Save Local TV?

[Hack&Lube]

Whatever happened to RDTV channel 16?

That was the only "local" station I cared about - and that was because their programming rocked! You'd get your cheesy Red Deer newscast done in a shack for half and hour and the rest was the most wicked of TV reruns from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Most of my cultural TV knowledge is thanks to RDTV. Without RDTV, I would never have seen or known about the original Mission Impossible, the original Star Trek, etc. I feel sorry for generations who grow up today and don't have the chance to see these classic shows as part of their youth. I grew up in the 80s/90s and yet I had the amazing chance to catch and appreciate so much great programming that I would never have seen otherwise and I think that my life is better for it.

Of course, the counterpart is that sadly, I'm the only one of my friends in their early 20s who has totally seen all of Get Smart, Miami Vice, etc. while all they know is like Lost and Alias and American Idol, etc. so I have nothing to talk about or share in common with people my age LOL.

[Yeah_Baby]

Didn't RDTV show Batman: The Animated Series?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

Didn't RDTV show Batman: The Animated Series?

Yes RDTV is responsible with filling my afterschool days with Batman the Animated series and reruns of The Real Ghostbusters, and so much goodness. My childhood is so much richer thanks to them.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Yes RDTV is responsible with filling my afterschool days with Batman the Animated series and reruns of The Real Ghostbusters, and so much goodness. My childhood is so much richer thanks to them.

I've often contemplated buying Batman TAS. That show rocked.

[flip]

Just got this email from Shaw:

CTV, CBC and Global TV are trying to convince Canadians that local TV is in trouble. What they're really doing is trying to push through a TV tax on all Canadians for programming you get for free today.
They want this extra charge because they've misspent the hundreds of millions of dollars they've already received from taxpayers, cable and satellite companies. In total, cable and satellite companies pay $250 million a year in program funding to assist local broadcasters in producing Canadian television programs – as much additional funding as is provided by the Canadian government. Where does that money come from? It comes from the Canadian taxpayers.
The major broadcasters won't even commit to using the new money to produce new local content. That's why the CRTC has already turned them down twice.
None of us can afford to keep bailing out companies who don't know how to control their spending. Help us hold the broadcasters accountable.


Brad Shaw
Senior Vice President, Operations
Shaw Communications Inc.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

I've often contemplated buying Batman TAS. That show rocked.

Definitely worth the investment. Best non-comedic animated series ever.

[SportsJunky]

I hadn't heard about this yet but apparently the fee has gone through and is being passed on to cable and sattelite customers every month.

The new fee is about 90 cents for a $60 Rogers cable bill and $1 for the average $68 Bell satellite bill. The companies say they're not keeping the cash, only collecting it for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
The hike represents 1.5% of revenues broadcast distributors are forced to dish out for a new television fund called the Local Programming Improvement Fund.

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/canad...47181-sun.html

[zuluking]

"But in a form letter to angry callers, the CRTC said it didn't think distributors would pass on the cost."

HA HA!!!

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by zuluking

"But in a form letter to angry callers, the CRTC said it didn't think distributors would pass on the cost."

HA HA!!!

Yeah, I bet they've thouroughly investigated this as much as the high commission thouroughly investigated that woman from Kenya.

[fredr123]

Bump. http://localtvmatters.ca/

Have you seen the latest ads sponsored in this campaign? They are encouraging you to fight the cable company and resist an increase in your cable bills.

This is rich. The networks argue for a bigger piece of the pie, a new fee payable to them from the cable companies. They get that, sort of, but now they are trying to deflect consumer backlash over increased fees to the cable companies.

Of course that fee is going to be passed on to customers. Who in their right mind would think cable and satellite providers would eat that cost? They can't. It would be a disservice to their shareholders.

[stampsx2]

I watch no local tv. The only thing I may watch is the local news but even that I can find on the net read what I want and not sit through a single commercial.

[The Special One]

Let local TV die, it sucks anyway. Nermala Naidoo can go to hell, she's ugly.

[Incinerator]

who the hell get their news from TV anymore? there's this thing call CalgaryPuck and Google News....I haven't had cable TV for 5 years now. CBC has streaming local news and any other TV show you want can be found online if you type its name in Google.

[calgaryrocks]

local tv? the only thing that is useful for is the news, and that can be found online, or in the metro on the train (as there is nothing else to do on the train)
global, ctv, citytv don't show any local content other then news. they show american shows, not even local sports. at least shaw tv always has the weather at the bottom, has things around calgary and shows Dino's football occasionally. why should we support them when they won't put the money into local (or even Canadian most of the time) shows etc. they just take the american signals from nbc, cbs etc and put thier own crappy ads over them. making money off of shows they don't even produce. stupid