Canwest to sell E! Network

Baltimore Shooter said:
That's E! Canada. Comcast owns E! in the U.S. Maybe Comcast will buy E! Canada too.

Warren
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Sorry, I should of mentioned it was the Canadian franchise, not the US one.

I also should of read the whole article rather than of scanned it... apparently Rogers and Astral media have said they're not interested in small-market conventional over-the-air TV.

Makes me wonder who's going to make a play for those stations.

CP
 
So if no buyers come forward I wonder if the CRTC will allow CanWest reductions in CanCon requirements, code for lay off all of the news staff?

Corus/Shaw may try and grab e! Canada at a fire sale price.

Quebecor is having enough trouble with the awful Sun TV.
 
E! Channel Canada?

Good God, who thought that was a good idea?
1. Besides Vancouver (which is nice), Canada doesn't even have much of an entertainment industry.
2. Canada has 33 million residents, spread over an entire continent.

Whoever thought that a Canadian E! channel was going to fly really, really, really needed to get fired for not running the numbers.

Look at the difference.
1. The USA has the largest entertainment infrastructure in the world.
2. It drives the entertainment of the English speaking world.
3. The USA market has 330 million people in it.

Even Mexico has a 109 million people in it. And I would balk at doing a Mexican E! Channel.
 
AlexLucas said:
Good God, who thought that was a good idea?
1. Besides Vancouver (which is nice), Canada doesn't even have much of an entertainment industry.
2. Canada has 33 million residents, spread over an entire continent.

Whoever thought that a Canadian E! channel was going to fly really, really, really needed to get fired for not running the numbers.

Look at the difference.
1. The USA has the largest entertainment infrastructure in the world.
2. It drives the entertainment of the English speaking world.
3. The USA market has 330 million people in it.

Even Mexico has a 109 million people in it. And I would balk at doing a Mexican E! Channel.
Click to expand...


Well, the way it work(ed?) was they'd air US E! content, along with local news shows and Canadian content. A lot of Canadian networks work this way (CTV, Global, etc.). The only exception is the CBC which works much like the BBC (the bulk of funding provided by Parliament). Mind you those are traditional over-the-air networks. Some of these companies operate cable/sat-only channels as well.

We have a number of "US themed" franchise cable/sat channels, like HGTV, MTV, etc., but they are owned and operated by Canadian media conglomerates. Due to foreign ownership rules, US media companies can't own large portions of Canadian companies. I think one of the few channels that has a "large" portion of it owned by a US firm is TSN (ESPN owns a share of it).

As for your comments about how we don't have a large entertainment industry, there is some truth to that. One of our past prime ministers compared our relationship to the US as "having to share a bed with an elephant."

However, Canadians due to take pride in their country and cultural industries, and while it's not as large and commercial as the US, it's fairly significant for a population the size of ours.

Cheers,

CP
 
Canuck Photog said:
We have a number of "US themed" franchise cable/sat channels, like HGTV, MTV, etc., but they are owned and operated by Canadian media conglomerates. Due to foreign ownership rules, US media companies can't own large portions of Canadian companies.
Click to expand...

Ah, so there's the rub.
Ya wanna do E! Channel in Canada?
Ya gotta do some Canadian local programming, or you're not allowed in.

/Sponsored by Tim Horton's
 
AlexLucas said:
Ah, so there's the rub.
Ya wanna do E! Channel in Canada?
Ya gotta do some Canadian local programming, or you're not allowed in.

/Sponsored by Tim Horton's
Click to expand...

Gee maybe we should apply that to CTV, Global, City TV, Sun TV & the specialty channels. Outside of news the privates don't do too much. Sure there's a couple of shows here and there and some really bad clones of American reality TV.

Look how City TV has dumped news from most of it operations outside of Toronto, Global Toronto has just eliminated its morning and noon news putting 40 peopl out of work. Sun TV essentially has no local programming. No wonder the tv networks and stations are dumping staff left and right they see other stations not having to provide local content so why should they.

Other than the CBC the majority of programming on Canadian TV is all from the US. As for the CBC some folks are questioning why Corpse are carrying Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. I enjoy Jeopardy but it doesn't do much for CanCon even if Alex was born here.

The media in the mediocre white north is in a sad state.
Kelly Toughill who worked for The Star in T.O. and then in Halifax wrote an interesting op ed to this weekends Star.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/583748
 
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Global rescued CH out of bankruptcy many years ago, and now they're at it again.

CTV is doing very good for CanCon... Corner Gas, Flashpoint... and they have The Bridge coming as well. Well, The Border on CBC is good, because the Korean chick is HOT. SunTV has local content which are basically radio talk shows put on TV. Imagine how riveting those are to watch.
 
torontophotog said:
I think we're about to see the same situation with the A-Channels very soon.....they are basically in the exact same position as E!
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They're all basically in markets where this isn't a lot of growth. I think they only exception is Ottawa, but then again, CTVglobemedia also owns a CTV affiliate up there too.

Then again, maybe things will change, who knows. The business model for over-the-air TV news is changing...I think if you work for cable or satellite channels, you're good for now though.

CP
 
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