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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   33442 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 17, 2023

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Well, aren't Canadian broadcasters obliged by law to piss away some fraction of their budget on French-language shows to appease the Quebecois? That seems like a pretty huge blow to their competitiveness.

I think the French arm actually makes shows that are pretty broadly popular in Quebec (ie. competitive with American network stuff) so I'm not sure "piss away" is the right term.

Honestly, you are probably being too charitable.

I'd be willing to bet that if you cut a similar proportion of the budget for UK productions the BBC would still put out better and more popular material than CBC is managing.

(Come to think of it: does the UK not have carveouts for regional media? Cause I'd assume otherwise)

The UK has strong carveouts for 'regional media', the BBC relocated much of its production staff to Manchester for example

To drive home the point that the British government says "jump" and the BBC says "how high?", iirc this move was a purely political one after the Tory government started getting flack that it's economic policy was rabidly London-centric while ignoring everywhere else in the country. So they compelled the BBC to move a bunch of shit to Manchester. The median cosmopolitan bourgie-urbanite BBC employee would consider "relocation to Manchester" the equivalent of being exiled to Siberia, and it caused a lot of whining and gnashing of teeth within the BBC. But their putative independence was as nothing compared to the Tories' determination to win themselves votes at the next election from Norf FC by "bringing them jobs".

Timing wise you are at least incorrect as the decision was taken in 2006 while Tony Blair was prime minister.

I don't remember us putting pressure on the Beeb, though the rumor was it was a gambit so that Blair would be more lenient in the Charter renegotiations.

I appreciate the correction. It does not, however, detract from the central thesis that the government points and the BBC goes.

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