Silly Little Country

Cable 'Mogul''s Good Sense

My mother drew my attention to this article.

What profoundly good sense!

Noting that "over the past 10 years, Shaw has contributed over $350 million in direct subsidies to the Canadian production industry," Mr. Shaw observes the fund "has become nothing more than a means of subsidizing broadcasters, pay and specialty services and independent producers to produce Canadian television programming that few watch and has no commercial or exportable value."

(Shaw claims that its Star Choice satellite television division now pays more to the fund than it returns to shareholders.)

The Canadian Television Fund was created in 1996 with a mandate to produce "high-quality culturally significant Canadian television programs in both official languages." It also has an annual budget of $250 million a year -- $100 million of which is provided by the federal government.

That fact leads directly to another of Mr. Shaw's beefs.

He is particularly rankled that a full 37 per cent of the fund's revenues are set aside annually for the CBC/SRC -- something he declares "should be ended immediately" in light of the fact that the "CBC already receives over $1.2 billion from Canadian taxpayers in the form of grants and mandatory subscriber fees."

This all comes out of the fatuous notion that we Canadians need bureaucratic entities to decide what television we should be permitted to watch. The real tragedy, of course, is that Canada has one of the freest media in the world. It is utterly appalling to go abroad and spend time in Austria, the UK, or France (and Germany).

Nonetheless we will now have major protests, and the staggeringly attractive Wendy Crewson will lead the Canadian acting community in its rent-seeking battle.

More power to Mr. Shaw!

posted by Alan Adamson @ 6:14 PM