We get it CTV. You’re broke. Bell Globe Media had a terrible fiscal year (more appropriately the paper biz had a terrible year), and everything’s tight. However, those beg-a-thon ads need to stop. You don’t hear CanWest/Global crying like a child. You don’t produce local content, unless you consider two fundraisers a year and the nightly newscast that chronicles the stories from everywhere but Halifax (Upper Jemseg is a pretty hopping place from what I hear, plus all of those handy-dandy wire stories from ABC or CNN) local. Not to mention, all of those “CTV original programming” shows produced at HQ in Toronto. Oh, wait. Are those Conservative/NDP/Liberal attack ads locally produced? Maybe I should rethink this…
—Local My Ass
This article appears in May 14-20, 2009.
Awesome bitch! Hear hear!
BUT WHAT ABOUT LIES AT FIVE????!!!!????
These are the people that took a locally owned and operated set of stations (ATV and ASN) and ran it into the ground as CTV and the A channel. Now they’re whining about saving it? Everything was fantastic when the shoe was on the other foot.
what the fuck is the “A” channel? Is that ASN? I can’t tell.
“A” is ASN now…it’s weird though because there’s an “A” channel in Toronto that shows some global shows like 90210….same logo too. I’m pretty sure anyway — I saw ads in the subway for the “A” channel and 90210 *shrug*
That’s because the A channel used to be a CHUM station. Now that CHUM is owned by Bell-Globe Media, it’s a CTV station, and you see the shit that CTV doesn’t want to air.
FYI, this is not a local issue. It is Canada wide. If you live anywhere outside Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton or Winnipeg, you will not recieve local news. We have seen smaller local stations close one by one across the country. Don’t expect the government to jump into the fray anytime soon..CRTC are partly to blame. Goverment are not huge media fans, so no reporting of what they are up to at the small city, town and rural level is mouth watering the them. It will interesting to see how this plays out.
aren’t these the channels that still get thrown for free over the airwaves?
(at least for the time being)
Flyingbrick writes, “If you live anywhere outside Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton or Winnipeg, you will not [receive] local news.”
Did this escape from the side of your head against your will or is it just a convenient imaginary “fact”?
Is this one of those things that has happened for a long time but that CTV is bitching about only now?
Where’s Wolf blitzer on this? An hour long supper hour news programme for Halifax – it could be covered in less than 5 minutes. Shooting in Spryfield/Preston/North End * delete as applicable. Politician makes another fucking inane announcement. Weather fucking sux – end of news, now back to ANYTHING more interesting.
I can’t help myself and just have to say it… Halifax evening news is right on par with Toronto and other large Canadian cities plagued by crime. Big city problems yet no big city. Maybe “it’s” in the water, eh?
Kay…”Did this escape from the side of your head against your will or is it just a convenient imaginary “fact”?”
WTF?
and…”Big city problems yet no big city.”..an even louder WTF!!??
yeah, when the paper has only one article in the metro section, you’re not going to get a full hour out of that. the rest would be nearly unbearable.
be happy it is the way it is.
FYI, the “A” channel refers to ATV vs CTV.
Kidnapping, armed robbery, highway shootouts, gang wars… come on. These are big city problems in a fairly small population, as far as cities go… that’s what I mean. The evening news blows my mind just as good here as it did in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver… but I’m happy to say my little town in ON has plenty of local news sources including television as do many smaller towns across the country. (brick… not from my imagination nor “the side of my head”… get it ow?)
aren’t atv and ctv the same thing? this is so confusing
Actually brick, The A Channel is a CHUM station that started in Edmonton. It’s just another re-branding that CTV has done. They use channels like that to air mostly syndicated programs, and some stuff that CTV regularly airs, but can’t fit into a time slot because of conflicts. By the way, CTV is to blame for most of the small town closures, mostly due to the fact that shut down these small stations about 10 to 15 years ago, and consolidated them to the city centres. The CRTC wants competition in the marketplace (remember the TSN debacle?) and isn’t to blame. What’s really amusing is that they blame companies like StarChoice and Eastlink, but there is absolutely no mention of Bell-owned companies (i.e.: Aliant and Bell Satellite). Save for the nightly local news, they do not produce anything local. Name me one TV show that is produced locally by CTV, and there might be some weight to the argument.
Um…not really Kay..perhaps I should type slower? I also have lived in most of the large cities in Canada, and some small ones. My point was, that small towns, and rural centres are quickly losing local content. Last time I checked, Kirkland lake or Wawa does not have their own televison station. They rely on cable feeds from larger centres. The fight is to keep stations like ASN on the air. This is Canada wide, not just here, that was my point. People want local content that affects them directly. Do not take your towns local newspaper or TV feed for granted..time are tough in the world of media, and they are looking to cut.
Nope, I don’t get it ow? The side of my head? Huh? Is that a little town Ontario colloquailism? I lived in Orleans for seven years, and never heard that one. Anyway, you don’t have to concern yourself about the bloody carnage wreacking havoc in Halifax. You are all snug and safe in rural Ontario. Hey, where I come from, was voted by Macleans, as the most dangerous, murderous, crime ridden region of Canada ( the “wet” coast) second only to Saskatoon..they’ll keep trying though ;~)
Sorry Dr. Fever, my bad, I foolishly was quoting the Wikipedia information from the parent company BCE…sorry..led me to believe “A”TV was the atlantic flavour of “C”TV, produced and funded by the same company. Sorry ’bout that.
no brick, I’m stuck here in the HRM for a while longer… would like to see things change and am doing my part smiling at all these mean mother fuckers. Don’t get your shit in a knot over a sticky “n” key, just use your imagination… get it Now?
Thanks for saying what you mean. Sounds like it didn’t come from the side of your head this time.
What gets me about all this is, they want the cable companies to start paying to pick up their signals, yet you can get the signals yourself without having cable (i.e.: antenna attached to your TV)….cable is expensive enough already, this will only jack up cable rates even further when you can get the SAME stations for free with an antenna. If I was the cable companies I’d drop them all together — no one’s going to bother switching to an antenna to watch lies at fucking five, so there goes ad revenue! That would be quite the lesson, wouldn’t it?
It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and as much as I do enjoy watching local television stations, aside from the local news they’re kind of pointless if you think about it: most programming on local stations comes from the national feed — especially prime time television so…really, our lives won’t be altered to any great degree if one or more of these stations went bust. I’d still get to see all the shows I normally watch regardless.
You’re right Kitty, and that’s the most frustrating part. CTV is playing the good guy and says that the consumer shouldn’t have to pay. We all know, however, that it’ll come out of our pockets eventually and in all honesty it’s to their benefit. Think: force Eastlink/StarChoice/Shaw/Rogers/Every other non-BCE owned cable or satellite company out there to pay for the signal, then they raise their rates accordingly. That gives Aliant and Bell every single right to raise their rates accordingly. There’s two new revenue streams going in, and they continue to play to good guys. I’m usually not a fan of conspiracy theories, but this one’s got some credibility.
Er if I’m not mistaken, I believe things are going the way of the States where you can no longer have antenna cable and you will need a digital box to watch any TV.
As of right now, there is no indication that the CRTC will go that way. Although, it may be happening eventually.
They extended it until June …. the 6th if my memory’s anywhere near intact. Otherwise, it’s another day in June.
🙂
And then the rural folk, ala my in-laws are screwed.
Kay, I’m sorry you are s
“stuck” in a place you don’t enjoy being in. Can’t be fun. I am quite fortunate, as I have not met any of these mean motherfuckers, although I have only been here five years..there is still time 🙂
And I never get my shit in knot about trivial shit and sticky keys. I just get easily confused. That comes with the territory ;~)
Actually I’ll go to bat for CTV and Can-West (not CBC, they already get our tax money).
Right now we pay cable campanies for televsion channels. they are supposedly specialty channels but manyruna bunch of old reruns. Not only that, with an exception for a few, they all run commercial ads. Sothese channels are not only getting ad revenue, they are also getting a portionof your cable bill, while CTV and can-West do not. If the cable channels had no ads, I would say that CTV would be blowing out both holes. We should be bitching at the cable comanies for high bills and that these specialty (that’s a good one) should not be getting a cut. So because of this I have to side with CTV. Make it an even playing field.
I’d buy that BT, but here’s the thing: we wouldn’t be hearing this if the globe portion of BellGlobe Media didn’t have such a shitty fiscal year.