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Canadian media & the CRTC

RIP CKNX and CHWI

CTV to close two Ontario stations

CHWI is licenced in Wheatley, but serves Essex and Kent and based in Windsor.

CKNX is based in tiny Wingham, Ontario, but serving the Bruce-Grey-Huron region.

Both were BBS/Electrohome stations under the CTV affiliate. They were sold to CHUM which operated CKNX and CHWI as "New 'NX and New 'WI" before being rebranded as "A Channels" in the CHUM/Craig merger - then CTV picked them up.

Apparently, CKCO (K-W) and CFPL (London) will "fill in", but it means the loss of local news programming. Windsor still has a CBC station though.

Canada, Ontario in particular doesn't have the network of local corporate-owned and affiliate stations that the US has. Everything will likely be centalized in Toronto (like how Global always was) and Ottawa and perhaps one station each for CBC and CTV in SW Ontario and Northwestern Ontario.
 
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There's a proposal to turn CHCH to Hamilton's version of CP24......

"In Hamilton, a grassroots campaign has paired employees at CHCH-TV with other locals to rescue the station from being sold to a community outsider.

Instead the group is trying to keep the channel on the air with a new proposal to the CRTC later this spring.

'We (the group) have met and we have secured support from our local Members of Parliament, provincial legislature, local politicians," said Donna Skelly, a news anchor at CHCH and spokeswoman for the initiative.

'What we are proposing, is an all-news (station) - for the most part. It would be local . . . it wouldn't carry American programing."

Skelly said the group has created a five-year plan that is designed to make the station profitable."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iPtX7M2YdDpZ7yFr4VFBsM2iuh1A
 
CHCH staff launch bold bid

February 26, 2009
Emma Reilly
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Business/article/520615

CHCH staff members are proposing a new plan for their troubled station that would allow it to be owned and controlled by community members.

Donna Skelly, the station's former union chair and co-host of Live at 5:30, is spearheading a group of 100 CHCH staff members who are approaching the CRTC with their community-based business model.

If successful, the TV station would use a governing structure similar to a hospital. Rather than being operated by a large media company, CHCH would be governed by a board of directors made up of community leaders.

Canwest, CHCH's current parent company, has put the station on the market in light of Canwest's dire financial situation. If a buyer does not step forward, the station could be shut down within weeks.

"We can't wait for this. We have to intervene," Skelly said of the group's decision to take action.

Skelly says the station is a perfect candidate for a new annual CRTC funding program designated for local news that would allow the group to go ahead with its plan.

The funding, which amounts to $40 million for English programming, is generated by a 50-cent per subscriber fee from cable providers.

The recipients of the CRTC funding will be determined in April, Skelly said.

"We believe that we are the primary candidates for this fund. We are the only station in this market. We need this funding to survive."

Along with the CRTC funding, the station would also need to raise $500,000 from the community to go ahead with the plan.

The new model would also allow for local businesses to purchase advertising at a greatly reduced rate. Currently, CH's ads are priced out of the market for most local organizations, Skelly said.

The station would provide mostly local news, Skelly said, and no American programming.

For more information, contact savechnews@gmail.com.
 
Good for them, but I'm not sure profitability will be easy with two competing cable channels in the extended local market (CP24 and City's new entry) and no U.S. programs to bring in the bacon. I still think a TorStar rescue might make the most sense.

More in the news...

CTV closes two stations, raising fears for local TV
 
MATT HARTLEY AND GRANT ROBERTSON

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

March 10, 2009 at 10:03 PM EDT

Setting the stage for a potential courtroom battle over who controls the Internet, Canada's biggest cable companies told federal regulators Tuesday that a proposed consumer levy to support Canadian content online is against the law.

The challenge from Rogers Communications Inc. [RCI.B-T], later echoed by Shaw Communications Inc. [SJR.B-T], came during the third week of hearings being held by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission into the future of new media.

The regulator is contemplating whether small fees should be added to monthly Internet bills to support the creation of Canadian programming online. Concerned that Canada's culture is being drowned in a sea of online video from around the world, federal regulators are looking at setting up a $100-million fund to support homegrown programming on the Internet.

Groups representing Canadian producers, writers and directors endorsed the idea when hearings began a few weeks ago. But Tuesday several cable and telecom companies, which are among the biggest Web service providers, issued a veiled threat that the matter would end up in court.

Such a levy “would be unlawful,” Rogers vice-chairman Phil Lind told the hearings, adding that Internet providers “are pipes, not broadcasters,” and therefore should not be required to support Canadian programming the way TV networks do.

Internet service providers, or ISPs, “do not buy, package or sell programming or any other Internet content,” Mr. Lind said.

His remarks were met with a stern rebuke from CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein.

“The courts will decide,” said Mr. von Finckenstein, who is a former judge. He later told the hearings that since there are differing legal opinions on the matter, he would not give his own opinion on whether the levy is lawful.

The proposal, which is aimed at staking out a more distinct national identity online, has pitted the television production community against Canada's Internet service providers, who would ultimately have to foot the bill, or pass those costs on to customers.

The Canadian Film & Television Production (CFTPA) Association has argued that online video should be treated no different than television, and presented the CRTC with a legal opinion from McCarthy Tétrault LLP suggesting the regulator has the authority to implement such a proposal.

“We respect Rogers' opinion, but our own legal opinion shows otherwise,” Mario Mota, vice-president of broadcasting policy and regulatory affairs for the CFTPA, said Tuesday in an interview.

He suggested a large amount of the content moving over Internet providers' lines is similar to broadcasting content, so the levy could be implemented under the Broadcasting Act.

Shaw Communications has presented opinions from two law firms, Stikeman Elliott LLP and Torys LLP, that the company says show the regulator does not have authority to establish a levy. Shaw chief executive officer Jim Shaw said the company would fight the idea.

“The Internet is about the World Wide Web, not the Canadian Wide Web,” he told the hearings. “There is no problem that needs to be fixed; no one has provided any evidence that there is a lack of Canadian content on the Internet.”

Internet providers don't pay close attention to what type of data is moving over their networks, whether it is video or not, Mr. Shaw said. “We can only tell you how many bits are coming in or out. We don't know what kind of bit it is, it could be anything from an e-mail to a porno … we don't know that,” he said. “We spend no time trying to figure out what bits are going to your house,” he said.

Also at the hearings, Rogers proposed a new online portal that would carry television programming, similar to the popular Hulu.com service in the U.S.

The new website, however, would only be available to Rogers' cable-TV subscribers. Rogers said it would be open to collaborating with other broadcasters, and later Tuesday, CTVglobemedia Inc. said the two companies had informally discussed such a partnership in the past.

Ridiculous! Broadband pricing is already way above global averages in Canada thanks to the CRTC's horrible policies, no way in hell should we have it become MORE expensive just to subsidize internet content.

What the hell? I made a Youtube video once, can I get subsidies?
 
CBC cancelled two shows today.

Fashion File and another show called Steven & Chris.

Source

I'm glad my boyfriend George Stroumboulopoulos (The Hour) survived the chop.
 
CTV Montreal lost its morning news today. 24 people were also laid-off from Canada AM today.

BTW, CBC has put Steven & Chris on a one-year hiatus so it may be back once the ad market recovers. As for Fashion File, it is cancelled, but they are maintaining the rights to it so it too could be back when the economy recovers (or if the PM reconsiders the pubcasters bridge financing request).
 
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