On Thursday Rogers Media announced that they would be taking over CJNT in Montreal and it's intention to convert the station in a CityTV station. This would put CityTV into Canada's second largest market and estentionally give the network coast to coast coverage.
CJNT is indicative of the ownership carosell that has occured in Canadian television. Like many a new station it was given to inexperienced owners and soon taken over by a large media company, which was taken over by a larger media company and so on.
To be speicific CJNT was founded in the 1980's as a public access ethnic station. The UFH station wasn't even carried on cable until the late ninties when Western international Communications took over the tiny station to develop stronger competition from CanWest Global when Global took over CKMI (Now Global Montreal). It was only two years later that CJNT became CH wehn Global took over WIC. The station continued to struggle as CH and E! under CanWest Global. After the demise of CanWest the station owned by Channel Zero has been known as Metro14.
Saturday 5 May 2012
Friday 16 March 2012
Big fish get bigger
March 16, 2012
It was announced today that BCE (owners of Bell Media) would take over Astra Media. This is a significant move on several fronts and the big 3 media companies in Canada get bigger, and start making in roads in Quebec.
While Astral has a huge presence in English language media there is no disputing their presence in Quebec which is more significant that Bell.
The combined forces on the surface is a monster. Astral has 83 radio stations, most of them in rural areas, and 15 cable channels. With the aqusitiion Bell will have over 110 radio stations, and more than 30 cable channels.
The big question is what what will continue and what go away, or get sold. On television many of Astral assets are unique or in french. Their most noteable operations including the Movie Network, Family Channel, and Teletoon. Most like Bell would let those channel continue unchanged.
On the Radio front Bell and Astral now own seven stations in the Vancouver area. The most likely casualty could be Virgin radio. Bell owns the Beat radio against top 40 Virgin. The Shore may also be a casualty after being reformated following the buyout by Astral.
The only real change on TV could be on one of Canada's smallest TV stations. Astral owns CFTK in Terrace, BC and CDJC in Dawson Creek. At the moment these stations have very plain branding and rely heavily on the CBC for their schedule. These markets seems likely to become a CTV Two affiliate.
A lot of this is still month away from getting setteled.
It was announced today that BCE (owners of Bell Media) would take over Astra Media. This is a significant move on several fronts and the big 3 media companies in Canada get bigger, and start making in roads in Quebec.
While Astral has a huge presence in English language media there is no disputing their presence in Quebec which is more significant that Bell.
The combined forces on the surface is a monster. Astral has 83 radio stations, most of them in rural areas, and 15 cable channels. With the aqusitiion Bell will have over 110 radio stations, and more than 30 cable channels.
The big question is what what will continue and what go away, or get sold. On television many of Astral assets are unique or in french. Their most noteable operations including the Movie Network, Family Channel, and Teletoon. Most like Bell would let those channel continue unchanged.
On the Radio front Bell and Astral now own seven stations in the Vancouver area. The most likely casualty could be Virgin radio. Bell owns the Beat radio against top 40 Virgin. The Shore may also be a casualty after being reformated following the buyout by Astral.
The only real change on TV could be on one of Canada's smallest TV stations. Astral owns CFTK in Terrace, BC and CDJC in Dawson Creek. At the moment these stations have very plain branding and rely heavily on the CBC for their schedule. These markets seems likely to become a CTV Two affiliate.
A lot of this is still month away from getting setteled.
The further decline of OWN
March 16, 2012
After mixing around formats for months, the Rosie Show has a new format...oblivion.
First it was a mix between Rosie's old show and what Oprah's old show was, then it was a in depth one on one show in a brightly colored basement. There was an auidence and band then they were gone, then they were in Chicago and went to New York. It was never the same show whenever I watched it, and it was always by accident that I ever watched it at all.
The cancelation I do find surprising, but wonder how much politics was involved. I was surprised to see Rosie O'Donnel take over for Pierse Morgan last night on CNN. She is a great interviewer and I wondered, what happened to your own show. It was not until today it was revealed that she has no show anymore. I couldn't find it on OWN in Canada last night no I have no idea what's it status is. In the press release it was announced that the last show would go on the air March 30th in the US.
I know I keep writing about OWN which is quickly turning into one of the biggest flops for a cable channel in history. On that note no other channel came in with this much hype before. On the heels of the most sucessful syndicated talk show ever many thought that Oraph's magic could translate to 24 hour television. For the most part it was had been decent but there is no shock value. That may be a good thing, but it dosen't do much to keep viewers in on a regular basis.
The most irritating thing about the high expectation is the lack of paitence. Yes it was a mess with Rosie changing shows every week, but it needed time to find it's voice and when your on the back of the dial you should be allowed to develop.
Perhaps we'll see Rosie on CNN more often now.
After mixing around formats for months, the Rosie Show has a new format...oblivion.
First it was a mix between Rosie's old show and what Oprah's old show was, then it was a in depth one on one show in a brightly colored basement. There was an auidence and band then they were gone, then they were in Chicago and went to New York. It was never the same show whenever I watched it, and it was always by accident that I ever watched it at all.
The cancelation I do find surprising, but wonder how much politics was involved. I was surprised to see Rosie O'Donnel take over for Pierse Morgan last night on CNN. She is a great interviewer and I wondered, what happened to your own show. It was not until today it was revealed that she has no show anymore. I couldn't find it on OWN in Canada last night no I have no idea what's it status is. In the press release it was announced that the last show would go on the air March 30th in the US.
I know I keep writing about OWN which is quickly turning into one of the biggest flops for a cable channel in history. On that note no other channel came in with this much hype before. On the heels of the most sucessful syndicated talk show ever many thought that Oraph's magic could translate to 24 hour television. For the most part it was had been decent but there is no shock value. That may be a good thing, but it dosen't do much to keep viewers in on a regular basis.
The most irritating thing about the high expectation is the lack of paitence. Yes it was a mess with Rosie changing shows every week, but it needed time to find it's voice and when your on the back of the dial you should be allowed to develop.
Perhaps we'll see Rosie on CNN more often now.
Saturday 18 February 2012
The sad demise of Degrassi's Wheels
February 18, 2012
An interesting story of interest that caught on world wide is the reported death of actor Neil Hope best known for the character of Wheels on the original Degrassi High. The fact that the death took place nearly five years ago, and was just reported this week give an example of some the pitfalls of the acting profession, and the enduring popularity of Degrassi.
I never really have bought into Degrassi myself. I was in elementary school when Degrassi Junior High was becoming all the rage. All through out my school days it was a a huge hit either the new epiosdes or repeats. The only time I really watched was the whole Spike's pregnancy storyline which was being plubicized like crazy. However I never really enjoyed soaps. Never got on the bandwagon and didn't watch for much longer though my class mates did.
Hope's life pretty much read like a Degrassi story line. Both his parents suffered from alcholism, his father dying of serocious. While the rest of the cast managed to stay connected he seemed to drop out of everything. In the articles written about him there were people trying to get in touch with him and were unsucessful. Basically those who did know had kept his death a secret until now.
Degrassi's popularity worldwide I find staggering. Degrassi was a huge hit on the CBC, but at the titme wasn't airing anywhere in the US. It was wasn't until years later that the shows began apearing on PBS stations. I was not aware of the American popularity of Degrassi until Kevin Smith began refering to the show in his films.
An interesting story of interest that caught on world wide is the reported death of actor Neil Hope best known for the character of Wheels on the original Degrassi High. The fact that the death took place nearly five years ago, and was just reported this week give an example of some the pitfalls of the acting profession, and the enduring popularity of Degrassi.
I never really have bought into Degrassi myself. I was in elementary school when Degrassi Junior High was becoming all the rage. All through out my school days it was a a huge hit either the new epiosdes or repeats. The only time I really watched was the whole Spike's pregnancy storyline which was being plubicized like crazy. However I never really enjoyed soaps. Never got on the bandwagon and didn't watch for much longer though my class mates did.
Hope's life pretty much read like a Degrassi story line. Both his parents suffered from alcholism, his father dying of serocious. While the rest of the cast managed to stay connected he seemed to drop out of everything. In the articles written about him there were people trying to get in touch with him and were unsucessful. Basically those who did know had kept his death a secret until now.
Degrassi's popularity worldwide I find staggering. Degrassi was a huge hit on the CBC, but at the titme wasn't airing anywhere in the US. It was wasn't until years later that the shows began apearing on PBS stations. I was not aware of the American popularity of Degrassi until Kevin Smith began refering to the show in his films.
Friday 10 February 2012
The continuing Americanization and devaluing of Canadian television
February 10, 2012
Later this spring Canadian viewers will have even more channels to select on their digital television packages, but if they are expecting anything new and original they are mistaken. That being said, if they like a certain show they can get more of it.
Most of the new wave of upcoming channels are repackaged versions of well known American brands whoes programing is already commonly seen on Canadian television. All we are getting is same American shows with the American brand name, and less Canadian content.
The first is ABC Spark which will launch March 26. This Corus-Disney partnership will estenially rebroadcast the ABC family channel's lineup of teen soap operas including The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Switched at Birth, which already air on Bell owned Much. In addition to the established shows Spark will air many new offerings from ABC Family which continues to expand its lineup of dramas aimed at young audiences.
An odd twist in this is Corus's involvement in the new station. As mentioned a lot of ABC Family's shows have been airing on Much, owned by Bell. The former 24 hour music station has been airing an increasing selection of dramas not only from ABC family, but from other American broadcasters such the CW and their own productions including Degrassi. It is a lucractive market but it surprising that Bell did not enter this market.
A more logical move was Astral owned Teletoon exporting the american channel Cartoon Network/Adult Swim to Canadian digitial broadcasting. For those unfamilar the once 24 hours Cartoon Network in the US converted their programing from 9pm to 6am to live action and animated subversive comedy. Most of it has been airing in on Teletoon under the heading of teletoon at night. However CRTC regulations prevented Teletoon from airing live action shows such as Childrens Hospital. That being said most live action Adult Swim shows have wound up on G4 television. No air date yet has been set for the launch of Cartoon Network/Adult Swim.
Both of these channels will be available on digitial platform, persumable free for a limited period of time before being offered in upper tier pacakages.
Later this spring Canadian viewers will have even more channels to select on their digital television packages, but if they are expecting anything new and original they are mistaken. That being said, if they like a certain show they can get more of it.
Most of the new wave of upcoming channels are repackaged versions of well known American brands whoes programing is already commonly seen on Canadian television. All we are getting is same American shows with the American brand name, and less Canadian content.
The first is ABC Spark which will launch March 26. This Corus-Disney partnership will estenially rebroadcast the ABC family channel's lineup of teen soap operas including The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Switched at Birth, which already air on Bell owned Much. In addition to the established shows Spark will air many new offerings from ABC Family which continues to expand its lineup of dramas aimed at young audiences.
An odd twist in this is Corus's involvement in the new station. As mentioned a lot of ABC Family's shows have been airing on Much, owned by Bell. The former 24 hour music station has been airing an increasing selection of dramas not only from ABC family, but from other American broadcasters such the CW and their own productions including Degrassi. It is a lucractive market but it surprising that Bell did not enter this market.
A more logical move was Astral owned Teletoon exporting the american channel Cartoon Network/Adult Swim to Canadian digitial broadcasting. For those unfamilar the once 24 hours Cartoon Network in the US converted their programing from 9pm to 6am to live action and animated subversive comedy. Most of it has been airing in on Teletoon under the heading of teletoon at night. However CRTC regulations prevented Teletoon from airing live action shows such as Childrens Hospital. That being said most live action Adult Swim shows have wound up on G4 television. No air date yet has been set for the launch of Cartoon Network/Adult Swim.
Both of these channels will be available on digitial platform, persumable free for a limited period of time before being offered in upper tier pacakages.
Monday 6 February 2012
Can you keep up with the changes to your signal provider?
Use to be the question was cable or antenna. It was a simple choice to make at times, especially depending on where you live and what channel you wanted to watch. However in the last couple of years consumers not only have more options, but digitial braodcast has made the antenna viable again, and the internet has put most of the top shows on the internet. There is now insentives not pay monthly for television (especially if your paying monthly for internet) at a time when so many choice for cable, satelite, and broadband.
The day after a big Super Sunday launch Shaw rolled out it's new EXO service only weeks after unvieling it's Gateway service to compete with the telecoms. Telus continues their marketing push of Optik with the launch of computer and tablet service. Satalite is loosing out on the hype factor, but still offer larger channel lineups (and potentially higher rates) than the locals.
So what is all this anyway? What is EXO? EXO is called an 'upgraded network" which simly allows more information to be passed through the system. More signal leading to higher quality pictures, and a 1080p picture, at a time when most braodcasters do not braodcast at 1080p. Of the many hyped features includes more on demand programing and a faster top internet speed, along with the ability to watch on demand prograing on tablets and smart phones.
In many ways it was more of the same. The same shows and movies you could already see, but viewers now have the ability to see it from more devices any time they want.
The weird thing with Shaw it is not a case of getting customers, it's hanging on to those they already have. Most houses and apartments are already wired or were wired at some point with Shaw's equipment, as they were also wired with the phone company's equipment. EXO and gateway is Shaw's way of hanging onto customers that Telus, MTS, and Bell will try to take way.
While some people are sheding their teleivsion they will still need internet and Shaw and telus have a lock on that in Vancouver. Telus in many ways have the upper hand with introductary rates, and gifts. This is of course in exchange for a three year commitment, by then who knows what the landscape will be like. All Shaw can promise is no comitments and a competetive rate. But in many ways broadband and television through cable is more reliable service.
Are you sticking with Cable or going to the phone company?
The day after a big Super Sunday launch Shaw rolled out it's new EXO service only weeks after unvieling it's Gateway service to compete with the telecoms. Telus continues their marketing push of Optik with the launch of computer and tablet service. Satalite is loosing out on the hype factor, but still offer larger channel lineups (and potentially higher rates) than the locals.
So what is all this anyway? What is EXO? EXO is called an 'upgraded network" which simly allows more information to be passed through the system. More signal leading to higher quality pictures, and a 1080p picture, at a time when most braodcasters do not braodcast at 1080p. Of the many hyped features includes more on demand programing and a faster top internet speed, along with the ability to watch on demand prograing on tablets and smart phones.
In many ways it was more of the same. The same shows and movies you could already see, but viewers now have the ability to see it from more devices any time they want.
The weird thing with Shaw it is not a case of getting customers, it's hanging on to those they already have. Most houses and apartments are already wired or were wired at some point with Shaw's equipment, as they were also wired with the phone company's equipment. EXO and gateway is Shaw's way of hanging onto customers that Telus, MTS, and Bell will try to take way.
While some people are sheding their teleivsion they will still need internet and Shaw and telus have a lock on that in Vancouver. Telus in many ways have the upper hand with introductary rates, and gifts. This is of course in exchange for a three year commitment, by then who knows what the landscape will be like. All Shaw can promise is no comitments and a competetive rate. But in many ways broadband and television through cable is more reliable service.
Are you sticking with Cable or going to the phone company?
Wednesday 1 February 2012
Happy Aniversary Dave!
Today marks David Letterman's 30th aniversary in Late Night Television. Yes it was this day in 1982 that these images were first chucked into the airwaves, a world where all the phony glitz of showbiz was revealed for what it is.
From the creepy opening from ex night nurse Calvert DeForest to the glitzy Rainbow Room opening the early signs of Letterman's ground breaking humor are in full display in this first show.
Letterman's humor and style have evolved in the three decades since this aired. I could sight the top ten changes in Dave's style but I'll just stick to three.
1. Tightness
Many argue that Dave has gotten tame as time progressed. THe reasons for the argument is that the outlandish expariementing that Dave attempted in the early NBC days is not evident in the current show. In addition the show's move to 11:30pm in 1993, plus the advent of cable with comedians like Jon Stewart and Bill Maher makes Dave seem like a creature of the past.
However the modern Late Show still makes a lot of moves out of left field and in many ways Dave contains the same edge as the modern comedian but has never lost his goofiness. The big differences is that what would have been a silly expariment that would last several minutes, perhaps even the entire show are not cut down to thirty or sixty seconds. In addition the easy going style seems to have given way to more sharper improvised wit. Instead of a host that seemed to be stunned about the sillyness of what was going on he takes command of it. He has gotten much better at imrpvoising stories, and taking up host chat reminisant of his TV heroes Jack Parr and Regis Philbin.
On NBC guest would not show up or leave early leaving Dave with nothing to do but be very silly in the chaos. That dosent' happen much any more, but when it does happen like when Jaquin Phoenix's stunt apearence was backfiring he siezes the moment to make very exciting television.
2. Adapting to Success
The stage and budget is much bigger but Letterman has always maintained an underdog attitude to the show. For the most it has been justified. Having visited Studio 6H in Rockerfeller Plaza I was amazed how cramped it is. Waiting out in the hallway to enter the studio makes you that you are in the 7 1/2 of the building in "Being John Malkovich". Inside insn't much larger either. I visited the studio in 2000 the night after I had been to David Letterman's current home at the Ed Sullivan theater and the level of luxuriousness and size was light years ahead of where they use to be. Letterman thrived in the cramped suroundings and busy activity of his environment at NBC. However he adapted to the suroundings of 51st and Broadway quite well brining the same energy to the bigger stage.
Now it has helped that Letterman is not the #1 show. Being #2 has helped Letterman keep some cynical edge.
3. The brain works
Letterman has adapted to success by controling his cynicism. In the NBC days the chances a serious guest would get on would be long. Today it is common for a government official or someone making innovations to come on the show. He still has a skeptism and even a pesimism at times and challenges the guests, but it is in a more consturctive fashion. In many ways he has learned from the man he was grooming to be his sucessor, Jon Stewart in the art of challenging the establsihment.
He is now free to express his views and has become friends with the Obama administration, but also the UN's World Food Program and other environmental cuases. He does have a genuine fear of things going wrong. He also has a sense of patriotism which has been obvious since 9/11.
From the creepy opening from ex night nurse Calvert DeForest to the glitzy Rainbow Room opening the early signs of Letterman's ground breaking humor are in full display in this first show.
Letterman's humor and style have evolved in the three decades since this aired. I could sight the top ten changes in Dave's style but I'll just stick to three.
1. Tightness
Many argue that Dave has gotten tame as time progressed. THe reasons for the argument is that the outlandish expariementing that Dave attempted in the early NBC days is not evident in the current show. In addition the show's move to 11:30pm in 1993, plus the advent of cable with comedians like Jon Stewart and Bill Maher makes Dave seem like a creature of the past.
However the modern Late Show still makes a lot of moves out of left field and in many ways Dave contains the same edge as the modern comedian but has never lost his goofiness. The big differences is that what would have been a silly expariment that would last several minutes, perhaps even the entire show are not cut down to thirty or sixty seconds. In addition the easy going style seems to have given way to more sharper improvised wit. Instead of a host that seemed to be stunned about the sillyness of what was going on he takes command of it. He has gotten much better at imrpvoising stories, and taking up host chat reminisant of his TV heroes Jack Parr and Regis Philbin.
On NBC guest would not show up or leave early leaving Dave with nothing to do but be very silly in the chaos. That dosent' happen much any more, but when it does happen like when Jaquin Phoenix's stunt apearence was backfiring he siezes the moment to make very exciting television.
2. Adapting to Success
The stage and budget is much bigger but Letterman has always maintained an underdog attitude to the show. For the most it has been justified. Having visited Studio 6H in Rockerfeller Plaza I was amazed how cramped it is. Waiting out in the hallway to enter the studio makes you that you are in the 7 1/2 of the building in "Being John Malkovich". Inside insn't much larger either. I visited the studio in 2000 the night after I had been to David Letterman's current home at the Ed Sullivan theater and the level of luxuriousness and size was light years ahead of where they use to be. Letterman thrived in the cramped suroundings and busy activity of his environment at NBC. However he adapted to the suroundings of 51st and Broadway quite well brining the same energy to the bigger stage.
Now it has helped that Letterman is not the #1 show. Being #2 has helped Letterman keep some cynical edge.
3. The brain works
Letterman has adapted to success by controling his cynicism. In the NBC days the chances a serious guest would get on would be long. Today it is common for a government official or someone making innovations to come on the show. He still has a skeptism and even a pesimism at times and challenges the guests, but it is in a more consturctive fashion. In many ways he has learned from the man he was grooming to be his sucessor, Jon Stewart in the art of challenging the establsihment.
He is now free to express his views and has become friends with the Obama administration, but also the UN's World Food Program and other environmental cuases. He does have a genuine fear of things going wrong. He also has a sense of patriotism which has been obvious since 9/11.
Hope or a never ending telefon?
On January 31st the CRTC granted a class B licence to a new cable channel called the Philantropy Channel. The station will go on the air on December 12th this year. Here is an excerpt from the station's press release.
"This channel is the first of its kind", said Peter Clarke, founder and President. "Launching The Philanthropy Channel in Canada is especially appropriate because Canadians are world leaders in philanthropy." More than 160,000 charities and non-profit organizations are registered in Canada, over $1.5 billion is dispersed annually by more than 3,000 Canadian philanthropic foundations, and more than 12 million Canadians offers his or her services as a volunteer every year.
Among other things, the network will offer programming about the philanthropic interests of private individuals and foundations, as well as pop-culture icons such as Bill Gates, Bono and Oprah Winfrey.
"The Philanthropy Channel is where like-minded people will be able to share their stories and passion for giving and helping at all levels," Clarke said. "As an independent Canadian broadcaster, we are excited to provide a service that gives voice to those people and organizations that shape social change in our communities and around the world. The Philanthropy Channel will appeal to the philanthropist in all of us."
What the channel seeks to be exactly is kind of foggy. If I am interpreting the press release properly the station is meant to be an outlet for non-profits to promote themselves. Now this is nothing new. Organizations such as World Vision and Foster Parents Plan have been given air time for decades. On a soggy afternoon we've seen Rob Black and Mehgan fellows with strugling families in the third world. Not to mock the work done by these organizations put repetition leads to some cynicism. If the new channel were to give us new orgnaizations and new prespectives there may some impact. Other wise it can easily turn into white noise.
It is certainly a daring concept with many pluses and minuses. To be the home of inspirationaly programming has been the aim of other channels in the past. When Vision launched it seek to a spiritual and inspirational channel, a philosophy it eventually migrated from as it moved up to the triple digits of cable. One and I Channel also seeked for insipiration and have amanged to stay on the air in digitial but have never developed a strong audience. Inspiration was the main goal of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) when it launched in 2011. All it has lead to has been short lived series, many paniced executives, and a money pit.
The intention of the Philanthropy channel are nobel, but easily mocked if it is nothing but 24 hours of starving people played to an endless of loop of Sarah McLoughlin's most melancholly songs. If this is meant to expose viewers to a new world and new ways to give it needs to be selective and careful as to who and what they air. It is all in the execution.
"This channel is the first of its kind", said Peter Clarke, founder and President. "Launching The Philanthropy Channel in Canada is especially appropriate because Canadians are world leaders in philanthropy." More than 160,000 charities and non-profit organizations are registered in Canada, over $1.5 billion is dispersed annually by more than 3,000 Canadian philanthropic foundations, and more than 12 million Canadians offers his or her services as a volunteer every year.
Among other things, the network will offer programming about the philanthropic interests of private individuals and foundations, as well as pop-culture icons such as Bill Gates, Bono and Oprah Winfrey.
"The Philanthropy Channel is where like-minded people will be able to share their stories and passion for giving and helping at all levels," Clarke said. "As an independent Canadian broadcaster, we are excited to provide a service that gives voice to those people and organizations that shape social change in our communities and around the world. The Philanthropy Channel will appeal to the philanthropist in all of us."
What the channel seeks to be exactly is kind of foggy. If I am interpreting the press release properly the station is meant to be an outlet for non-profits to promote themselves. Now this is nothing new. Organizations such as World Vision and Foster Parents Plan have been given air time for decades. On a soggy afternoon we've seen Rob Black and Mehgan fellows with strugling families in the third world. Not to mock the work done by these organizations put repetition leads to some cynicism. If the new channel were to give us new orgnaizations and new prespectives there may some impact. Other wise it can easily turn into white noise.
It is certainly a daring concept with many pluses and minuses. To be the home of inspirationaly programming has been the aim of other channels in the past. When Vision launched it seek to a spiritual and inspirational channel, a philosophy it eventually migrated from as it moved up to the triple digits of cable. One and I Channel also seeked for insipiration and have amanged to stay on the air in digitial but have never developed a strong audience. Inspiration was the main goal of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) when it launched in 2011. All it has lead to has been short lived series, many paniced executives, and a money pit.
The intention of the Philanthropy channel are nobel, but easily mocked if it is nothing but 24 hours of starving people played to an endless of loop of Sarah McLoughlin's most melancholly songs. If this is meant to expose viewers to a new world and new ways to give it needs to be selective and careful as to who and what they air. It is all in the execution.
Saturday 28 January 2012
Will you buy the suite?
In November a new wave of movie channels became available to Canadian viewers. An all HD television service called "Hollywood Suite" hit the air. If you haven't seen the stations, it is a four channel HD movie service. The four channels are known as "Hollywood Storm" "MGM Channel" "WB Films" and "Hollywood Festival". The stations have been a very rich library of movies in high defenition.
On this day I was channel surfing between the four channels between the "Mask of Zorro", "Blazing Sadles" and Michale Keaton / Genna Davis groan fest "Speechless". While the library of films of these stations are mostly older movies, there are some newer festival films that are aired.
What I enjoy about the service is that films are commerical free and uneditied. The films have a consistantly high picture and sound quality as good as watching a DVD. There are some theme night like marathons of Rocky, John Lennon, or Martial Arts films. There are some docuemtnary pieces in the intervals between films. Movies are repeated during the day, meaning if you missed it or caught it halfway at 3pm, you'll see it again at 10pm.
The drawback is that the movies on the Suite have been aired reguarly in the past, or easily available on DVD. On it's own merrits that is not a detraction, however in comparison to it's competitiors it is a huge drawback. Shaw's Movietime channel airs a lot of recent releases, often making their non Pay TV premier. Encore Avenue, another Shaw channel airs a lot of obscure and festival films, not as easily availble on DVD. The fact that the stations are competing with Shaw for viewers has caused some problems.
The stations are currently not carried by Shaw or Rogers, but are available on the telecom company systems including Bell and Telus. With the support of the telecom companys Hollywood Suite is launching an advertising campaign in anticipation of it's February 19th switch to a pay service. However Shaw's affiliation hasn't effected the carriadge of Encore Avenue and Movetime.
Would you pay extra for Hollywood Suite? Are you paying extra to get channels like Encore Avenue, Movietime, Super Channel, HBO, TMC, and AMC?
On this day I was channel surfing between the four channels between the "Mask of Zorro", "Blazing Sadles" and Michale Keaton / Genna Davis groan fest "Speechless". While the library of films of these stations are mostly older movies, there are some newer festival films that are aired.
What I enjoy about the service is that films are commerical free and uneditied. The films have a consistantly high picture and sound quality as good as watching a DVD. There are some theme night like marathons of Rocky, John Lennon, or Martial Arts films. There are some docuemtnary pieces in the intervals between films. Movies are repeated during the day, meaning if you missed it or caught it halfway at 3pm, you'll see it again at 10pm.
The drawback is that the movies on the Suite have been aired reguarly in the past, or easily available on DVD. On it's own merrits that is not a detraction, however in comparison to it's competitiors it is a huge drawback. Shaw's Movietime channel airs a lot of recent releases, often making their non Pay TV premier. Encore Avenue, another Shaw channel airs a lot of obscure and festival films, not as easily availble on DVD. The fact that the stations are competing with Shaw for viewers has caused some problems.
The stations are currently not carried by Shaw or Rogers, but are available on the telecom company systems including Bell and Telus. With the support of the telecom companys Hollywood Suite is launching an advertising campaign in anticipation of it's February 19th switch to a pay service. However Shaw's affiliation hasn't effected the carriadge of Encore Avenue and Movetime.
Would you pay extra for Hollywood Suite? Are you paying extra to get channels like Encore Avenue, Movietime, Super Channel, HBO, TMC, and AMC?
Thursday 26 January 2012
The Continue Fall of KVOS
In spite of it's location thirty miles sout hof the Canadian border KVOS-TV has been main stain of the Vancouver television market since the begining. However as the competition has increased in the lower mainland the Bellingham, Washington based station has been marginalized to a point where it relevance is now questioned especially after the station was serious devalued in it's recent sale.
On January 24th the FCC aproved the sale of the station from Newport broadcasting to OTA holdings out of San Francisco. OTA paid $2.8 million for the station which Newport bought in 2007 for $28 million in conjunction with a station in Santa Rosa, California. No matter how you look at it Newport suffered on their investment. The bargain price for the station which has gone through four ownership changes since 2003 is reflective of a entity that has suffered through some poor managementhere and the reality that it's initial purpose was out dated.
When the station was founded in 1953 there was only one TV station in Seattle and none in Vancouver. When KVOS signed on in June of 1953 with the corination or Queen Elizabeth the second it instantly connected with viewers in Vancouver hungry for television. While KVOS initally had it's sight set on attracting viewers from Seattle, it's signal could be recived clearly in Vancouver, while in Seattle it was fuzzy. With an affiliation to CBS, KVOS would dominate the Vancouver market for decades. The advent of cable did mean conflict with KIRO for CBS programing, but soon KVOS would become an indipendent carried on both Vancouver and Seattle cable systems given the station a powerful northwest presence.
The demise of KVOS started off slow. In the ninties the station the station was removed from many cable systems in the Seattle-Tacoma market when it program schedule conflicted with KCPQ at a time when KVOS started to air FOX shows. The trouble really started in 1997 when more cimpetition came to Vancouver starting with CIVT (now CTV), to later be followed by CHNU (Joy TV), CHMN (Omni) and CIVI (now CTV Two). The increased competition combined with KVOS's ownership woes meant that the station could no longer keep up with quality programing or hang on to viwers advertisers in the Vancouver market. It also meant that becuase it was not based in Vancouver KVOS lost it's place on channel 12 in the Vancouver and Victoria cable market and is now no longer a part of Shaw's basic package. The station is a part of Novus and Telus systems, but is not seen on Bell or Shaw Direct.
It can be argued now that KVOS clearly belongs to the city it broadcasts from, Bellingham, Washingotn. However Bellingham and it's surounding communities are still a small population which on it's own have never generated enough money to keep the station on the air. Over the years as popularity has declined, so has it's amount of local programming. Even though "local" shows meant the Vancouver market with icons such as Reb Robinson and Jack Cullen. The last Bellingham based newscast was News View which aired at 6:30am daily. It was canceled in 2007. Last April the station affiliated with Chicago based MeTV airing a steady stream of re-runs with mostly 60's and 70's programing with local programing basically reduced to community callender announcements.
As KVOS becomes more reliant on Bellingham to stay on the air, the less relevant to Bellingham it becomes. At the same token it has become quite irrelevant to Vancouver. While it still makes some effort to attract lower mainland viewers it's community presence has dwindeled significantly. When I was a kid it was the palce for after school television with shows like the Flintstones and Scooby Doo. It had the Canucks Kids Fan Club which gave away thosuands of hockey tickets to youngsters like myself back in the days were the Canucks were emerging from the basement of the NHL.
The MeTV lineup includes many shows made popular on CBS such as Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, and Bob Newhart which aired during the time KVOS was a CBS affiliate. It is a reminder of the stations former glory. It is a reminder of what the station was, and has to think in the environment of increasing competition and move towards high defenition television whether this could be a last hurah for old Channel 12 before fading to black.
On January 24th the FCC aproved the sale of the station from Newport broadcasting to OTA holdings out of San Francisco. OTA paid $2.8 million for the station which Newport bought in 2007 for $28 million in conjunction with a station in Santa Rosa, California. No matter how you look at it Newport suffered on their investment. The bargain price for the station which has gone through four ownership changes since 2003 is reflective of a entity that has suffered through some poor managementhere and the reality that it's initial purpose was out dated.
When the station was founded in 1953 there was only one TV station in Seattle and none in Vancouver. When KVOS signed on in June of 1953 with the corination or Queen Elizabeth the second it instantly connected with viewers in Vancouver hungry for television. While KVOS initally had it's sight set on attracting viewers from Seattle, it's signal could be recived clearly in Vancouver, while in Seattle it was fuzzy. With an affiliation to CBS, KVOS would dominate the Vancouver market for decades. The advent of cable did mean conflict with KIRO for CBS programing, but soon KVOS would become an indipendent carried on both Vancouver and Seattle cable systems given the station a powerful northwest presence.
The demise of KVOS started off slow. In the ninties the station the station was removed from many cable systems in the Seattle-Tacoma market when it program schedule conflicted with KCPQ at a time when KVOS started to air FOX shows. The trouble really started in 1997 when more cimpetition came to Vancouver starting with CIVT (now CTV), to later be followed by CHNU (Joy TV), CHMN (Omni) and CIVI (now CTV Two). The increased competition combined with KVOS's ownership woes meant that the station could no longer keep up with quality programing or hang on to viwers advertisers in the Vancouver market. It also meant that becuase it was not based in Vancouver KVOS lost it's place on channel 12 in the Vancouver and Victoria cable market and is now no longer a part of Shaw's basic package. The station is a part of Novus and Telus systems, but is not seen on Bell or Shaw Direct.
It can be argued now that KVOS clearly belongs to the city it broadcasts from, Bellingham, Washingotn. However Bellingham and it's surounding communities are still a small population which on it's own have never generated enough money to keep the station on the air. Over the years as popularity has declined, so has it's amount of local programming. Even though "local" shows meant the Vancouver market with icons such as Reb Robinson and Jack Cullen. The last Bellingham based newscast was News View which aired at 6:30am daily. It was canceled in 2007. Last April the station affiliated with Chicago based MeTV airing a steady stream of re-runs with mostly 60's and 70's programing with local programing basically reduced to community callender announcements.
As KVOS becomes more reliant on Bellingham to stay on the air, the less relevant to Bellingham it becomes. At the same token it has become quite irrelevant to Vancouver. While it still makes some effort to attract lower mainland viewers it's community presence has dwindeled significantly. When I was a kid it was the palce for after school television with shows like the Flintstones and Scooby Doo. It had the Canucks Kids Fan Club which gave away thosuands of hockey tickets to youngsters like myself back in the days were the Canucks were emerging from the basement of the NHL.
The MeTV lineup includes many shows made popular on CBS such as Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, and Bob Newhart which aired during the time KVOS was a CBS affiliate. It is a reminder of the stations former glory. It is a reminder of what the station was, and has to think in the environment of increasing competition and move towards high defenition television whether this could be a last hurah for old Channel 12 before fading to black.
The mystery of Tamara Taggart
Three weeks after the sudden disapered from Vancouver's CTV News At Six Tamarra Taggart has emerged with somer serious personal news. On January 3rd before was due to go the air she tweeted the following...
Wow. At 5:30pm I was hit with a major case of food poisoning. Passed out at work, the rest is too much info! Missed my anniversary show!
The following tweet hours later blamed the food poisioning on Lasanga. This would be the less peep out of Taggart. Tonight three weeks off the air, and off the internet Taggart let her fans know where she has been.
I’m back! Well not quite. It wasn’t food poisoning, the lasagna was wrongly accused. Had emergency surgery. All is well, back in March.
A full blog was posted on CTV's website...
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120125/bc_ctv_news_british_columbia_tamara_taggart_update_120125/20120125/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
While she mentioned the seriousness of her health circumstances she did not elaborate on what exactly she was treated for. Taggart has lived a very open personal life which has discussed in great detail through various local publication like TV Week magazine and in her blog Modern Mommy. Despite the admission of surgery all it does it add more mystery to her sudden disaperence from television.
The day before Taggart fell ill she wrote a blog regarding her aniversary in the anchor's seat. T
It's been exactly one year since I anchored CTV News at 6 for the very first time. Time flies. A year ago today I was freaking out, for a number of reasons. It's always nerve-wracking when you start something new, especially when you know everyone is watching.
2011 was an interesting year. It was exhilarating when it was announced that I would be anchoring the news with Mike Killeen but also quite sad & stressful - I definitely discovered who my real friends were. There's a lot to be said for having grace and some people just didn't have it. I found that people reacted in one of three very different ways: those who were genuinely happy for me and told me, those who were angry that I got the job as they felt I wasn't worthy of it (these people had no problem telling anyone who would listen - but never me) and then there were the people who said nothing and just stopped talking to me.
It's the people that stopped talking to me that I find most interesting as most of them were people I considered friends. Obviously I was mistaken. At first my feelings were hurt and I obsessed about it, wondering what I could do to make it better. Now I don't care. Those people weren't my friends...a tough lesson to learn, but now I know.
The blog ended with a reflection of the year. It reflects a stressful transition over what many would argue was a risky manuvure on CTV's part. Taggart was clearly the station's most popular personality, and was trying to transend her role as a weather presenter. In addition to doing articles on parenting she co-hosted olympic medal ceremonies with Ben Mulrouny and won a audience survey to co-host Live with Regis. Taggart was still on Maternity leave after giving birth to her third child when she was named to replaced 35 year veteran Pamela Martin on CTV Vancouver's flagship newscast. While arguably worthy of a promotion, and a 15 year veteran of doing live television, her absense of experience in reporting on hard news alarmed skeptics. The promotion for the revamped newscast focused heavily of the personalities in the newscast and Taggart sparkeled in the promos. However when she was on camera it was a different issue. It was clear she was uncomforatble at first when dealing with the serious items of the day. However time corrected this inital problem and she seemed more at ease and gave the appropiate cadence to the issues of the day, while still excelling at the "happy talk" format which is the standard of local news. There is a strong chemistry with vertan reporter Mike Killene.
While no names were mentioned in those who estinguished their relationships with Taggart when she was given the anchor's seat. It wouldn't be fair to name names but it is nto surprising that there would be stress. It is a highly unusual for the weather presenter to move into role of news anchor, with no news experience, especailly when there were other anchors who had been at their psotions for years. It is logically to assume that there would be jeleousy and even anger, when Taggart was having issues with early brodacasts. Her on air performance improved but one has to wonder about the costs.
In the next few weeks we are sure to find more details about Taggart's illness along with a lot of gossip about what is happening to her. Questions of stress are bound to be raised. She ceratinly raised in the issue with her blog. Taggart has three children under the age of 5, and her oldest has Downs Syndrome. She has often written about the challeneges and sucesses she has had in being the mother of a special needs child.
The lack of details from this open book person does have me worried as I fill in the blanks with my imagination. My best wishes for her recovery and return to television.
Wow. At 5:30pm I was hit with a major case of food poisoning. Passed out at work, the rest is too much info! Missed my anniversary show!
The following tweet hours later blamed the food poisioning on Lasanga. This would be the less peep out of Taggart. Tonight three weeks off the air, and off the internet Taggart let her fans know where she has been.
I’m back! Well not quite. It wasn’t food poisoning, the lasagna was wrongly accused. Had emergency surgery. All is well, back in March.
A full blog was posted on CTV's website...
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120125/bc_ctv_news_british_columbia_tamara_taggart_update_120125/20120125/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
While she mentioned the seriousness of her health circumstances she did not elaborate on what exactly she was treated for. Taggart has lived a very open personal life which has discussed in great detail through various local publication like TV Week magazine and in her blog Modern Mommy. Despite the admission of surgery all it does it add more mystery to her sudden disaperence from television.
The day before Taggart fell ill she wrote a blog regarding her aniversary in the anchor's seat. T
It's been exactly one year since I anchored CTV News at 6 for the very first time. Time flies. A year ago today I was freaking out, for a number of reasons. It's always nerve-wracking when you start something new, especially when you know everyone is watching.
2011 was an interesting year. It was exhilarating when it was announced that I would be anchoring the news with Mike Killeen but also quite sad & stressful - I definitely discovered who my real friends were. There's a lot to be said for having grace and some people just didn't have it. I found that people reacted in one of three very different ways: those who were genuinely happy for me and told me, those who were angry that I got the job as they felt I wasn't worthy of it (these people had no problem telling anyone who would listen - but never me) and then there were the people who said nothing and just stopped talking to me.
It's the people that stopped talking to me that I find most interesting as most of them were people I considered friends. Obviously I was mistaken. At first my feelings were hurt and I obsessed about it, wondering what I could do to make it better. Now I don't care. Those people weren't my friends...a tough lesson to learn, but now I know.
The blog ended with a reflection of the year. It reflects a stressful transition over what many would argue was a risky manuvure on CTV's part. Taggart was clearly the station's most popular personality, and was trying to transend her role as a weather presenter. In addition to doing articles on parenting she co-hosted olympic medal ceremonies with Ben Mulrouny and won a audience survey to co-host Live with Regis. Taggart was still on Maternity leave after giving birth to her third child when she was named to replaced 35 year veteran Pamela Martin on CTV Vancouver's flagship newscast. While arguably worthy of a promotion, and a 15 year veteran of doing live television, her absense of experience in reporting on hard news alarmed skeptics. The promotion for the revamped newscast focused heavily of the personalities in the newscast and Taggart sparkeled in the promos. However when she was on camera it was a different issue. It was clear she was uncomforatble at first when dealing with the serious items of the day. However time corrected this inital problem and she seemed more at ease and gave the appropiate cadence to the issues of the day, while still excelling at the "happy talk" format which is the standard of local news. There is a strong chemistry with vertan reporter Mike Killene.
While no names were mentioned in those who estinguished their relationships with Taggart when she was given the anchor's seat. It wouldn't be fair to name names but it is nto surprising that there would be stress. It is a highly unusual for the weather presenter to move into role of news anchor, with no news experience, especailly when there were other anchors who had been at their psotions for years. It is logically to assume that there would be jeleousy and even anger, when Taggart was having issues with early brodacasts. Her on air performance improved but one has to wonder about the costs.
In the next few weeks we are sure to find more details about Taggart's illness along with a lot of gossip about what is happening to her. Questions of stress are bound to be raised. She ceratinly raised in the issue with her blog. Taggart has three children under the age of 5, and her oldest has Downs Syndrome. She has often written about the challeneges and sucesses she has had in being the mother of a special needs child.
The lack of details from this open book person does have me worried as I fill in the blanks with my imagination. My best wishes for her recovery and return to television.
Thursday 19 January 2012
Should Canada graudate educational TV?
On Tuesday Rogers Media announced that it will buying the Educational station SCN from the Saskatchewan government and convert it to a CityTV station. This comes just days after the station began airing CityTV programing during prime-time. The only real change will be elimination of the SCN brand. The move echos the move more than a decade ago by the Alberta government when it sold Access Alberta to CHUM limited. Now under Bell the station still airis educational programing in the daytime it now air the CTV Two network in prime-time.
The damage is already done as educational programing is now gone from prime-time in Saskatchewan and long gone from Alberta. But what do viewers on the praries miss out on? Looking at the lineups of the Knowledge Network and TV Ontario, the only two remaining full time English educational stations, a lot of good if not out dated documentaries and dramas. It use to be the educational stations were hte only outlet for British dramas and documentaries. Now stations such the documentary channel, Bravo, bold, ShowCase and BBC Canada air the types of shows the educational stations use to air usually much earlier than the educational station ever did.
The buying power of TV Ontario and the Knowledge Network is much less even than public teleivsion in the United States. For example PBS has aired the series "Lewis" since 2008, shortly after it hit the air on ITV in the United Kingdom. The Knowledge Network will begin airing the series this Winter. The station still airs the original Inspector Morse on a regular basis, more than ten years after the series ended production.
There is no doubt that the programing on Knoweldge and TV Ontario is still of great quality, but it is no longer unqiue. Sadly the viewers in Alberta and Saskatchewan, along with Manitoba and the Altantic are not missing much since they can find it quite easily elsewhere.
The damage is already done as educational programing is now gone from prime-time in Saskatchewan and long gone from Alberta. But what do viewers on the praries miss out on? Looking at the lineups of the Knowledge Network and TV Ontario, the only two remaining full time English educational stations, a lot of good if not out dated documentaries and dramas. It use to be the educational stations were hte only outlet for British dramas and documentaries. Now stations such the documentary channel, Bravo, bold, ShowCase and BBC Canada air the types of shows the educational stations use to air usually much earlier than the educational station ever did.
The buying power of TV Ontario and the Knowledge Network is much less even than public teleivsion in the United States. For example PBS has aired the series "Lewis" since 2008, shortly after it hit the air on ITV in the United Kingdom. The Knowledge Network will begin airing the series this Winter. The station still airs the original Inspector Morse on a regular basis, more than ten years after the series ended production.
There is no doubt that the programing on Knoweldge and TV Ontario is still of great quality, but it is no longer unqiue. Sadly the viewers in Alberta and Saskatchewan, along with Manitoba and the Altantic are not missing much since they can find it quite easily elsewhere.
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