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the CBC lock-out
This does help somewhat but man, do I ever miss the CBC...
It's a real shock to go from a country that's got such an all-encompassing organization as the BBC (and I loved having access to it all the time!) to a country where the national public broadcasting corporation is constantly under-funded or threatened in some other manner. Right now, antagonism between CBC management and its employees is so extreme that it has led to a long-term lock-out.
Let's compare, shall we? (information as far as I know it)
CBC: four television channels (general French & English, French & English news; usually only one available without cable/satellite) with a lot of foreign programming during the day, three radio stations (classical/jazz/tiny bit of pop, talk/folk/some pop, Radio Canada International) one internet radio station, 45 Galaxie unhosted music-only digital "television" channels, general website with some limited access to historically important archival material, some "best-of" merchandise available online and at very select stores
BBC: two terrestrial channels, six digital channels, nine radio stations featuring a wide variety of music and talk (some digital-only), I-don't-know-how-many local radio stations, extensive website, extensive access to recently played material as well as archival material, extensive audio/video/other merchandise offered online and in many stores, classical music magazine with worldwide distribution...
It's true that Canada's population is smaller--but it's not that much smaller! I know a lot of British people like to grumble about the license fee, but I have to wonder how much more stable and productive the CBC would be if we had that system in Canada. It'll never happen, of course; people would whine too much.
It's a real shock to go from a country that's got such an all-encompassing organization as the BBC (and I loved having access to it all the time!) to a country where the national public broadcasting corporation is constantly under-funded or threatened in some other manner. Right now, antagonism between CBC management and its employees is so extreme that it has led to a long-term lock-out.
Let's compare, shall we? (information as far as I know it)
CBC: four television channels (general French & English, French & English news; usually only one available without cable/satellite) with a lot of foreign programming during the day, three radio stations (classical/jazz/tiny bit of pop, talk/folk/some pop, Radio Canada International) one internet radio station, 45 Galaxie unhosted music-only digital "television" channels, general website with some limited access to historically important archival material, some "best-of" merchandise available online and at very select stores
BBC: two terrestrial channels, six digital channels, nine radio stations featuring a wide variety of music and talk (some digital-only), I-don't-know-how-many local radio stations, extensive website, extensive access to recently played material as well as archival material, extensive audio/video/other merchandise offered online and in many stores, classical music magazine with worldwide distribution...
It's true that Canada's population is smaller--but it's not that much smaller! I know a lot of British people like to grumble about the license fee, but I have to wonder how much more stable and productive the CBC would be if we had that system in Canada. It'll never happen, of course; people would whine too much.
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