"I'm about to go out of business because I'm in a declining industry, so you have to give me some money."

That is what local over-the-air television station owners are telling the cable companies in Canada. Sounds silly doesn't it. Well, unfortunately that is exactly what is happening in hearings before the CRTC. Alan has been blogging up a storm about this at Silly Little Country.

Imagine what the viewership of local television would be if cable companies did NOT carry the local over-the-air stations. And as Alan and I agreed yesterday, we might even be willing to pay the cable companies NOT to carry some of the drek that passes as local over-the-air television.

Comments

[Jeff H]

I wouldn't be surprised if they got the money.

[EclectEcon]

Jeff, I'm afraid you're right. The concept that cable companies make a lot of money and it is fair to ask them to give some to the local broadcasters seems awfully convincing.

I wish the cable companies were more aggressive: "We're doing the schmucks at local stations a favour by carrying them. What would their audiences be like if we didn't?"

[Matthew Carnaghan]

Why does this even need to be decided by the CRTC? In any sane broadcast system the networks would just start charging the cable companies and the cable companies would either decide to pay or not pay.

[Jeff H]

Well put

[EclectEcon]

Matthew and Jeff: I don't see why it would be sane for the networks to start charging the cable companies. After all, cable companies distribute their signal to more people and to wider audiences. Without cable companies disseminating their signals to more viewers, the networks (and especially the local stations) would be losing even more money. In fact, the cable companies provide a service for the locals by re-broadcasting their signals, increasing their viewership, and hence making their ads more valuable than they would otherwise be. It seems to me that, if anything, the locals should be paying the cable companies to carry their signals.

[Matthew Carnaghan]

I'm not taking sides because I think the networks and the cable companies are interdependent. I just want a braodcast system where netwroks can air what consumers want and charge cable companies what they themselves want, cable companies can carry the signals they want to carry and pay what they are willing to pay for them - if anything, and consumers can subscribe to only the channels they want. But that's not the system we have.

[Jeff H]

@ Palmer: I agree.

I would take it further and suggest that the local stations be left to their own devices and, if the industry continues to decline, they be allowed to fail like any other business in a capitalist society should.

[BK]

I put up an antenna and cut my cable exercising my capitalist right :), so quite frankly I could care less what they do. I encourage others to do the same thing. A decline in cable/satellite subscribers could be interesting in terms of how the CRTC would react. Imagine all that CDN content being crammed down our throats suddenly having a million less throats to cram down!