CBC to go 24/7

[Yeziknoradio]

According to Fybush.com,
CBC TV is going 24/7 replacing the late-night signoff with a schedule that includes a late-night movie and repeats of local news and the "Hour" talk show.
Thank-you Canadian tax payers for paying the Hydro bill.
(Fybush didn't say that last comment, I threw it in ;D )

Or am I wrong? Is there enough ad revenue to allow the station go 24/7?

 

[jegrant]

They are really promoting The Hour this season. They're even streaming the show in its entirety (even the commercials!) online on a one day delayed basis. (Every night at 3 AM, they upload the previous evening's show.)

As for 24/7 - can't get them here in USA, but glad to see they're adding streaming video. It's a shame they can't get, say, The National carried on C-SPAN3 or something.

They should really start a "CBC America" just like we have "BBC America" and show a mix of entertainment and news shows from Canada. (Ironically, BBC America already runs CanCon, as do many, many digital cable networks. The N has practically built their entire network off of the tentpole program Degrassi: TNG - they even premiered it before CTV this season. If they'd add some Canadian Idol repeats, they could call it CTV USA. Falcon Beach is also found on ABC Family.)

 

[azumanga]

They should really start a "CBC America" just like we have "BBC America" and show a mix of entertainment and news shows from Canada.

But would they want to reenter the American market, after selling off Trio and NWI to USA (which they killed off)?

The N has practically built their entire network off of the tentpole program Degrassi: TNG - they even premiered it before CTV this season. If they'd add some Canadian Idol repeats, they could call it CTV USA.

But knowing how Viacom operates with their cable channels, I rather watch the Canadian CTV.

 

[fred flintstone]

They are really promoting The Hour this season. They're even streaming the show in its entirety (even the commercials!) online on a one day delayed basis. (Every night at 3 AM, they upload the previous evening's show.)

As for 24/7 - can't get them here in USA, but glad to see they're adding streaming video. It's a shame they can't get, say, The National carried on C-SPAN3 or something.

They should really start a "CBC America" just like we have "BBC America" and show a mix of entertainment and news shows from Canada. (Ironically, BBC America already runs CanCon, as do many, many digital cable networks. The N has practically built their entire network off of the tentpole program Degrassi: TNG - they even premiered it before CTV this season. If they'd add some Canadian Idol repeats, they could call it CTV USA. Falcon Beach is also found on ABC Family.)

We had Newsworld International but Al Gore killed it so he could do his slacker news network. And there was Trio with Canadian entertainment programs. Not sure what destroyed that. I vaguely recall a third Canadian channel I used to get - a music channel or some such.

It seems at the big broadcasters and movie studios bring out more cable channels, niche channels, independent channels and foreign channels get pushed aside. The conglomerate do let's make a deal: To get our popular channels, you have to take our new channels.

 

[jegrant]

Yes, Canada has a much better idea: Cable/Satellite operators must add several networks they don't have an ownership interest in for every one network they add which they do have an ownership interest in.

 

[FightingIrish]

We had Newsworld International but Al Gore killed it so he could do his slacker news network. And there was Trio with Canadian entertainment programs. Not sure what destroyed that. I vaguely recall a third Canadian channel I used to get - a music channel or some such.

That was MuchMusic, which is now Fuse in the US.

 

[w9wi]

According to Fybush.com,
CBC TV is going 24/7 replacing the late-night signoff with a schedule that includes a late-night movie and repeats of local news and the "Hour" talk show.
Thank-you Canadian tax payers for paying the Hydro bill.
(Fybush didn't say that last comment, I threw it in ;D )

Or am I wrong? Is there enough ad revenue to allow the station go 24/7?

They might have determined there was no extra expense involved in 24/7 operation...

- Transmitters are more likely to fail at signon than while simply running. (electronic equipment tends to draw a large spike of current when first turned on; weak components tend to fail at this point)
- There's often enough dubbing work to be done that the station has to be manned overnight anyway, so it might as well stay on the air...
- Newer automation technology allows programming to run by itself from computer; an operator doesn't need to be feeding and cuing tape machines. (so a single operator could handle programming for all the various services across the country - and really, could do so while still doing dubbing work)

I suppose the real issue would be programming royalty fees. If the CBC has produced enough programming of its own (or can repurpose stuff from Newsworld) then this issue goes away too.

 

[dampier]

We had Newsworld International but Al Gore killed it so he could do his slacker news network. And there was Trio with Canadian entertainment programs. Not sure what destroyed that. I vaguely recall a third Canadian channel I used to get - a music channel or some such.

Al Gore did not kill it. They sold it. If it was such a hot property, Gore would have bought something else, like the dreary Ovation or maybe the Star Trek rerun channel G4. Getting carriage of a pre-existing network format-changed to something else is easier than starting a new one.

That being said, Current is no prize either. I would love a combined CTV/CBC channel myself made up of the handful of shows Canadians don't simply import from us, as well as the very well done news programming. It's apparently not a big priority however.

 

[mjlarochelle]

- Transmitters are more likely to fail at signon than while simply running. (electronic equipment tends to draw a large spike of current when first turned on; weak components tend to fail at this point)

I thought CBC's O&O transmitters ran all night, just with a test pattern.

 

[mjlarochelle]

With CBC now 24/7, are they still running some sort of nightly identification and O Canada somewhere? Some stations that don't sign off at night still do that, including CHCH.

 

[azumanga]

I thought CBC's O&O transmitters ran all night, just with a test pattern.

Usually, shortly after a few minutes of the network test pattern (with the CBC logo in the black box and an animated CBC logo in the lower center), there is a regional test pattern, with the region's name or the main station's calls (or, in Toronto, just a green, unidentified test pattern). During this test pattern, there's a series of touch-tone sounds, which turn the transmitter off remotely. When the station signs back on, the same touch-tones turn the transmitter back on.

Of course, those watching the CBC via satellite or most cable systems just got the test pattern all night.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

With CBC now 24/7, are they still running some sort of nightly identification and O Canada somewhere? Some stations that don't sign off at night still do that, including CHCH.

CHCH does sign off...oh...wait! They don't! They run infomercials.
Perhaps CBC is paving the way to also start running infomercials some time durring the late night?

In the meantime, there is no more sign off/sign on for CBC, and therefore no more O Canada to go with it.

 

[azumanga]

On the taxpayer's dime? If the CBC pulled that infomercial trick off and it has the CRTC's blessings, there will be rioting in Parliament.

 

[mjlarochelle]

I thought CBC's O&O transmitters ran all night, just with a test pattern.

Usually, shortly after a few minutes of the network test pattern (with the CBC logo in the black box and an animated CBC logo in the lower center), there is a regional test pattern, with the region's name or the main station's calls (or, in Toronto, just a green, unidentified test pattern). During this test pattern, there's a series of touch-tone sounds, which turn the transmitter off remotely. When the station signs back on, the same touch-tones turn the transmitter back on.

Of course, those watching the CBC via satellite or most cable systems just got the test pattern all night.

So some of the stations still show callsigns on their OTA signals?

Any idea what the former MCTV/CBC stations in Northern Ontario do? Do they have CBC Toronto or something else?

 

[Joe_Capitano]

If the CBC pulled that infomercial trick off and it has the CRTC's blessings, there will be rioting in Parliament.

Another outlet for those idiotic dating/sex lines with seductresses in skimpy bikinis? I don't think so.

As it is, isn't there some campaigning right now to make CBC TV "commercial-free"? It won't happen anytime soon, but I agree. Heaven help them if they do.

(ASIDE: Funny thing here: back on a Friday night in Mid-June when CHEK (aka CH) & Global BC had a goofy technical fault that rubbed them off the air for the night, they both somehow found a way to run their infomercials, including the girls. I kid you not. Just amazing.)

 

[Yeziknoradio]

As it is, isn't there some campaigning right now to make CBC TV "commercial-free"? It won't happen anytime soon, but I agree. Heaven help them if they do.

They're not by any chance the same Campaigners that tried, and failed to get CBC to become 100% Canadian Television are they?
(This was back when the first step was to drop American soaps like All my Children. That was done, but it seemed to stop there somehow.)

 

[sdwulfdawg]

Al Gore did not kill it. They sold it. If it was such a hot property, Gore would have bought something else, like the dreary Ovation or maybe the Star Trek rerun channel G4. Getting carriage of a pre-existing network format-changed to something else is easier than starting a new one.

That being said, Current is no prize either. I would love a combined CTV/CBC channel myself made up of the handful of shows Canadians don't simply import from us, as well as the very well done news programming. It's apparently not a big priority however.

Actually Al Gore kinda did kill it.

Barry Diller owned the rights to CBC NewsWorld in the United States (it was licensed to him). Al Gore wanted an instant cable network and bought the pre-existing channel. It is interesting to note that Current is STILL not carried by Cox Communications in San Diego, which is the dominant cable TV operator down here, nor do they seem to be carrying it on their other systems.

I have tried to make it a point to watch Current on DirecTV and it is crashingly boring. He was thinking of stimulating Gen-X'rs to vote and get politically active because of the channel? It is a typical example of what an old "insider" person like AlGore thinks what young people are interested in.