If you work at Fort Dork, your tastes in private commercial broadcasting probably run more along the lines of CITY-TV. The old CITY, before it got ass-raped by cableco kleptocrats.
How is Rogers borking now? By ignoring its licence requirement to run a Canadian movie every week.
It’s not much of a ploy. Even with today’s compliant CRTC, so unfamiliar to those who cut their gums on yesterday’s compliant CRTC, I don’t see how Rogers is gonna squirm out of this one. They’ll be stuck with the requirement and will get slapped on the wrist for having ignored it.
The CITY CanCon ghetto was a good deal. I saw a lot of decent pictures. Contrary to what Rex Reed thinks, Canadian movies don’t all suck. Ginger Snaps, Waydowntown, Hard Core Logo, Goin’ Down the Road, Last Wedding. These are not bad movies. Seriously. (Now, Pontypool I didn’t like. But it was a great night out at the Fox.)
So why aren’t these movies also on CBC?
The whole late-movie slot is badly programmed. I remember a job posting for a movie programmer a couple of months ago; was it ever filled? Doesn’t look like it.
A lot of the time, the Friday-overnight (i.e., the before-you-go-to-bed-Thursday) movie slot is Canadian. Do you even watch those movies? I always check the program guide to see what’s coming up. (It doesn’t work in any reasonable way: You have to peer at each day’s program grid; there isn’t a permalink for each movie.)
Anyway, tonight’s movie is 20h17 rue Darling; last week’s was Ginger Snaps: The Beginning; next week’s is Once in a Blue Moon. Not fantastic.
This can’t cost a fortune. Why can’t CBC run way more Canadian movies, maybe twice a week? It’s already happening. Why not more, and better? Isn’t this an easy win?