HDTV endangers Canadian culture
p2pnet.net News:- University of Calgary professors Bart Beaty and Rebecca Sullivan say while HDTV is offered as part of an expanded choice for consumers, the selection of programming using digital over analog technologies is almost exclusively American.
And that represents a threat to Canadian culture, they state.
“If you were to ask most Canadians what’s wrong with Canadian TV, they wouldn’t say ‘image quality,’ ” said Beaty, co-author with Sullivan of the newly published book Canadian Television Today,” quoted by the CBC.
The only incentive is for Canadian broadcasters to make the transition is, “competition – or, more like co-operation or even collusion — with the United States,” they say in their book.
Traditionally, “over-the-air television is transmitted in analog format and HDTV in digital says the CBC. “The U.S. has committed to phasing out analog delivery by 2009, but the CRTC has yet to set a date.
“The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will begin hearings on Monday to look at a number of issues facing Canadian broadcasters, including options for delivering digital television.
But while the two Calgary professors are worried the technology represents a threat, NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus thinks Canada should be concerned about the alternative.
“If we don’t look at the move to HD, then none of our programming will be sellable,” Angus told CBC Arts Online. “We won’t be in the game.”
Earlier this week, “the standing committee on Canadian heritage decided a comprehensive review of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will begin next February,” says the CBC, adding:
“Angus had called for a review last spring but waited with the expectation Heritage Minister Bev Oda would call one. Oda instead called on the CRTC to review broadcasting technologies and the relationships between television, radio and the internet.”
He’s criticizing Oda for planning a major fundraiser sponsored by the head of regulatory affairs for CanWest, one of Canada’s largest media companies, also asking if she’s, “stalling on TV fund renewal”.
Also See:
CBC – HDTV a threat to Canadian culture, critics warn, November 24, 2006
criticizing Oda – Oda, ’stalling on TV fund renewal’?, November 23, 2006
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November 26th, 2006 at 5:12 am
I am going to http://www.clicktv.com, typing my postal code, and select “Local broadcast listings”, just to find that there is nothing or almost nothing to watch for tonight.