And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 09:22:59 -0500
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: CRTC "forcing" Aboriginal tv station? Ask Ted Turner
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Coming soon to your living room
The CRTC is forcing a new aboriginal TV channel- and its cost - on most
Canadian cable viewers
Luiza Chwialkowska National Post
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission yesterday
ordered cable and satellite operators in Canada to carry a new aboriginal
channel as part of their basic service.
Starting Sept. 1, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) will
be carried 24 hours a day in English, French, and up to 15 aboriginal
languages. It will offer a wide variety of programming,
including aboriginal cooking shows, native dance and theatre, and
children's shows such as a "Sesame Street-type" program in which characters
would be drawn from various native, Inuit, and Metis communities.
Although the channel will be available free in 96 communities in the
North, elsewhere it will add 15 cents to every subscriber's bill. It may
force cable operators to drop an existing channel from
its basic service in some markets.
None of which was making cable operators happy
yesterday. "The
CRTC should not be making decisions that force services on
consumers and forces consumers to pay for them.
Consumers should
be given choice to the greatest extent possible," said
Jay Thomson,
vice-president of the Canadian Cable Television
Association.
But the CRTC said the new mandatory channel is "in the
public
interest," and will provide a "much-needed, positive
window on
aboriginal life for all Canadians," as well as offering
"a cultural bridge
between aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities."
"Some people might call it social-engineering, but
other people would
call it acting in the best interests of Canadians,"
said Denis Carmel,
spokesman for the CRTC. "Aboriginal people and quote
unquote
white people have been living together for a long time
and there has
been a lot of misunderstanding between the two. It
would be a good
thing for the country to have a window on the reality
of the lives of
aboriginal people."
In fact, he explained, the Canadian Broadcasting Act
requires
broadcasters to recognize the "special place of
aboriginals" in
Canadian society.
Abraham Tagalik, chairman of Television Northern Canada
Inc.,
which will operate the new channel, says including the
channel in
basic cable service "sends a message" about the place
of aboriginal
people in Canadian society.
"We have to be seen as basic service so that we don't get
marginalized with the space channel or the shopping
channel," said
Mr. Tagalik.
Although the CRTC based its decision in part on polls
showing that
Canadians would be willing to pay extra to watch
aboriginal
programming, Mr. Tagalik said the channel would not be
economically feasible unless it was made mandatory.
"Part of our business plan was to be widely
distributed," he said. "We
didn't want to out-price the service for aboriginal
people, who aren't
the richest people in the world."
Television Northern Canada currently receives
$2.1-million annually
in government funds through Heritage Canada, a sum that
Mr.
Tagalik says will be phased out over five years.
In addition to providing a forum for aboriginal
productions, Mr.
Tagalik said the APTN would "send a positive message"
about
aboriginals to non-natives.
"Aboriginal people today are only shown in a negative
light," said Mr.
Tagalik. "People with a view different from the white
mainstream,
and pushed off to the side."
In his brief to the CRTC, Gary Farmer, publisher of
Aboriginal
Voices magazine, said contemporary makers of television
programs
still rely on conflict as the basis for dramatic
development. The new
channel would be different.
''An aboriginal channel would allow for the first time
the opportunity
for programming to be developed on concepts of peace and
harmony,'' he said in his brief.
A sample program guide shows an Opening Prayer every
morning,
followed by shows including Beading with Bernelda,
PowWow Rock,
and Aboriginal Puppet Show.
But cable operators still don't like the idea of a new
channel being
made mandatory. "The difficulty we have is that we only
have a
limited number of channels. In many [cities], those
channels are filled
up right now," said Mr. Thomson. "[The decision] may
very well
mean dropping services that are currently offered."
He said changing the lineup and notifying customers
will cost the
industry millions of dollars, and perhaps anger
consumers as well.
"Consumers don't like seeing changes in their channel
lineup, they
don't like having things taken away from them," said
Mr. Thomson.
The cable industry is also worried the decision will
lead to other
mandatory television channels.
"The commission has created a precedent here," said Mr.
Thomson.
"What is to stop other groups within society from
asking for their own
channel?"
According to the CRTC, "it remains to be seen" to what
extent the
ruling would set a precedent.
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks, Creator
of the Manchurian Candidate
born New Brunswick
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.aches-mc.org
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
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