I have several books of quotations on my bookshelves, although they frequently spend time in the bathroom. I came across the following quotation that both tickled me and resonated with me.<\/p>\n
\nThere are days when any electrical appliance in the house, including the vacuum cleaner, seems to offer more entertainment possibilities than the TV set.
\n\u2014Harriet Van Horne<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nBy coincidence, I did nearly three hours\u2019 vacuuming yesterday (spring-cleaning the bedrooms) and thoroughly enjoyed it. The previous evening, I\u2019d spent over an hour looking on Netflix for something worthwhile to watch.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s TV service providers were recently compelled by regulators to start offering a basic or \u201cskinny\u201d package for $25.00 or less. The aim was simple\u2014to stop forcing viewers to pay for a bunch of channels that they don\u2019t want and will never watch. The idea made sense to a lot of people.<\/p>\n
“These changes will ensure Canadians have the ability to choose the television content that meets their unique needs, budgets and realities,\u201d quoth a CRTC spokesperson in a statement to CBC news. (CRTC: Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission)<\/p>\n
And so it should have, if the TV service providers had played ball. But what company would willingly<\/em> eat into its profits to comply with the spirit<\/em> of a regulation?<\/p>\n
In what seems to have been a collective nose-thumbing to the regulators, they released their offerings on March 1st to a fanfare of\u2014gasps of disbelief. Customers noticed that they would actually pay more<\/em> if they switched to the basic plan plus just the channels they want and currently have.<\/p>\n
Skinny\u2014Getting Rid of Fat and Gristle?<\/h1>\n
Channel-bundling is something like selling pre-packaged meat; the visible surfaces might look wholesome, but you suspect you\u2019re also paying for some fat and gristle that lurk beneath.<\/p>\n
A less sensational and more germane comparison is the notion of wanting to buy a couple of really good books and finding that you can\u2019t buy them singly; you have to buy them in a bundle that also contains a stack of remaindered books. And when you check the stack of books, you find that the remaindered books aren\u2019t all different\u2014there are two or more copies of some of them.<\/p>\n
As far as I know, booksellers don\u2019t operate this way\u2014although if they read this and then implement such a scheme, you\u2019ll know who to thank (or blame).<\/p>\n
But this is how TV service providers operate. It wouldn\u2019t be quite so bad if the \u201cfat and gristle\u201d channels were transmitting up-and-coming programs or experimental programs or programs made by independent producers who\u2019ve been overlooked by the mainstream stations. But no\u2014the majority of them are either churning out reality shows on every conceivable topic under the sun or running old shows whose recordings should never have been archived. I mean who wants to watch Partridge Famil<\/em>y re-runs?<\/p>\n
Okay\u2014I\u2019ll step away from the Rant button now\u2014I\u2019m off-topic.<\/p>\n
If I was still a cable TV subscriber (I cut the cord in November 2011), I wouldn\u2019t mind my subscription helping to subsidize and encourage up-and-coming talent\u2014there\u2019s a limit to how long the current crop of writers\/actors\/directors\/producers\/etc. can continue!<\/p>\n
But I really don\u2019t see that that was where my subscription was going. It was paying for reality channels, celebrity gossip channels and faith-based channels that exist to satisfy certain markets and make their owners large amounts of money for the smallest possible outlay.<\/p>\n
Reality TV is not real. Who behaves naturally in an artificial situation, knowing there are cameras everywhere, and knowing there\u2019s a paycheque at the end of it?<\/p>\n
Celebrity gossip has descended to collective voyeurism (if indeed it was ever anything nobler or defensible). I have no interest in who is whumping who.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m withholding my opinion of faith-based TV on the grounds that every draft ended up reading like a mega-rant\u2014not something I want \u201cmy kind of reader\u201d to read.<\/p>\n
Those aren\u2019t markets that I\u2019m interested in, now, or when I still had cable TV and formed my opinions.<\/p>\n
So What Does”Skinny” Look Like?<\/h1>\n
Here\u2019s a breakdown of the channels that my local cable provider offers for $25.00. (A quick look through my local phone company\u2019s TV packages revealed a variation on the same theme.)<\/p>\n
\n
- Forty channels.<\/li>\n
- Most channels are SD and HD options of a single channel.<\/li>\n
- Several channels are French-only. (If I was a French-Canadian, my comment\/complaint would be plusieurs des canaux sont anglais-seulement<\/em>.)<\/li>\n
- Two channels transmit programs for \u201cthe regional Cantonese, Mandarin and South Asian communities\u201d.<\/li>\n
- The plan does not include \u201cHD equipment\u201d, which all their other plans do include.<\/li>\n
- The blurb also advises, \u201cadditional charges may apply\u201d.<\/li>\n
- The plan is not included in any of the advertised TV and Internet bundles or TV, Internet and Phone bundles.<\/li>\n
- Additional channels cost from $6.00 to $80.00 per month for bundles of three to ten channels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
At least the \u201cskinny\u201d package doesn\u2019t include a shopping channel.<\/p>\n
In a seemingly perverse tactical ploy, the \u201cHelp me choose which plan\u201d feature lumps Reality TV and Educational programming together in one checkbox.<\/p>\n
Really!?<\/em> That seems to me to be worse than offering all Donald Trump\u2019s and Bernie Sanders\u2019 campaign speeches in a single boxed set of DVDs. At least dispassionate observers might be interested in comparing and contrasting Trump\u2019s and Sanders\u2019 campaigns, although I\u2019m sure the market would be limited. But who would be interested in a plan that includes access to shows with titles like Flaunting Fat is Funny<\/em> or Large Sibling\u2014Troglodyte Edition<\/em> as well as to documentaries about advances in organic food production or analysis of megalithic science? The two demographics don\u2019t seem congruous.<\/p>\n
Oh dear. I\u2019m really not able to keep away from the Rant button, am I?<\/p>\n
How Has TV Survived?<\/h1>\n
TV, watching TV, and TV content quality have attracted derision almost since TV was invented. Here are a few quotations I\u2019ve dug out from my books and from online quotation sites, notably The Quote Garden<\/a>, which seems to be a well-researched site run by a passionate lady.<\/p>\n
\nTelevision? No good will come of the device. The word is half Greek and half Latin.
\n\u2014C.P. Scott (Editor, Manchester Guardian, 1872\u20131929)<\/p>\nTelevision is an anaesthetic for the modern world.
\n\u2014Astrid Alauda (No clue who this person is!)<\/p>\nThe television set in American homes is like the toaster. You press a button and the same thing pops out almost every time.
\n\u2014Alfred Hitchcock<\/p>\nTheatre actors look down on film actors, who look down on TV actors. Thank God for reality shows or we wouldn\u2019t have anyone to look down on.
\n\u2014George Clooney<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nTV There and Here<\/h1>\n
There seemed to be more scorn aimed at American TV than British TV. I\u2019d like to think that it\u2019s because the BBC was given the money and resources to make quality content, thereby obviating the need to compromise for the sake of sponsors, advertisers, viewing figures and so on.<\/p>\n
The BBC\u2019s output is respected and sought-after around the world. Nobody would claim that they\u2019ve not created any duds, but for the most part, the programmes don\u2019t insult the intelligence (or at least, that was the situation when we emigrated in 1994). These days, I read about resistance to the TV licence fee (which is currently \u00a3145.50 per year) and wish those detractors could live in North America for a year and sample the quality of the majority of content here.<\/p>\n
Choice, Quality, Quantity<\/h1>\n
We have lots of choice, but we\u2019re choosing from a basket of bruised apples. The sad thing is that for whatever reason (apathy? laziness? hopelessness?) we are choosing instead of rejecting. We should be paying someone to pick the best apples from the tree instead of scooping up the windfalls. Windfall apples are used as pig food; I don\u2019t want to be fed pig food.<\/p>\n
So in the name of choice, we are getting quantity, but not necessarily quality.
\nThe subscription and pay-per-view models seem to me to be a sensible way forward. Netflix is doing it; Amazon, iTunes, Shomi\u2026 the list goes on. These models still have less predictability than the TV licensing model where income is concerned, and the companies involved are all in it for the money, but it\u2019s definitely a step up from the paid-for-with-commercials model.<\/p>\nThere are good arguments for and against the various funding models, but the topic is large enough to merit its own article, which I will likely publish on April 12th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n
Summary<\/h1>\n
Art and business aren\u2019t, for the most part, good companions. There are many philanthropic business people who donate to the arts as their legacy, but outside of the Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), I cannot recall any philanthropists who sponsor quality TV content; and even that isn\u2019t content creation.<\/p>\n
Since art is not necessarily motivated by profit, business people introduce elements that will return that profit. Overwhelmingly, those elements have been sponsorship and advertising.<\/p>\n
There are better ways.<\/p>\n
As for content delivery, the \u201cskinny\u201d TV packages have not achieved their purpose, it seems. Perhaps the TV service providers are too powerful to take on at this time. Certainly they have done a good job of limiting the consumer\u2019s options (cable companies and telephone companies are now sharing the same set of markets and therefore \u201ccompeting\u201d with each other). Unless governments nationalize one or both utilities (thereby removing the profit motive), I see no prospect of the situation improving. And since I see little desire for and no prospect of nationalization, I see no prospect at all. All we consumers can do is to support the organized consumer lobby organizations.<\/p>\n
Or we can learn to entertain ourselves (with or without a vacuum cleaner) instead of being mesmerized by the one-eyed monster in the corner of the room.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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