party in 2009.

Last year, when the Alouettes won the Grey Cup with a spectacular last-second field goal against the Saskatchewan Roughriders (though TSN's placement of it as the #1 wacky CFL moment of all-time was a bit over-the-top), I went down to Ste. Catherine St. and the new Place des Festivals and joined in the party, taking a few photos of the assembled media. It was fun being in such a large crowd celebrating a pro sports championship.

This year, the Grey Cup wasn't as exciting. (I barely noticed it was over, looking up from my copy editing station.) And with the same parade-and-party planned, and the weather not looking too hot, I reluctantly stayed home to watch the coverage on TV.

Thankfully, there wasn't a lack of live parade coverage on television, but where it was covered and where it wasn't made it clear to me how geographically biased Canada's English and French-language networks are.

On the English side, both CFCF (CTV) and CKMI (Global) aired live parade specials, as they had last year. Some kudos are due to Global here, which has awfully few resources and doesn't even produce its own newscast. I've criticized the station for barely meeting CRTC minimums on local programming (and even then by airing repeats of their newscasts at 6am and 6:30am), for outsourcing their production and using a fake, misleading green-screen set, and even having a weatherman who's based in Toronto (but pretends he's in Montreal). So to be able to put together a two-hour live special, with Mike Le Couteur in studio, Richard Dagenais at the Place des Festivals and Domenic Fazioli along the parade route, must have been quite the feat for this tiny group. CFCF's special may have been technically better, but was half an hour shorter and replaced their noon newscast.

CBMT (CBC Montreal) didn't air a parade special. I can't remember the last time this once-great station aired a live local special event. A CBC camera was on site with local sports reporter Sonali Karnick, but it was only used to give some live hits for CBC News Network. Online, they had a webcast of the parade and party without any commentary or interviews.

I went over to the all-news and all-sports networks: CBC News Network, CTV News Channel, TSN and Rogers Sportsnet. I figured they all had good reason to cover this parade. It's not like anything else breaking was going on at noon on a Wednesday.

You know what I found? Nothing.

CBC and CTV's news channels were going through the motions, recapping the latest headlines. TSN was recapping the previous night's Maple Leafs game, followed by a broadcast of competitive darts.

Darts!

TSN, which two days earlier had been crowing about how it had 4.94 million viewers for the Grey Cup game (a further 1.1 million was watching on RDS), just short of the previous year's record, apparently thought that showing SportsCentre and darts was more interesting than a Grey Cup victory parade.

What annoys me most was how little effort would have been required to give this a national audience. Nothing important would have to have been pre-empted. And because CTV owns CFCF, CTVNC and TSN, they could have simply had the national news and sports channels take the CFCF feed for an hour and a half and shown the parade nationally as Montreal viewers were watching it. There are anglophone Montreal expats across the country, not to mention simple fans of the Canadian Football League (surely that 4.94 million wasn't all Roughriders fans, considering Saskatchewan's total population is just over 1 million).

CBC would have needed more effort, but even then it already had plenty of resources in place. RDI was covering the parade live, and Sonali Karnick was in place with a CBC camera and live feed. Would it have really been that much more difficult to just air the common parade feed and provide some colour commentary?

Montréal = français, Toronto = English

On the French side, it was the opposite problem: The cable channels had parade specials, but the local channels didn't air them. LCN, RDI and RDS all had specials lasting more than two hours. Radio-Canada and TVA stuck with regular programming, which at noon means newscasts. Brief stories about the parade, but no live special. V and Télé-Québec, well, they don't have news departments so I didn't exactly expect much from them.

Part of me wants to see the Toronto Argonauts win the next Grey Cup so I can contrast the coverage plans. Does anyone seriously believe that CTVNC, CBCNN, TSN, CP24, Sportsnet and the rest wouldn't give this wall-to-wall coverage if it was in Toronto? And, conversely, that LCN, RDI and RDS would all ignore it completely if it was anywhere other than Montreal (or maybe Quebec City)?

LCN, RDS and CTV are privately-owned networks, so they can do whatever they want. If they want to be homers for the cities their broadcast studios are located in, if they have little interest in covering any event that's not happening within 50 kilometres of their offices, if they want to be de facto regional news networks, that's up to them.

But CBC is publicly-financed, and their geographical bias really annoys me, particularly with RDI, which can often be mistaken for an all-Montreal-news channel. I realize that a large part of its market lives within the greater Montreal area, but as a national French-language news channel it has a mandate to cover the entire country, not just wherever they can get to on a tank of gas from the Maison Radio-Canada.

CBC should have been there. And if the Roughriders had won, RDI should have been in Regina.

You might think this is a silly discussion to have over something as trivial as a Grey Cup victory parade, but it's a symptom of a larger problem. We see the same decisions being made during municipal and provincial elections, or provincial budgets, or just about any other prescheduled major local news events. During the last municipal election in 2009, the local anglo stations couldn't be bothered to cut into their American programming, so updates were limited to their websites, the 11pm newscasts and the occasional news break during commercials. The last provincial election was better, but there was more national interest in that vote. That press conference of Alouettes president Larry Smith announcing his resignation? Live on RDI and LCN, but all but ignored by CTV News Channel and CBC News Network.

As local stations get gutted of their resources and national networks continue to figure out ways of centralizing the basic functions of broadcasting, the ability to do special event programming is severely reduced. And as those same network bigwigs continue to put competitive interests above their duties to serve national populations, these geographical biases from our national news and sports networks will only get worse.

You can re-watch the parade specials (or parts thereof) online from CFCF, CKMI, RDS (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10) and RDI

CFCF, RDS to get studio upgrades

Fagstein — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 05:56:14 +0000

CFCF's studio, from left: sports, news, interviews and weather

Studios for CFCF-12 and RDS at 1205 Papineau Ave. are going to change over the next year.

Staff of both networks in the building were informed Monday of a capital spending plan approved by CTVglobemedia. That plan will see CFCF's news studio move to what is now office space in the southwest corner of the building, after which RDS will setup two new studios where CFCF's newscast and RDS's Antichambre is shot now.

The move will be a welcome change for both networks. Outside of Canadiens games and Antichambre, RDS's studios look dull and cramped (even in my tiny TV set). CFCF, meanwhile, consists of an anchor desk, a smaller sports anchor desk, a table and two chairs for interviews, and a green screen wall for weather. It's also beginning to show its age.

Aside from a new look, CFCF's new studio will have "storefront" exposure, which means people walking by on the street should get a chance to peek inside and see it in action. It will also be "HD-ready."

But those looking forward to a high-definition newscast shouldn't hold your breath. The station's equipment will still need to be upgraded, and that's not in the cards yet.

"Our new facilities will be 'HD-ready', so when the time comes to convert the rest of the shop (cameras, editing, etc), the studio will already be wired and ready," said news director Jed Kahane. "But we don't have a date yet for the HD conversion of our news."

When I visited CFCF in September and asked him about a move to HD, Kahane said there wasn't anything in the near future, since frankly there isn't any serious competitive pressure from either CBC or Global to force the station to make such an expensive superficial change. (Kahane has since clarified that the station does want to move to HD as soon as it can, but that "other markets in the country, who don’t enjoy our success, may come first because they need it even more than we do.")

The full memo to staff is below:

Memorandum

To: All personnel, CTV Montreal and RDS

From: Donald Bastien and Gerry Frappier

Date: November 8, 2010

Subject: Big changes are coming to CTV and RDS in Montreal

CTVglobemedia has approved a very extensive and comprehensive capital spending plan that will lead to important changes in the facilities of CTV and RDS in Montreal.

This significant investment is a vote of confidence and major step toward improving our on-air products. It will strengthen our ability to compete and maintain our leadership in an increasingly deregulated and more competitive industry landscape.

After careful analysis and review of the needs of both CTV and RDS, the joint CTV/RDS working group has decided on the following changes:

The CTV News Studio will move to the southwest ground floor corner of the building, where CTV National and Globe & Mail Sales are currently located. This new space is slightly larger than the current CTV Studio, and will be completely rebuilt to house a brand new, multifaceted, HD-ready set. This location will offer "storefront" exposure with a totally refreshed design and look.

RDS will move into the existing CTV studio facilities on the ground floor, where multiple programs will share the space with a studio look RDS has until now lacked the facilities to achieve. Currently, only about half the actual floor space in this studio is being used by CTV for its on-air look (the other half is occupied by CTV CCU and l'Antichambre). RDS, with its upcoming projects, will maximize the potential of this area by creating two separate and independent studios in the existing space. This move will also allow the RDS newsroom to expand and upgrade its own studio facilities on the third floor for the benefit of both Sports 30 and its RIS network .

In short, this project will allow CTV to acquire a brand new HD-ready set and a brand new look in a very short time frame: The expected launch date is Fall 2011. And as a result, RDS will be able to execute its own strategic plan, using a space that CTV does not exploit to its full potential.

We have put in place a multi-functional team to carry out this complex project. There will be separate working groups for CTV and RDS, working individually on their respective projects, and together as required.

Daniel Bienvenue, who is currently a member of both the CTV and RDS management teams, will lead overall project, reporting to Gerry Frappier and Don Bastien.

Dave Maynard, Operations Manager for CTV and Joanne Provost, Director of Finance and Administration for RDS, will play lead roles.

Both teams will report to Don Bastien on matters pertaining to redeployment of office space or that affect other building leaseholders.

In the coming days, you’ll be seeing some new faces walking the halls of CTV and RDS. Please welcome them and know that they are there to help take both networks to the next level in their development. They will of course aim to minimize the disruption to our daily operations.

We are excited by this important investment in our collective future, and by the opportunities it presents. And we are confident that our respective businesses and their employees will be well served and supported through this period of transition.

We will keep you updated as plans develop and work proceeds.

Thank you in advance for your support, your cooperation, and your continued dedication to the top-rated programming of both CTV and RDS.

Sincerely,

Don Bastien and Gerry Frappier

Photos: Behind the scenes at the Grey Cup party

Fagstein — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:29:13 +0000

The local media came out in force to cover the Alouettes' Grey Cup parade, especially on TV, which really surprised me.

I was stuck in the crowd, but here are some photos I got of the TV media covering the party afterward.

The CTV tent

Brian Wilde with Damon Duval's insanely hot wife.

CTV and RDS tents side by side

Ken Connors in the Global TV tent (Global covered the parade mostly form their studio). The TVA tent is on the right.

Even cameramen need a break sometimes.

Production people contort themselves in odd ways to stay out of the camera's view

Wilde interviews Paul Lambert moments before he goes on stage. Lambert's a Montreal-born anglo so naturally a favourite of the CFCF crew.

Lambert taps Randy Tieman on the back to say hi. Alouettes players are much closer to the few reporters who cover them than Canadiens players are to the media circus that follows them everywhere.

The RDS crew turn around to watch the player introductions on stage. Good God those jackets are awful.

I believe that's Pierre Vercheval (a former Alouette) signing a football.

Rue Frontenac was there

Brian Wilde and a fan

A camera on a platform points toward the stage.

Little-known fact: Due to CBC budget cuts, Michel Godbout doubles as a delivery man for Quiznos.

Just kidding. He's a serious reporter man, after all.

Tania Krywiak gives a thumbs up at someone spelling her name correctly.

Als GM Jim Popp with the RDS guys

Cameraman at the RDS tent focuses on the big shiny thing on the table.

I see you on TV. Can we be friends?

There's this thing about local TV people, people want their pictures taken with them. I've never quite understood the concept.

But hey, as long as they're all having fun, who am I to judge? I go to parties and take pictures of TV reporters. We're all strange in our own way.

Alouettes parade to get live coverage on TV

Fagstein — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:19:03 +0000

Championships in Montreal are more rare than we'd like them to be, yet this year we've had two - the Impact and the Alouettes. (And with the Habs being shut out at home to the Leafs, a trifecta seems unlikely.)

Wednesday sees the players and fans meet to celebrate for the victory parade down Ste. Catherine St., from Crescent to Jeanne-Mance starting at 11:40am.

Surprisingly, despite it being a local event (and one coming with little advance notice), there's going to be actual live coverage of it by local television.

Here's what's been announced:

Global (CKMI) will have live coverage from 11:30am to 1:30pm (Mike LeCouteur with The Gazette's Herb Zurkowsky and the Q's Ken Connors). It will also be streaming the parade live at globalmontreal.com
CTV (CFCF) will have live coverage from noon to 1:30pm, preempting its entire noon newscast. Sports reporters will be in the crowd, Mutsumi Takahashi and Randy Tieman at the end of the route. Lori Graham and Todd van der Heyden will be in the parade itself. It will livestream the entire parade at montreal.ctv.ca
CBC (CBMT) has no announced live coverage
Radio-Canada will not have live TV coverage on the main network, but will be livestreaming the parade at radio-canada.ca/sports
TVA and V have nothing announced as far as live coverage
RDI will have a live special from 11:30am to 1:30pm. Simon Durivage hosts with Marc André Masson, Jean St-Onge, Jacinthe Taillon, Antoine Deshaies and former Als player Bruno Heppell
LCN has not announced anything, but expect it to give good coverage to the parade
RDS will have live parade coverage from 11:30am to 2pm (it's the only network to actually change its electronic and online schedule to reflect the coverage) with David Arsenault, Marc Labrecque, Pierre Vercheval and Denis Casavant.
TSN has not announced anything, but considering their current plan for noon is World Championship Darts...

So that's four channels carrying live TV specials (CFCF, CKMI, RDI and RDS), and three sources for live online streaming, at least.

Maybe what's surprising is that, in this local TV death spiral, I find this surprising.

(Of course, you won't be watching the parade on TV because you'll be on Ste. Catherine St. celebrating, right?)

UPDATE: CTV Montreal and RDS have archived footage of the parade and party afterward. The Gazette and Rue Frontenac have put together artisty videos.

Inside CFCF 12

Fagstein — Sun, 24 May 2009 18:57:26 +0000

Except, they don't call it CFCF-12 anymore. They call it "CTV Montreal", in order to comply with the "CTV [Name of city]" naming convention imposed by national office. Neither do they call their newscast "Pulse", because CTV wants it called "CTV News" (or, if you must, "CTV News Montreal"). And other than the newscast, which runs 19 times a week, there is no other programming produced at 1205 Papineau Avenue.

It's not exactly a velvet rope, but it contains the crowd.

But when CTVglobemedia told its local stations that they were opening their doors on Saturday, I joined a few young aspiring journalists for a tour of the station, my first time setting foot in the building.

Cindy Sherwin rounds up another group for a tour

Our assigned guide was veteran reporter Cindy Sherwin, who brought us upstairs to the newsroom to take a peek at how the cool reporters do their jobs.

Next time, I'll get a better shot of the newsroom.

Joined by Executive Producer Barry Wilson, Sherwin re-emphasized how the team wants to bring out "your stories", even those you might not think are good enough to get on the news (it costs nothing to throw away a press release, after all). Being a Saturday at exactly noon, the newsroom was pretty empty.

An editor shows a future journalist how stories are put together

CFCF's editing booths are where reporters and editors put voice and video together to create a packaged report. Avid, an industry standard, is the editing software of choice.

The "Feed and play" room

Next door to the editing booths is the "Feed and play" room, where video from tapes is entered into the massive computer system. It works in concert with the control room, where the newscast is actually directed.

You don't see these bars too often on air anymore

The coloured bars are used to set levels. Below on the right, a scope that looks like a staircase shows the levels of the various colours. When real video is shown, the scope looks like a wavy blur.

What's going on down there?

One of the video feeds shows the weather camera in the studio, where Lori Graham is showing another group how the green screen works.

Hugh Haugland (left) and Cindy Sherwin

It's not a coincidence. Hugh Haugland is Bill's son.

The control room is where the newscast is created.

Screens all over the place. Studio cameras, remote feeds, packages and anything else that might end up on screen is fed into this room where for an hour at a time chaos is brought into order. On the left is a station that deals with name supers, those little lower-third graphics that identify interview subjects.

CFCF's studio, from left: sports, news, interviews and weather

But, of course, the real tourist attraction is the studio, where the anchors sit and where the weather green screen is.

RDS Antichambre set

One interesting piece of trivia is that the new RDS show l'Antichambre has its set in the CFCF studio. Since that show airs after hockey games at about 10 or 10:30pm, there's little risk of concurrent broadcasts (though I couldn't help imagining them shushing each other if it did happen - there's a sitcom plot in there somewhere).

Camera 2 (which for some reason is under a blue light) has no cameraman, nor do the others

The three studio cameras are computer-controlled, which makes for smoother movement and more fine-tuned control, but lacks a bit of humanity.

Everyone in front of the green screen! (Inset lower right: What they look like with the weather map)

Weather has been done in front of green screens just about since they were invented. Lots of people got a hoot out of standing in front of a giant weather map.

Photoshop Lori!

An exercise for the reader: Insert your own image in the background.

I asked Graham how long her day is, since she's on all three newscasts during the day. Turns out she tapes her segment on the 11:30 late night broadcast after the news at six. But if the weather changes, they either need to drag her back in studio or have someone else do the weather.

Camera 3 is used for weather, and includes a monitor for the weather map.

Teleprompters aren't just text anymore, they can be used for pictures too. Along with the side monitors off camera, Graham can see what she's doing by looking directly into the lens. The only quirk is that it's not a mirror image, so weather presenters need to be trained that when they move to the left, they're actually moving to the right.

One of the younger viewers at the green screen (inset top right: what she looks like on camera)

This young viewer took a microphone and gave a thoughtful analysis of the financial pressures facing broadcast television stations, arguing that broadcast distribution units should pay small, nominal fees to broadcasters to support local television, but that this won't solve the systemic inequities between conventional television stations and specialty channels who have dual revenue streams without the burden of localizing programming.

Either that or she sang the alphabet song. I can't remember which.

The interview desk, being used by Team 990

To the left of the weather green screen is the interview area, where one-on-one sitdowns (usually for the noon newscast) take place. During the open house, there was a guy from The Team 990 doing what appeared to be a live broadcast about soccer. CKGM is owned by CTV, so it makes sense they'd share resources, but wouldn't a sound studio make a lot more sense for this kind of thing?

Also note the security guard, there to protect the host from screaming fans who want their moment of fame by getting on an AM sports radio station on a Saturday afternoon.

Todd van der Heyden and Mutsumi Takahashi at the anchor desk

Behind the anchor desk is a lot less elegant than the front. Fluorescent lights in the desk shine on the anchors, who have only their drinks, laptops and cough buttons to play with.

Bright lights dominate the view from behind the desk.

The cameraman was there to do a story on the open house itself.

Todd van der Heyden likes to lean back and play it cool.

He's relatively serious on air, but Todd van der Heyden is a lot more laid back (literally) when the cameras aren't rolling. One of these days he's going to lean too far.

Todd van der Heyden is thinking.

Even though they weren't going to be on air (the weekend crew was handling the newscast), Takahashi, van der Heyden and Graham were in full costume and makeup. I'll leave it as another exercise for the reader to suggest what he's thinking about here.

Dominique Jarry-Shore and family with the news anchors

Since everyone wants a photo with the anchors, they had a professional photographer in the studio and lined people up to take pictures with Todd and Mits. Say cheese! Click! Click! Next!

Imagine having to smile for photo after photo for hours at a time.

The CTV mascot shows Todd the love

The mascot (named "Jellybean" for some strange reason) came on set and fooled around with people. I asked it to give van der Heyden a big bear hug, and both happily obliged.

If local television dies, this is what we'll be losing, folks.

Star reporter Rob Lurie with a fan

Brian Fantana Rob Lurie stopped by to show the love with some admirers. I'm not sure who looks more adorable in this picture, but it's definitely a close race.

Jack Layton and reporter Annie DeMelt

Annie DeMelt was the reporter actually doing the story on the open house. NDP leader Jack Layton walked in while we were there, and DeMelt pounced on him for an interview. Unsurprisingly, he said the government should ensure that local television has a future, though he didn't take a position specifically on fee for carriage.

I couldn't help noticing DeMelt was in heels.

I admit I have an anti-heel bias, even though I've never worn them myself. I always find it a bit silly, especially when you're never seen on camera below the chest.

Jazz hands!

This guy, who actually works in marketing and admitted he didn't know much about the equipment (other than its million-dollar cost), managed to muddle through a tour while the expert was out back. UPDATE: I'm told he's George Goulakos, the national sales president at CTV.

Depending on location and other factors, the truck will send its video out via microwave link or via satellite.

The control panel on the remote truck

And you think your remote control is confusing.

Maya Johnson (centre) at the refreshment stand

Outside, free soft drinks were being handed out. I picked up a can of coke. Does that ruin my journalistic objectivity here?

As the tour ended, and visitors put their "save local TV" postcards into a box to be mailed to Ottawa, I was asked if I'd been sold on fee for carriage. Except nobody mentioned that during the open house. I remain to be convinced.

Pictures from CTV open houses in Edmonton and Vancouver are on Flickr.

News coverage of the events seems to be mostly limited to CTV itself, with the exception of this story from the Ottawa Citizen (which includes a gallery), and a Canwest News Service piece that uses the word "protesters", which I think is a bit of a stretch. I didn't see anyone holding signs.

There are also more opinions about fee for carriage - some for, some against, some mockingly against.

Oh, and did I get on TV in DeMelt's report?

ME!

Why yes, yes I did. My parents are so proud.

UPDATE: For anyone interested, CTV has raw video of the interview with Justin Trudeau.

RDS, check your standings

Fagstein — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:14:58 +0000

Sportnographe spots that RDS's Canadiens page doesn't have Montreal in the playoffs. (Montreal and Florida had identical records, but the tiebreaker is points against each other, and the Canadiens prevailed there 6-3 with two wins, a loss and an OT win)

Anyway, Habs in four, right?

Guy! Guy! Guy! Bye! Bye! Bye!

Fagstein — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:27:19 +0000

For those wondering, RDS had the scoop (and more importantly, the Twitter scoop) on Bob Gainey firing Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau. They've cut scheduled programming of extreme winter sports on RDS and replaced it with a feed from its RIS all-sports-news network. A press conference is scheduled for 7pm.

Both RDS.ca and The Gazette's Habs Inside/Out website are experiencing unusually high loads and are noticeably slow.

CTV/Rogers announce Olympic lineup

Fagstein — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:57:03 +0000

The consortium of private broadcasters headed by CTV has announced a huge lineup of play-by-play announcers, news anchors, former Olympians and other analysts who will travel to Vanvouver and Whistler for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It also tells us what networks coverage will appear on.

In English, the team is headed by Olympic veteran Brian Williams, who left CBC in 2006 after CTV won the rights to the 2010 Games. English Games coverage will be carried on CTV's main network, CTV-owned TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, Rogers-owned OMNI, Rogers-owned OLN (Outdoor Life Network), and ATN, along with Rogers radio stations, CTVOlympics.ca and the Globe and Mail.

There's also, I'm sorry to say, entertainment (eTalk/Ben Mulroney) and music (MuchMusic) reporting to go along with it. (I'm not quite sure how much music-related coverage there can be of the Olympics, but whatever...)

In French, the team will be headed by Canadiens play-by-play man Pierre Houde and Olympic broadcasting veteran Richard Garneau. French Games coverage will be carried on RDS, RIS Info-Sports, the Aboriginal Peoples' Television Network and ... TQS.

There's a certain irony in TQS being part of the deal. Its participation predates its bankruptcy and change in ownership, going back to when it was part-owned by CTVglobemedia. At the time (2005), TQS was supposed to be the primary broadcaster of French Olympic coverage. Now it seems clear that, even if TQS is going to have original Olympic programming and priority for the big-ticket events like hockey, the main network behind coverage in French is RDS.

TQS also has another problem: Unlike Radio-Canada (and to a lesser extent TVA), it doesn't broadcast outside Quebec. So francophones outside Quebec who don't get TQS or RDS on cable or satellite (let's for the moment assume this is a nontrivial figure) are out of luck. On the plus side though, apparently a deal has been worked out to give cable users outside Quebec free access to RDS and TQS during the Games.

Meanwhile, advertisers are noting the highly inflated rate card CTV is using to make up for the $150 million it spent to secure rights to the 2010 and 2012 Games.

Broadcasting regulation nerdgasm

Fagstein — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:20:36 +0000

The CRTC got real busy last week making some big announcements/decisions/suggestions about television broadcasting regulations. Many of them are boring, minor or technical, but here are a few that aren't:

Over-the-air carriage fees

The big one for broadcasting companies like Canwest/Global, CTV, TQS and Quebecor is the decision to reject the suggestion that "broadcast distribution units" (i.e. cable and satellite companies) should be required to pay fees to TV broadcasters who broadcast over the air freely.

This idea came out of the whole TQS saga, when the network's owners decided that it needed the ability to somehow blackmail cable companies into giving them money. Since cable specialty channels get per-subscriber fees in exchange for their content, shouldn't broadcast networks - whose budgets are supposedly higher because they need to produce local news - get money too?

The flip side of the coin is that these network broadcasters are broadcasting freely, using public airwaves. Cable and satellite companies are required by law to carry local broadcast channels on their basic packages. Subscribers don't get any added value from getting over-the-air stations on cable (except, perhaps, not having to deal with rabbit ears), so why should they have to pay for them?

The CRTC's decision was tough (emphasis mine):

CTVgm and Canwest proposed that any FFC only be made available if broadcasters meet monthly local programming requirements. However, they did not commit that the FFC, or any portion of it, would result in incremental spending on Canadian programming.

While OTA broadcasters have shown a recent decline in profitability, they, as other enterprises, might first look to their own business plans before making a request for increased revenue from the Commission. In the Proceeding, no business plans suggesting new sources of revenue were provided to the Commission. Neither the rationale for strategic initiatives by OTA broadcasters, such as recent major acquisitions, nor the basis for financing those initiatives or the impact of those initiatives on profitability were explained to the Commission at the public hearing.

The CRTC did cave on one point though: It said that so-called "distant signals" (e.g. CTV Vancouver for us Montrealers) should be able to "negotiate" carriage, in order to offset the trouble that this time-shifting business has caused. What that effectively means is that broadcasters can set rates for out-of-market broadcast stations and simply not allow their channels to be carried on other regions' cable networks unless they pay their fees.

Broadcasters are happy with the parts of the decision that give them money, and unhappy with the ones that don't. They're for less regulation in the broadcasting industry, but they want corporate socialism for the "ailing" over-the-air broadcasting sector.

TV packaging

The CRTC wants to streamline rules for TV packaging to make it easier for subscribers to choose what they want to see. The basic rules would still apply: A basic package, which includes things like CBC Newsworld, RDI, CPAC, etc. would still be required, porn channels can't be packaged with non-porn channels, and more than half of all channels in a subscriber's lineup must be Canadian.

Another point of contention is over so-called "U.S. 4+1 signals", which permit cable operators to carry four nearby stations of major U.S. networks (usually ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX) and a PBS station in their lineup. Recently, this was expanded to allow a second set of such signals for time-shifting purposes. Providers use this to offer east-coast and west-coast feeds of these networks.

Tellingly, the Canadian networks aren't happy about U.S. stations being allowed to broadcast their U.S. programming when they're trying to broadcast the same U.S. programming:

CTVgm and Canwest, in their final written submission, requested that the Commission simply prohibit the distribution of the second set of U.S. 4+1 signals.

A slight compromise would require subscribers to have corresponding Canadian stations to their out-of-market U.S. ones. For example, if I wanted to add the Seattle stations, I would have to also add the Vancouver stations to my lineup.

Local programming

The CRTC took broadcasters to task for the fact that they're not investing in local news:

The Commission’s own data demonstrate that private broadcaster spending on local programming has been flat since 1998. Between 1998 and 2007, the spending on local programming by English- and French-language commercial broadcasters increased by 22.8%. However, as the growth in the consumer price index (CPI) during this period was 22.1%, there was no real increase in local spending. This contrasts with spending on non-Canadian programming, which, after adjusting for CPI growth, increased by 61%, as well as spending on other Canadian programming, which increased by 8.3% over the same period. The data indicate an inability or unwillingness on the part of OTA broadcasters to invest in their local stations.

The Commission has also examined broadcasters’ spending on local programming by market size. In the six metropolitan markets with a population of over one million, spending on local programming, after adjusting for the CPI, has increased by 11.8% since 1998. However, in markets with a population of less than one million, local program spending has declined by 15.6% since 1998.

In other words, CTV and Global have more money than God with which to buy simulcasting rights to House and American Idol, but are constantly tightening their belts to the point where weathermen have to be shared.

Their solution, naturally, is a new government-controlled fund that people are forced to pay into that will be used to subsidize local news in smaller markets.

In addition to the 5% of gross revenue they have to put toward community channels (like Videotron's VOX network), cable and satellite providers would have to add an extra 1% which would go to a Local Programming Improvement Fund. This fund would be distributed to TV stations in small markets to get them to produce more local news.

This extra tax would be levied on the oil companies cable and satellite providers, whose profit margin the CRTC estimates at 40% and 17% respectively. Because they're making so much money gouging customers with their monopolies with their efficient service, the CRTC expects that the oil companies cable and satellite providers will simply absorb the cost instead of passing it on to the consumer. Yeah.

The other problem is whether or not this fund could be used by the CBC. They have plenty of stations in small markets. But then, if the CBC could make use of the fund, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (of which the CBC is not a member), which would administer said fund, would be in a conflict of interest. And then it gets complicated.

The idea for this fund sounds good-natured, but I wonder how much of it will actually go to local programming and how much will be used to line the pockets of the broadcasters' parent corporations.

Despecialization of specialty channels

One decision that seems to be welcomed by all parties is a very common-sense one to lessen the regulations on two genres of specialty channels that have become competitive: news and sports networks.

Currently, all specialty channels have genre protection, which means we have one comedy network, one weather network, one history network and one science-fiction network (in each language). As the number of channels increased, these genres became more specialized. One science channel became different channels for health and nature. One sports channel became a national sports channel, regional sports channels and sports headline channels, as well as channels for individual sports. One news channel became a news channel, a headline news channel and a business news channel.

News and sports, even if they are not supposed to directly compete, have been effectively doing so for years now (TSN vs. SportsNet, CBC Newsworld vs. CTV NewsNet, RDI vs. LCN). The CRTC's decision reflects reality, and opens up the field to more competition. New channels in these genres are more than welcome, as long as they play by the same rules (i.e. CanCon).

In addition, specialty channels will no longer have to apply to the CRTC every time they want to add a new programming category (like Discovery did in January to add game shows). These categories specify what kind of programming (news, sports, documentaries, dramas, comedy, etc.) each channel can select from (the subject of such programming should still fit the channel's genre), and are usually specified with maximums and minimums as a condition of license. Generally, channels are severely limited in terms of things like feature films, sports and music unless they are meant to focus on those things, to prevent a channel from going to the cash cow too often.

Instead, the CRTC suggests a standard provision that channels be able to take up to 10% of their programming from these categories:

Long-form documentary;
Professional sports;
Drama and comedy;
Theatrical feature films aired on television;
Animated television programs or films; and
Music video clips and Music video programs

Taming the VOD squad

Video on demand is such a new technology that even the CRTC realizes the existing rules are way out of date. And because even the industry has no idea how it wants to do things, the CRTC is sending out an "anyone got any ideas?" public notice for comments. Among the issues are whether VOD providers should be able to include advertising, whether packaged "subscription VOD" should have CanCon requirements, and what kind of competition regulations VOD should have.

Honestly, there's already a VOD service that has no regulation and a wealth of Canadian content. It's called the Internet.

But still, the fact that my Videotron VOD library contains only TVA and VOX programming (Quebecor owns TVA, VOX and Videotron) kind of bugs me, and it would be nice if the effects of media convergence weren't so obvious there.

You can read all about these crazy decisions in the CRTC's massive public notice.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere:

Patrick Lagacé likes cable competition
Bill Brioux thanks the CRTC for not fleecing customers to pad TV networks' pockets

Hockey Night is dead. Long live RDS

Fagstein — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:43:26 +0000

So there you go. CBC's Hockey Anthem Challenge winner, out of almost 15,000 entries submitted, is Colin Oberst's Canadian Gold. The one with the bagpipes. Hockey Night in Canada made a big thing about it, with loud congratulations from Don Cherry. And Oberst takes home a $100,000 cheque.

UPDATE: CBC has posted the announcement, new theme and a season intro montage in Quicktime format.

With the new theme comes new intro graphics as well. This season, rather than go the classic route of showing hits, goals and saves, CBC has gotten its computer graphics department on overdrive, recreating classic moves so they could look at them from impossible angles (even simulating Bobby Orr's Stanley Cup-winning goal, which created the best sports photo of all time). Unfortunately, this kind of computer animation still has a long way to go, and it just ends up looking like they're showing scenes from EA's NHL 09 video game.

Meanwhile, on RDS, the original Hockey Theme reigns. They paid a lot more for it, and their re-recording doesn't sound as good as the most recent CBC version, but it still sounds better. It's still the one with that special place in our hearts.

Real Canadiens fans have been watching RDS for years now. Even Leafs fans have moved to TSN or Rogers SportsNet. Many people I know turn to CBC to watch the opening theme and switch to RDS for the play-by-play.

Now, with the hockey theme on RDS, does Hockey Night in Canada have any purpose anymore?

Pat’s back; the new RDS; Hockey special section

Fagstein — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:38:06 +0000

Gazette Habs beat writer Pat Hickey, who disappeared for a month to get his knee replaced, is back in time for the beginning of the regular season (this is how hardcore he is - he schedules major surgery around the Canadiens' playing schedule). His first Standing Pat column back on the beat explains his recovery process and mentions the sympathy he now feels for athletes who have to keep themselves in shape.

Pat also participates in the first episode of the Habs Inside/Out PuckCast, which returns for a third season.

Meanwhile on another page, Stephanie Myles (who with Dave Stubbs has been covering the Canadiens in Hickey's absence) has a feature on the RDS guys, Pierre Houde and Benoit Brunet, the latter replacing Yvon Pedneault as the play-by-play analyst. Near the end it goes into Pedneault's dismissal:

But both Houde and Brunet said they were surprised Pedneault got the axe.

"I didn't know it was in RDS's plans," Houde said. "That's what's happy and sad about our line of work, we're all freelance workers who work together. And as Benoît has said, it's like a hockey team. Your linemate is traded, or retires, or he becomes a free agent. You stay and work with someone new."

Given the superhuman ratings during last year's playoff run - close to 3 million viewers - Brunet also didn't see the decision on Pedneault coming.

"I wasn't expecting it," he said. "But the phone rang. I always said I'll wait, and when they give me the sign I'll be there. It happened this year. I was surprised."

The article also goes in depth about technical and programming changes for the new season.

Myles Someone who may or may not be Myles, what with this byline strikyness, also writes a sidebar about anglo Canadiens fans watching French broadcasts (and vice versa).

Finally, today is the first appearance of The Gazette's new roughly-monthly Hockey Inside/Out special section, which includes in-depth coverage of the advertising goldmine very popular Canadiens. Eight of them will be produced over the coming centennial season.

The special section includes an article from Mike Boone on how the Habs Inside/Out site was born (it was an idea of Editor-in-Chief Andrew Phillips), as well as the usual season-preview fare.

CTV’s new Hockey Theme

Fagstein — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 03:04:22 +0000

CTV has released its re-recording (with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) of the Hockey Theme (i.e. the ex-Hockey Night in Canada theme), which will be used on RDS and TSN hockey telecasts starting Oct. 10 and Oct. 14, respectively.

Here it is (MP3). TSN also has a story with video about the new theme.

Perhaps I should wait until it actually goes on air, or maybe it's just my computer, but it sounds like elevator music compared to the rough-and-tumble CBC version.

The press release, which says it "revisits the original 1968 version" also gives plenty of praise for how awesome they think it is:

We’ve taken great pride in blending the heritage of the song with the best digital technology available, creating a stunning rendition sure to resonate with hockey fans across the country.

Colour me unimpressed.

RDS relives when we used to be good

Fagstein — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:06:41 +0000

Bored?

As part of its Grande semaine de hockey, RDS is replaying Game 5 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Final. A game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Los Angeles Kings (complete with Wayne Gretzky). It follows a live game today where we beat the Kings 5-2.

The game footage, which doesn't have an on-screen clock (most of the time) or scorebox or all the other stuff we take for granted nowadays, is "enhanced" with some Pop-up Video-style trivia tidbits and jokes.

I won't spoil how it ends, but somehow I think it'll be a happy day.

The game will be followed by a one-hour documentary special looking back at the last time the Habs went all the way, 15 years ago.

UPDATE: Show's over. For those who missed it, this is what happened.

RDS goes black, will it go back?

Fagstein — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:43:06 +0000

In one of those moments that marketing geeks wet their pants over, RDS apparently agreed in December to cut out the visual feed for 10 seconds of its Sports 30 recap of a Canadiens game, replacing it with an ad for the Quebec Foundation for the Blind which was mostly a black screen. The audio feed was left as is.

I can find no news coverage of this feat, nor anything from RDS, so I'll just have to take the word of the marketing agency that this actually happened.

I suppose with all the product placement, pop-up ads and other junk that increasingly attacks our television viewing experience, something like this is inevitable. Let's just hope this idea isn't expanded to commercial advertising.

(via iPub)

RDS now in HD

Fagstein — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 07:13:07 +0000

RDS's HD channel launched today with the first regular-season game of the Canadiens (we won, by the way). The network plans over 1,000 hours of HD programming in the first year (an average of 3 hours a day for us idiots who can't do basic math), including full HD coverage of the entire Habs season and playoffs.

The channel is available on:

Videotron Illico HD channel 633
Bell ExpressVu channel 863
Cogeco cable channel 540 (only in Quebec)
StarChoice channel 266

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