unintended consequences

One of the funny unintended consequences of the article below is the RONA ads which play on the CFL games, which show an American football field instead of a Canadian one. You can tell from the hash marks.

Sheesh such a tiny detail could be disastrous for the renaming of the Grey Cup to the Rona Cup.

"As soon as 2008 you could see players competing in the Rona Grey Cup or the Ford Grey Cup," said one high-ranking league source. "It's for sale and the league will be pushing ahead with this."

And some sponsorship experts say the CFL may be risking more than it realizes by selling Grey Cup naming rights.

After their 1953 inception, the league's most valuable player awards were called the Schenleys until 1989, when sponsor Schenley Canada Inc. cut its ties to the league. The awards have had multiple sponsors since but are no longer as well known.
"The league has to ask itself, at what price do you sell your soul?" said Stellick. "The Grey Cup really is the soul of that league."

The more serious consequences are that a regulation that benefits the bank accounts of broadcasters does nothing for Canadian production. And of course the usual suspects will cry for the elimination of the CRTC because of this.

The right to insert Canadian commercials into U.S. broadcasts when shows air at the same time on both sides of the border is worth more than $200-million to the industry.

Such provisions were initially contemplated to give Canadian networks revenue that could be used to fund Canadian productions, including news, drama and comedies. But the report argues simulcasting has instead created overwhelming financial incentives to run U.S. programs in prime-time, since the networks can earn more ad revenue from American shows, which draw much higher ratings.

As a result, Canadian content is being marginalized to Friday and Saturday nights, or to the summer, when audiences are smaller. The report doesn't suggest killing simulcast rights, but the authors wonder if networks should be required to show a certain amount of domestic programs on weeknights.

"It's a great example of an unintended consequence of a regulation," Mr. Dunbar said in an interview. "We have all kinds of incentives for producing Canadian content, all kinds of subsidies for producing Canadian content, and then it's not really getting shown at a time when Canadians are watching television in large numbers. ...We are not saying abolish the rule.

SEE:

Death of Channel Ten

CRTC vs The Public Interest

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Words Of Wisdom

From a Grade 12 student who is a Blogging Tory but one who can smell amatuer a mile away....

Conservative Ads: straight to the point but lack impact
True North | 30 Jan 2007 | 3:51am EST
These new Conservative attack ads are very clear about the message they try to get across, but like many of their ads during the past campaign, they look pretty low-budget, something that a lot of people can put together and send out using YouTube.

I guess what they saved in production costs they make up for in placement costs, the ads will cost the party a pretty penny if they ever make it on the Superbowl.

See:

Worried

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Conservative Copyright Infringement

Opps guess we might not be seeing the Conservative attack ads on the Superbowl after all.

Conservative attack ads fired at Liberal Leader Stephane Dion may end up sideswiping the ruling party after questions were raised about possible breach of copyright laws.

The television ads, which began airing Monday, use footage from last fall's Liberal leadership debates to deliver the message that the new Grit leader is weak, indecisive and an environmental failure.

But that footage belongs to a consortium of TV networks which pooled their resources to provide live coverage of the debates. The Cable Public Affairs Channel provided the pool camera for each debate.

The networks are now looking into how the Conservatives obtained the debate footage for their ads.

Van Dusen said he is not aware of any request by the Tory party to buy or use any portion of the debate videos.

"It would come through me and I certainly don't remember ever getting a request," he said, adding that he "would've said no" if he had received a request.

A tip o' the blog to My Blahg.

See:

Worried

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Tories Fit Right In

this year's Super Bowl commercials add a new twist --One of the biggest new themes of this year's game is getting amateurs into the act.

And so that is why these ads will fit right in.....

Liberals Will Be Attacked By Conservatives During Superbowl

See:

Worried

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