Kate Taylor, while otherwise lavishing praise on the Corpse’s Olympics coverage, notes:
Expect CBC to be a player in [Olympic broadcasting], despite continuing debate over whether a public broadcaster should cover an area of programming that commercial broadcasters are eager to take over.
And again a restatement of the hoary and contradictory talking point that as soon as a Private does something, CBC must forever stop doing that same thing.
If we’re talking about sports, let’s talk about women’s sports. (Are those two different things?) CTV finagled a licence to run the Women’s Sports Network – and they actually put it on the air. Should CBC have ceased to cover wymmynz sports at that point?
But when BCE shut down the network five years ago next month, what was supposed to happen then? CBC should stay out of that genre because the pool had been contaminated? CBC permanently lost its rights to the genre because a Private gave it a shot and it didn’t work out? Or wymmynz sports was such a loser that only the CBC should be doing it?
How is any of this different from the argument against Wal-Mart – when it comes to town, mom-’n’-pops shut down, and when it leaves, there aren’t any moms or pops left to replace it?
Again: If taken to its logical conclusion, is this not a method to eradicate the CBC? Just get enough Privates to run comparable shows. How often are we expected to toggle this on/off switch between the CBC and the Privates?
CBC may have been outbid by CTV for the 2010 Vancouver winter Olympics and the 2012 London summer Olympics, but this week it got approval to start a digital channel largely dedicated to amateur sport, a crucial building block for future bids.
(Actually, wouldn’t a Women’s Sports Network be useful to CTV for future bids?)
In 2010, CTV will profit from the local setting and a time difference that neatly catapults afternoon events into Eastern prime time, but it will also have to match a standard of Olympics coverage that has been set by the CBC.
Generous.
But where’s the admission that her paper and CTV and TSN are owned by the same conglomerate? While purely pro forma, it ain’t there. (CTV properties are advertised on the illegal billboards around the hydro substation across from Fort Dork.)