While I have been hard at work railing against the CBC, I would like to take a moment and tip my hat to the one CBC television franchise that I watch and enjoy, Hockey Night in Canada. While TSN has a superior product in every way imaginable, the one thing that they don't have is the Don. It is to the point where I will often tune in to Coach's Corner without even watching the miserable Leaf game surrounding Don Cherry. The biggest problem with HNC is that the Leafs draw the highest ratings because of the plurality of their fan base, but they have sucked really badly for several years now. I can't watch HNC because Maple Leaf hockey stinks. It was hilarious when they lost the iconic theme song to TSN.
With that in mind, what CBC television shows do you watch? I am trying to get an idea of what is worth saving over there. I could have included none of the above as a poll option, but I would like to get a sense of what has potential value. So if the question is not what do you like the most, which do you loathe the least? I strongly suspect that Hockey Night in Canada accounts for a very large chunk of CBC revenues. I would like to know if any of these programs are actually turning a profit. The 2005 Auditor General report does not delve into which franchises generated their $547 million in revenue, but they were generally descriptive on expenditures. It is not yet clear if Newsworld conducts "in and out" expenditure dumping on local affiliates, but I have a strong suspicion. There is no other way they can produce all that content for 7% of the cost of the main channels.
Ironically, I worked the night shift at GM Place for two years and spent quite a lot of time around the Hockey Night in Canada production team. I wanted to work for the Orca Bay franchise so badly that I accepted a job as a janitor. I remember being trained on my first shift and the guy training me said "I bet right about now you wish that you'd gotten an education?" I said "I have an honours degree in Mathematical Economics." He looked at me confused and said "then what the hell are you doing here???"
"I want to work for the Canucks and I did my honours thesis on the Cost of Human Capital in Professional Sports."
I resigned after two seasons of picking up garbage after coming to the realization that nobody is ever promoted from the Housekeeping Department to the front office. But I cleaned up after the CBC production team for two years because I had a dream. That Good Will Hunting bullshit doesn't happen in real life!
As it stands at this moment, if the cable companies and the CRTC would practice a little freedom of choice and let subscribers select, and pay for, only the programs they want, I'm afraid the CBC would vanish from my list.
ReplyDeleteI quit watching hockey when it became a game with billionaire owners, paying millionaire players, in front of millionaire purchasers of private boxes. Once they priced the game out of the reach of the average Canadian, I decided they, and their sponsors, didn't need my support.
As for the rest of the CBC programming, I used to watch The Nature of Things, but since Suzuki has changed it into a propaganda device that correlates everything, including medical technology, to global warming I have dropped it. On the CBC Newsworld, I used to watch Don Newman's Politics (often through clenched teeth). But with the current troll twins in charge...forget it.
Both networks continue to run anti-Canadian, pro AGW brain washing disguised as documentaries and the so-called investigative programs are mainly anti-capitalist one-sided rants.
Basically I'm down to watching a half hour of the morning news on Newsworld at 6:00 A.M. before they have a chance to interview their late rising, hand picked, anti-Conservative, pro global warming "guests". I calculate that that CBC and CBC Newsworld cost me about $4 a month. It ain't worth it.