Monthly Archives: September 2008

| TV

CRTC Roundup: Shaw seeks CNN International license

Shaw Communications has asked the CRTC to add CNN International to the list of eligible channel imports for Canadian cable and satellite companies. Canadian viewers’ exposure to CNNI is currently limited to the British-sounding people they sometimes hear behind an anchor desk during a noon-hour show or when breaking news happens late at night. The programming is distinctly different from CNN’s U.S. channel, and obviously focuses much less on U.S.-specific stuff.

The CRTC’s notice suggests it is ready to approve the channel, since it doesn’t compete with Canadian networks and is unlikely to have any program licensing issues.

No HD for you

Also from the CRTC this week is a denial for a new channel called Canada HD Network, which I mocked back in July. Back then I suggested the CRTC would likely deny the request unless it got much more specific about programming. Otherwise it would compete with conventional general-interest broadcasters.

Sure enough, there were objections from CTV, Canwest, Rogers, Astral Media, The Score and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, and Canada HD Network was shown the door. Similar decisions were made against its Diversion channel in high-definition and standard-definition (which were for some reason filed separately)

New HD channels coming

The CRTC has approved high-definition versions of the following CTV-owned specialty channels:

  • CTV Newsnet
  • Business News Network
  • MTV Canada
  • Comedy Network
  • travel+escape
  • Outdoor Life Network

This is only the first step in the process. The HD channels must now be created and CTV must negotiate with carriers to have the HD versions added to their lineups.

Good news, bad news for CMT

CMT Canada (Country Music Television) had a few requests for amendments to its license:

  1. It wanted to make changes to the categories of programs it can air, by adding animated programming and improv/stand-up comedy, by increasing (slightly) its cap on drama/comedy programming and by removing restrictions on the number of feature films it can air (though those films must still feature country music artists). All programming would still have to fit in with the country music theme and fit existing limits on non-music-video programming. Since no opposition was voiced and the proposed changes are not huge, the requests were approved.
  2. CMT wanted to change the criteria by which videos are deemed “Canadian” to judge only the music and not the video itself. For music video television stations to consider a music video as Cancon-compliant, not only must the music be produced/written/performed by a Canadian (similar to the criteria radio stations use), but the video itself must have been produced by Canadians. This means that a Shania Twain music video wouldn’t be Cancon if it was entirely produced in the States, even though the song itself counts as Cancon for radio stations. This request was denied because it would change policy across the board.
  3. CMT wanted to change its required financial contribution minimums. Currently it must spend 22% of gross revenues, half on creating new Canadian country music videos and half on creating new (original) programming. It wanted to shift the balance toward programming and away from videos. Partly this is because CMT is less of a music video station (its requirement dropped from 90% to 50%), and partly this is because it would have to spend less of that remaining 78% on original/Canadian programming to meet CRTC requirements if it could shift that budget over. This request was also denied, as the CRTC pointed out that CMT’s revenues have gone up and the network is hardly in a financial crisis.
| TV

Télétoon Rétro launches

Videotron Illico subscribers get their first taste of Teletoon Retro on Channel 97 (French) and on Channel 159 (English). (Data for the channels apparently haven’t been input yet into the on-screen guide, but the channels are live.)

Teletoon Retro was initially approved by the CRTC back in 2000, when all the networks were scrambling to come up with new specialty channels. It was then re-approved in 2005, when Teletoon actually wanted to launch it. The English version launched last year, and the French version launched today, hence the inclusion of both on Videotron’s Illico service.

In case it’s non-obvious, Teletoon Retro is a classic cartoon network, with repeats of Spider-Man, Scooby Doo and The Jetsons, Rocky & Bullwinkle and others.

Sadly (and curiously), the channels are not being offered as free previews to subscribers. Instead, Videotron has added the channels to the popular Anglo and Franco packages, and both to the digital Telemax package at no extra charge. (This means your humble correspondent gets access to the anglo version but not the franco one.)

UPDATE (Sept. 9): Richard Therrien points out that the franco channel doesn’t have much home-grown cartoons, and prefers to have dubbed Bugs Bunny instead.

UPDATE (Sept. 11): Therrien adds that Bell TV (formerly ExpressVu) has no plans to add the channel in the near future due to lack of interest.

| TV

Where’s Leo?

Corus Entertainment has completed its acquisition of specialty channel Canadian Learning Television (CLT) from CTVglobemedia for $73 million, and has been operating it effective Sept. 1.

I mention this only because on that same day, reruns of The West Wing disappeared from CLT’s schedule, replaced by Judging Amy. I imagine this came as a surprise since The West Wing is still being advertised on CLT’s website, which also still carries CTV branding.

Does Corus not like the idea of a Democratic president and his staff?

Sadly, because CLT was pretty useless for anything else, this will probably mean the end to our relationship. Time for that channel lineup shuffle I’ve been putting off…

| Uncategorized

Want to work for the Journal?

Catch pedophiles. Tailgate the transport minister. Discover the evils of being hired as an anglophone. Follow ceremonial appointments and complain about how they’re so ceremonial.

Those are among the selling points, apparently, of being hired as a reporter for the Journal de Montréal. And if such … let’s call it “journalism” … appeals to you (and you write well in French), you’re in luck: Montreal’s biggest newspaper is hiring.

Check your dignity at the door and send an application to Gazette turncoat traitor managing editor George Kalogerakis.

UPDATE: I see I’m not the only one to notice this.

| In the news, Opinion, TV, Video

Hurricanes suck

I admit, I get a perverse pleasure out of people who are the creators of their own misfortune. Tragedies in the classical sense. Not necessarily causing death, but at least causing inconvenience. Hurricane Gustav created two examples of this, and the victims are our favourite punching bags: politicians and the media.

The first comes out of the video above. A few weeks ago, Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family posted a video online in which he half-jokingly suggests that Christian Conservatives pray for rain during Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at an open-air stadium. They say they never meant for it to be taken seriously, but it was, and the video was pulled (the one above is a copy).

Of course, there was no rain the night of Obama’s acceptance speech, and the Democratic convention went off without a hitch. But the day after, as John McCain was announcing his vice-presidential pick, we start hearing about this hurricane headed for the Gulf Coast. Toward New Orleans. Three years almost to the day that Katrina struck.

Oh the irony. It almost makes me believe in a god, as it did Michael Moore.

The second example comes from our good friends at CNN. When Barack Obama announced his VP pick, CNN filled the airwaves with news and analysis. Responding to a viewer comment via Facebook (oh how the media has changed, folks), anchor Rick Sanchez says this on air:

By the way, I have to share this with you. It is from Sam. He says, Rick — this is on Facebook — I’m counting on you to do the same kind of coverage when McCain announces his vice president as you’re doing tonight when Barack Obama has announced his vice president. Sam, we’ve already made that decision. I can guarantee you we will.

No caveats, no ifs or buts, just a bold guarantee. Of course, neither CNN nor the other news networks are coming close to meeting that guarantee for the convention. Half the news about Sarah Palin was surrounded (literally) by hurricane updates, and the convention coverage is being threatened by it. Even the convention itself is changing plans at the last minute to deal with people (like President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal) who can’t speak.

I actually feel a bit bad for the Republicans. It’s not their fault this hurricane hit with such horrible timing, nor is it their fault that Bristol Palin got pregnant. If they lose in November, it should be because of the issues, not because the campaign was derailed by … well, acts of God.

| Montreal, Opinion, Public transit

Vaudreuil screwjob

Hey, remember back in June when I told you about that AMT contract to run two new express bus routes with crazy perks like air conditioning? And then two months later everyone hears about it for the first time (thanks to a press release) and is immediately outraged, saying this is “two-tier transit” and it’s illegal demanding it be scrapped?

Well you’ll be pleased to know that the Quebec government has done exactly that, bending to municipal pressure (and unions) and putting the kibosh on the project, mere days before it was to go into service.

Actually, it’s not really suspending it. Instead, the minister has taken the contract from Limocar and given control of the Vaudreuil line to CIT La Presqu’ile, which serves local transit needs of the western shore.

Of course, that’s what should have been done in the first place. The regional transit authorities around Montreal all have express buses going onto the island, including the RTL, STL, CITSO and companies that run transit in towns you didn’t realize had transit systems. Even CITPI has routes that connect with the STM network at John Abbott College in Sainte Anne de Bellevue. Why spend gobs of money on a private contract when you can just let the local transit authority handle it?

And even if we concede that the AMT needed to hire a company to run this route, why the requirements for air conditioning, Wi-Fi access and the rest that instantly disqualified the transit companies from the process? The government has been clear in the past that air conditioning is a luxury and they won’t pay for buses to have them. So why did AMT get special treatment?

Mentioning the delay between my reporting in June and the decision this past week isn’t just to make me look good. There are consequences to going back on decisions like this. Limocar went through a fair bidding process in good faith, and now they’ve been screwed over. It’s unclear whether they’ve spent any serious money setting this route up, but even if we just count the manpower they spent on the bidding process, that’s a lot of resources for something that has turned out to be irrelevant.

In other words, expect a lawsuit to develop out of this, or expect Limocar to get some serious cash in severance costs.

And, of course, all that is money out of our pockets.

All because people complained about a contract after it was awarded instead of when the ridiculous requirements were announced.

| In the news

GRN: 1

Congratulations Green Party on selling your soul to a corrupt Liberal reject in a desperate bid for legitimacy getting your first MP into the House of Commons. Of course, negotiating for an independent to join your party is entirely different from actually having someone win an election under your party banner, but it’s a first step anyway.

Now, as André Pratte asks, does this mean we have to let the Greens into the party leaders’ debates?