Partly, I think the issue here is that Bell and Rogers as media companies never should have been allowed to exist. They were and are, utilities. Its an overt conflict of interest to both own the pipe and what flows through it, when that pipe needs to be open to others due to past (and present) monopolies on infrastructure.
The media companies are losing some money, but I would argue that's a result, again, in part, of poor strategic thinking on the part of executives who are part of a larger conglomerate structure, many of whom don't have media/culture experience.
Its not simply a matter of poor decisions, be that cutting local ad sales teams and local programming that drove ratings; or vastly overpaying for NHL hockey rights........, or gutting what made many specialty channels successful, then whining about low ratings, ad sales and declining viewership.
Though all of those matter.
Its also about poor public policy focus.
There's been a constant move to protect sim sub; instead of just booting American broadcasters off of Basic Cable entirely (which would allow a cheaper, all-Canadian package, which I think would be more popular).
There's been a lack of focus on driving international sales of Canadian programs and sinking that money back into the system, even though many Canadian shows are sold the world over, and do bring home $$$, the effort isn't there to build on that.
For instance, Murdoch Mysteries is a huge hit in the UK, and they did, at their British broadcast partners insistence, shoot 2 episodes over there. But it was, so far as I recall, a one-off move, they don't actively send their stars over to be on Graham Norton et al, and or recruit high profile Brit actors for guest roles.
That's a CBC example, I know; but Rogers had one from a few years ago, their OLN show 'Mantracker', (2 cowboys on horses, playing a 2-day game of hide and seek with 2 would-be fugitives/racers in the Canadian wilderness) was a big hit in Australia and attracted many American viewers as well. But they muddled that opportunity in a host of ways, including losing the show's original star.
Too much cheapskating, not enough vision. If you see Cancon as a money-losing burden, it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Finally, I would note, if they wanted their local stations, particularly those providing local news to do better in ads; they should have lobbied the feds to boost CBC's budget to make their news programming ad-free. It would cost less than 100M a year, and yet would let the private broadcasters monopolize the local ad market in TV.
Sigh.
toronto.citynews.ca
