Few Canadians watching home-grown television
The News Review:
- Few Canadians watching home-grown television
- Why grown kids come home
- Scottish Agenda: Long march out of football’s 186m black hole
Few Canadians watching home-grown television
CTV.ca – Jan 16, 2005
“What we’re doing now is finding the specific audiences for a show. With the limited money that we have, we’re trying to be clever about targeting the right audiences. ” But Haddock says the problem is much bigger than just marketing – stringent Canadian content rules have to be applied to television just as they are to music. “It should be mandated that for every opportunity the private broadcasters give an American show, they have to be willing to kick a little bit back, for free, to Canadian productions,” Haddock says. “They have to use the money they’re making from these American shows and plow it back into Canadian content. ” The Writers Guild of Canada made a submission last week to the CRTC, pointing out that spending by broadcasters on Canadian programming over the past five years has dropped from 27 per cent to 25 per cent of advertising revenue. During the same time period, spending on American shows increased from 27 per cent to 35 per cent…
“To make matters worse,” the Writers Guild said, “this happened while advertising revenues rose more than 15 per cent over the same period. That means that during the past five years as over-the-air broadcasters were making more money, they were spending less on Canadian programming. ” Wild agrees that a lack of marketing is playing a significant role in why Canadians are failing to tune into home-grown shows, but she adds that Canadian networks are still often missing the mark when it comes to creating shows that Canada wants to watch. “There’s still stuff out there that doesn’t seem to be capturing the public’s interest,” she says. “There are a lot of shows that have been focus-grouped to death and then they spend forever tweaking the pilot. ” Simply imitating American shows and setting them in Canadian cities “doesn’t work for us,” Wild says. “We have a talented group of creators in Canada who have their own ideas and their own passion for the shows that they want to produce and we need to tap into that and see what actually inspires Canadians to watch those shows – I don’t think it’s going to be ‘CSI’ knockoffs that people want to watch.
Why grown kids come home
USA Today – Jan 16, 2005
In homes from Virginia to California, homes now have separate bedroom suites with their own bathrooms on opposite sides of the house to accommodate "guests. " "The notion of lifestyle-based communities for adults had to become broader to accommodate the trend we’re seeing in boomerangs," Schreiner says. * The Families and Work Institute for the first time asked 3,504 employed adults whether they have grown children living at home. The findings were surprising, says Ellen Galinsky, president of the New York research group. "Fully 25% of employed parents have children from 18 through 29 years of age living at home at least half of the time," she says. Their research found that households with incomes of $80,000 or more a year were significantly more likely to have adult children living at home than lower-income households. "There is no longer an assumption by parents that there is a clear-cut departure age," says Galinsky, whose 35-year-old son, a professor, lives with her.
Scottish Agenda: Long march out of football’s 186m black hole
Times Online – Jan 16, 2005
And the television rights were sold to the only bidder. Fans must learn that they are just paying for the players on the day — the gate money allows clubs to pay the wages, but leaves nothing to cut debt or make new investment. And the basic economics means that the SPL will always be in the Premiership’s shadow — Scots football faces a future of cheap home-grown talent or cut-price imports. Glen’s invaluable report confirms what some of us have always believed — the business of football, particularly in Scotland, is no place for the serious investor. Grumpy Grouse From round ball to oval. The Murrayfield meltdown is extensively reported elsewhere, but the business view of the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) could have a serious effect on rugby’s bottom line. Businesses have a wide choice of sports in which to invest sponsorship money, but the key word is “invest”.