There are only self serving and lying bastards on all fronts in this pissing contest
at the CRTC hearings! Clowns in politics and clowns in the media business.... cons at the con-conference.
This is only about how to gouge more money out of the Canadian Consumer in order to protect vested corporate interests when what it should be about is Canadians having the freedom to choose how they spend their money
For starters lets look at our media corporations...
The same clowns who would have you believe that they have no bias and present a fair and balanced view of the world to your home would have you believe that they are the champions of something they call "Local Broadcasting".
As if this is the issue that they are arguing about in their efforts to secure still further government support for their existence!
These jokers were once located in every city across Canada with TV and radio stations that offered local presence and local content. Since the 1970s the CBC has continuously scaled back and eliminated local market operations to focus on their "National" operations based in Toronto.
They are NOT and have no intentions of being a local broadcaster in any sense of the term. They represent very little of what is Canadian outside of their own little clique of employees and a minuscule number of devotees.
To have them argue that they deserve a payoff from the carriers who distribute their signals to Canadian homes is as twisted a piece of prevarication as has ever come from the mouth the most glib con artist. The fact is that the cable carriers already pay them for their product and that the consumers are not buying and advertising revenues are going down the toilet. Further, it is a fact that without the cable carrier access into the consumer homes the CBC would have an even narrower audience.
As things stand the CBC should be paying the cable operators for the privilege of using the bandwidth but since they are nothing but beggars and feeders of the public trough they have nothing to offer. Never mind the billion$ annual cash injection we taxpayers are forced to contribute. Never mind the forced distribution of their dubious product through Canadian content regulations and never mind the money from the Canadian broadcasting fund... your cable carrier should now be robbed to pay them still more. And if you have even the most rudimentary understanding of commerce you will understand that this means YOU pay.
The CBC laughably suggested this week that the cable companies also be forced to provide a lean channel package that would be lower cost. Sure ... lots of people would be happy to have a pared down channel package and skip all that costly extra programming access. Of course the Can Con rules would make it mandatory that the CBC product be included in that package.
Same story for CTV .... although without the $B annual guaranteed funding thanks to the federal government. CTV is part of the
Bell Globe Media and just happens to have it's very own access network to the millions of Bell telephone and digital TV customers and it's Bell Satellite operations across the country.
Not just a content producer is Bell .... but a direct competitor of the Cable and Satellite operators ... that just happens to be another con at the con-conference. Demanding that the government force their competitors to carry their product and pay the vigorish on top.
As for Global .... a joke in a pack of jokers .... scraping the bottom of the pond like a diseased carp for any offal that might have sunk into the muck.
And what of the cable and satellite operators?
Just the hogs on the other side of the public trough. Sure they are private businesses and sure the stakeholders have put billions of their own money into the infrastructure and sure they pay for the product they carry to your home. But that is where the free market stuff ends and where the consumer gets it in the ear.
Not one of these operators allows the consumer to choose what the product purchased contains.
They all complain that they are bound by the CRTC rules but they all lie about how these rules affect them. In fact the carriers have repeatedly supported the status-quo in regard to programming content and consistently offered only lip service to placate consumers over complaints of price fixing and gouging. The carriers also do not need the three Canadian broadcasters in any way shape or form. Demand for the the offerings of the networks is at an all time low and going down steadily. Except for the mandates of the CRTC the cable operators and the satellite operators would not be wasting their bandwidth on these losers. The operators who service a significant proportion of their customers with fully digital systems know every time a set top box is switched on and what channels are selected. They have the ability to collect all the data they need on the viewing habits of their customers and they know damned well that the customers are NOT watching CTV/CBC/Global.
Although the cable operators rightly assert that the media content producers are attempting a new cash grab through government mandate , they are anything but the staunch defender of the consumer as they have attempted to paint themselves.
None of them ... not the Networks and not the Carriers are concerned about anything but maintaining and improving their hold over the market and the consumer. Which makes all of them baldfaced liars.
As for the government and the CRTC who are supposed be looking out for the citizens of this nation.... I have not heard one bit of sense or concern for the consumer or the tax paying public come from these quarters. Granted the CRTC is only supposed to be arbiter ... BUT the problem is that they are pandering to the corporate players and treating their obligations to the public as extraneous nuisance.
And that is what really has me steamed.
These cretins need to be reminded that they are to SERVE the public interest and one way or another they are going to be reminded of that. Until the government of Canada and the CRTC are willing to take a stand on behalf of the people who they are supposed to serve then Canadians have NO one speaking for them in this arena.
What the HELL are we paying taxes for?
Canadians have told the CRTC and every polster who has ever researched the issue of content and cable fees that what we want is CHOICE. We want to decide for ourselves what channels we receive and when we watch them and we want to pay for WHAT we watch and not the arbitrary selection we are forced to take along with our personal choices.
Send an email to your MP ... regardless of what party they stand for.... and give them a reminder of who they are supposed to be working for.OMMAGLabels: Business, Canada, CBC, Clowns in Politics, MSM
