Regarding this CBS/CBC issue: Does anyone have a CBC TV schedule for the
WC's?
I have always loved the CBC telecasts of all track and XC competitions...
they have a slight Canadian slant ... but very slight ... nothing like
American TV. They actually realize that the 5k/10k are real track events
... even if there are no Canadians in the final.
I would look it up myself, but have no 'net connection at work.
Thanks,
Brian M.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Molvar [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 2:51 PM
To: Send t-and-f
Subject: t-and-f: WCs: CBC vs CBS and Exclusive Rights Contracts
CBC does a much better job. They are a public
station that doesn't have to make a profit.
CBS is a profit making enterprise. They think if
they show nothing but up close and personals,
people will watch. They are doing this because
their marketeers classify track as an "Olympic
Sport" which the marketeers say targets a women's
audience which the marketeers say are not really
interested in competition but are interest in
"the human side to the sport". They are wrong of
course, but still pull down triple digit salaries
even as the Network loses money when they cover
track and DWIGHT (in hiding) will defend these
marketeers until his dying breath or his last
paycheck from them. All the power to them I
guess.
The irony is that CBC gets a much larger share of
the Canadian audience by "just showing the damn
meet" than CBS does from the US audience by
deliberately trying to reach a larger audience by
showing what they think people want to see. CBS
sucks.
To me the problem is not that we need more
government tv in America, but with the long
standing tradition in America of "exclusive
rights" contracts that exists for sporting
events. I think the events (football, track,
baseball, golf, etc. )could make more money if
they started refusing to sign exclusive rights
contracts. I.e. the Edmonton WC organizers
should have signed several smaller contracts with
3 or 4 different US stations for a sum total
greater than the one exclusive rights contract.
The organizers would make more money and we could
keep switching the channel to get the best
coverage. The networks would hate it of course,
they don't want to compete during the heat of the
battle. They would probably collude to stop it
or use the court system to stop it. They prefer
the status quo with an up front bidding war, then
they are free from direct competition during the
actual event and have monopoly coverage of the
event which allows them to show what they want to
show, when they want to show it, and to package
it into what ever bogus theme they are selling.
This is a radical idea, but I am a radical.
John Molvar
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