Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘hbo’

The CRTC has approved a broadcasting license for English Al-Jazeera in Canada:

I first blogged about this back in 2003, when media monitoring organisations were sounding the alarm about the virulent antisemitic content being broadcast on Qatar-based Al-Jazeera’s Arabic-language station on a daily basis, under the guise of news. The English affiliate doesn’t have quite the same level of bias – certainly, not that much worse than we see regularly from, say, the CBC or the Guardian, or on the other side, from the likes of FOX news. If there’s a demand for the service, and the content doesn’t cross the line, then I have to stand in support of freedom of information.

Besides, this is 2009. Anyone who wants content can get it, regardless of the CRTC’s decision. This decision is really only about whether satellite providers can charge for it, or whether people will have to access it online or through other methods.

I still haven’t forgiven the CRTC for all those years without HBO, though. Segacs to CRTC: this ain’t over, bitch!

The upcoming season will be the last for Six Feet Under, one of the few remaining quality shows on TV. Of course, it’s on HBO, which the CRTC has deemed too dangerous for our sensitive Canadian eyes. Still, I grew addicted when I had satellite and I’ll miss it.

It’s nice to see a show ending on a high note, rather than staying on too long and sinking into mediocrity.

A Gazette reader has this to say about the widespread availability of porn on Canadian TV:

Evidently, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is less rigorous in regulating Canadian viewers’ access to porn (Gazette, Jan. 4., “Canada leads world in TV porn”) than in allowing Canadians the opportunity to pay for Fox or NBC’s 24-hour news channels. I am not particularly concerned with how the CRTC regulates pornography, but I cannot help but observe Canadian identity is deemed to be more symbiotic with pornography than American cable news availability.

One can only hope that the CRTC is properly vigilant in assuring porn actors and productions are Canadian and reflect our diverse, multi-cultural mosaic.

The CRTC’s recent decisions to deny broadcasting licenses to several US channels including HBO, Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, TMN, Lifetime, Flix, Fox Sports, ESPN, Fox News, Nickelodeon, and WAM were taken on the premise that they would “compete with existing Canadian channels”, and presumably that would be bad:

Further, the Commission’s general policy with respect to such requests precludes the distribution of non-Canadian services that it determines to be either totally or partially competitive with existing Canadian specialty or pay services.

The Commission notes that, under its current policy, a range of foreign programming services is available for distribution in Canada. Moreover, a number of broadly-distributed Canadian programming services provide a wide variety of non-Canadian programming, including programming available within the services that CCTA requests be authorized for distribution.

[ . . . ]

Most significantly, the Commission is concerned that adoption of CCTA’s proposal would make it more difficult for Canadian services to obtain the Canadian rights to broadcast foreign productions. The loss of the revenues generated by such foreign programs could result in a decrease in the production and broadcast of Canadian programming.

So we can’t get HBO because CTV would lose money when it tried to broadcast episodes of the Sopranos that are three years old. But no worries: we can have all the porn we could possibly dream of! I guess there aren’t too many concerns about preserving Canadian culture and preventing American competition when hot naked chicks are involved. (So then why is Sex and the City still not permitted to air?)

Rachel Marsden has a good idea for the united Conservative Party’s campaign slogan for the next Federal election: “Vote Conservative, get HBO”.

Works for me.

Frankly, I think that would attract a LOT of votes. Here in big-brother-land, where the CRTC promotes endless “Canadian content” (read: crap) and allows licensing for Punjabi and Tamil stations and entertains applications from the likes of Al-Jazeera, it is illegal to get the latest episodes of the Sopranos or Six Feet Under. As well as a host of other programming, denied the right to air because of the horrible crime of being American.

I for one find it insulting that the government presumes to decide what’s “best” for us by denying us some of the most innovative, entertaining television to be created in recent history, but giving us all the Red Green we can watch. Whoopee.

News flash to the CRTC: We’re grownups. We don’t need you to set viewing guidelines for us. If we want our latest fix of Sex and the City, I don’t want to be told that it will rot my brain and that I should content myself with the latest Rita MacNeil special on CBC instead! That’s nightmare-inducing.

If you agree that the government should butt out and let us watch the programming we choose, then add your name to this online petition. Of course, it will accomplish absolutely nothing, but you’ll feel better. I know I did.

Woohoo! HBO is bringing back Dennis Miller.

For the record, I think it’s pretty low of HBO to cancel his weekly show, and then try to boost ratings by bringing him back for a “special”. But on the bright side, the show’s bound to be hysterical.