I have never understood CBC's mandate against London. Consider the following:
- CBC's "local" radio station in London mostly broadcasts local Toronto news. The extent of local programming originating in London is a five-minute newscast during Ontario Morning.
- Meanwhile, there is far more local radio programming available to listeners in numerous smaller Canadian cities, including Windsor, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Kelowna, Corner Brook, Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton, Charlottetown, Halifax, Sydney, and several others. Windsor not only has a local CBC TV station, but they have local radio in both English and French!
- While CBC is eliminating over-the-air television in London, they are making damn sure to have French television available in digital over-the-air in Regina, where about 12,000 people even know French. If only 7% of Canadian viewers in fact use an antenna to receive television signals, as is being touted by CBC's PR machine, Regina's French CBC DTV transmitter will serve a mere 840 people, assuming 100% of them even watch Radio-Canada.
- CBC is putting itself at a competitive disadvantage in London, because every single other over-the-air broadcaster here is converting to digital, even TVO, OMNI, and Citytv, the latter two being owned by Rogers (!).
The fact is, more than 7% of Canadians access television signals through an antenna; CBC/Radio-Canada has clearly not done their research. One industry watchdog estimates that number at 29% (about 3500 French viewers in Regina). I work in the cable industry and many consumers do not want to pay a large amount of money just to receive a basic slate of TV channels, especially when they have multiple TV sets and the company charges extra for additional TVs. Some consumers want the choice to have cable on one TV and use rabbit ears on other TVs. Other consumers simply do not want cable or satellite and are satisfied with only a few channels plus NetFlix or other Internet viewing.
I am glad to see this issue is finally receiving national attention. I have known about this plan for some time and have written to both the Free Press and the Globe and Mail.
Let's make this clear though - London, as usual, is getting the short end of the stick. I feel like this city is cursed.
Last edited by manny_santos; Jul 11, 2011 at 2:58 PM.
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