The Canadian broadcasting governing body, has once again screwed Canadians, by creating a plethora of obscure, and pointless new TV licenses to promote the advancement of DTV. These new channels have given me new incentive to go buy a DTV, yeah right!

Here is what us Candians who are enjoying DTV already can look forward to. Of the 21 proposed new DTV licenses, 5 will be French, the other 16 are as follows:

Subject:
Biography
Computer
Men
Mystery
Travel
Women's Sports
Fashion
Books
Documentaries
Land & Sea
Health
Independent Films
Youth
Wisdom TV
Gay
Issues

I can hardly wait! I will be glued to the TV watching the book channel, God forbid that it would occur to me to actually READ a book!!!

I've said it before and I will say it again, the CRTC are a bunch of brain dead politicians who wouldn't know entertainment if it bit them in the *ss.

PS Guys, don't get too excited I am sure the the Men's channel isn't all Sports, Cars, A/V Equipment (I had to throw that one in), Beer and Porn. I'm sure they'll find a way to take all the fun out of being a guy!

Biography -- Oh wow, I already avoid those channels...
Computer -- Will this be like the idiot @Home channel?
Men -- As mentioned, this is probably too good to be true.
Mystery -- Well, if it gets into classic mystery movies and series... may not be too bad.
Travel -- Eh, who can afford to go anywhere with the Canadian doller? Guess we'll have to watch it on TV.
Women's Sports -- Um hmm. Mmm.
Fashion -- *Canadian* fashion?
Books -- Much rather actually read them.
Documentaries -- On what? There's already a lot of specific channals that can't find anything better to run.
Land & Sea -- Food maybe: Surf & Turf? Or Boats & Cars?
Health -- Oprah health warnings, 24/7?
Independent Films -- Since no one would go to the theaters?
Youth -- Um, did they notice that we already have a TV channel called "Youth TV" (YTV)?
Wisdom TV -- I'm sure everyone will look to get this from a television.
Gay -- Well, there's now a Men's and Women's channel... guess they needed something in-between!
Issues -- Uh oh, CPAC2!

Oh no, not enough excitement for you couch potatoes? Why don't you get off your fat asses and go outside for a while.

Bite me, Stud.

"Bite me, Stud."

That would be the most excitement you've ever had.

I am glad to see all countries have dipshit politicians and dipshit people.

I forgot, Stud which one are you? I love people who post crap without their email addresses.

Watching this thread grow, I feel I must retort, however I will do so politely. "stud" (if that is your real name) my disdain, is not for the fact that more "entertainment" is being offered to me, but that I will be forced (in all likelyhood) to take ALL of the aforementioned channels in a package AND PAY EXTRA for them. The issue is really, that as a Canadian I am sick and tired of having to pay for substandard programing for the sake of "cultural protection". Well I don't need cultural protection; give me ESPN, Disney and whatever other garbage that offers the prospect of entertainment. Basically, LET THE MARKET DECIDE WHO GETS LICENSES!! If a channel can be successful without being forced on an audience who didn't want it in the first place, then give it a license. The job of the CRTC should be to administer, and to ensure that broadcasters stick to a certain level of acceptable content, ie no hate mongering and so forth, not "cultural protection". It breeds mediocrity.

I agree with Christian, I use my mind at work. I want to relax with my tv. Freedom of speech, not government control.

... so I took a trip to the CRTC website, and discovered that they have approved the above-mentioned "Category 1" channels, and another 262 "Category 2" channels, along with two more pay-per-views and four Video-On-Demand channels. I guess the difference between these new channels, and existing channel licenses, is that the new ones "may" all be broadcast as DTV.

Interesting, some of the Category 2s include the Legal Channel, the Singles Channel, the Gameshow Network, BBC-Canada, the Nerd Network, and a ton of other interesting-sounding channels. I'm still looking for individual descriptions of each channel.

The 16 new Category 1 channels at first look appear to be a little brain-dead, but a review of their actual titles suggests a bit more challenging content: "Wisdom" is an all-Canada channel (perhaps the CBC should have this moniker?); "Computers" is Ziff-Davis, or ZDTV; the American "Biography" channel; "Independent Films" is from Salter Films, who bring us the incredibly astute "This Hour Has 22 Minutes", and a number of other fine cultural services, and so on.

Category 1 is defined as "minimum 50% Canadian content"; Category 2 is "minimum 15% during the 1st year, and up to 35% Can-con by year three and ever after. Also, Category 2 services don't have to provide a guarantee of financing, or other business scenarios, the way Cat 1s do.

What will be interesting is watching who will succeed and who will fail, of course... but more interesting to me is, how much are we going to be charged, and as Christian points out, will we have pay for bundles that we don't want? The CRTC states flat out that these new channels and services are designed to provide Canadians with individual "choices" without paying for channels we don't want. Well, as Canadian viewers well know, our cable companies pretty much take that choice away from us every time new channels become available, by bundling the crap with the potentially-good.

More interestingly, how much will we be charged to rent an additional set-top DTV/HDTV box? Right now Rogers in Ontario charges $12 plus tax to get the DTV-box, and there is no HDTV programming available. In fact, for that money, all you really get is Starz! (like E!) and 30 music channels. And that's on top of your $30-$55 monthly fee.

I believe it's time the CRTC started regulating the industry, and not what the industry broadcasts... which I believe was the original intent. But, even Patrick Watson, a powerhouse CBC investigative reporter and talent, fell under the spell of political stupidity when he headed up the CRTC a few years ago.

Watson was a staunch supporter of freedom-of-access, and often pissed off his federal employers by criticizing both the CBC and the CRTC. When he was amazingly offered the position of Chair at the CRTC, causing those of us in the business to leap for joy, he became a flatulent windbag, and an example of the worst kind of masturbatory mouthpiece for private lobbyists.

So, when even our heroes hide behind their capes, who can we turn to? ... Books, I guess... ... Mike

There's no way I'm buying digital cable boxes for every set in the house... I would only ever consider a "proprietary" box for DSS in the family room. The rest get analog cable.

Here here Mike! From what I got out of the National Post's article on Friday, was that the Cat1 channels would be packaged together, with the hopes that the Independent Films Channel, and Women's Sports channel would provide the draw. I agree Salter Street does some amazing stuff, but I already get Bravo! and Show Case, why would I pay for a third when I hardly watch those, and I can watch 22 Minutes for free! I'm all for Women's sports, but I don't think that I would order a channel dedicated to it. It is very encouraging to here about the Cat 2 licenses, we'll see who makes it to air. The DTV box isn't all that bad, I enjoy ours although $12 is a little steep. But it is a small price to pay to not listen to those Jerk DJ, and commercial after commercial on the Radio. The sound qualilty is much better than the radio as well.

My apologies in advance to any DJ's out there.

You beat me to the punch Daniel, you don't need a box for every TV. That's the beauty of Digital Cable. You can use the box on your main TV, and then on the secondary ones you can watch analogue cable. No box required.


FOR NOW! BWAA HA HA HAAAA!