Why should a state-run, state-owned media conglomerate compete against a private Canadian company owned by private Canadian citizens—Canadian families— for the contract to broadcast the 2010 Olympics?
Why would the government compete against its own people?
What kind of a government competes against its own citizens, using its citizens’ own money—while the private company uses its own hard-earned (after-tax!) dollars which it earned by somehow managing to compete for decades against the state-run, billion-dollar-per-year taxpayer-funded socialist conglomerate which is run by Liberal Party government appointees?
What kind of a government would do that?
A Liberal Party government would do that.
The battle between CTV and CBC for Canadian television rights to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics will be decided Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the verdict could have a lasting impact on future coverage of amateur sport in this country.
It’s a decision that will see one of the networks paying up to $150 million US for the prestige of broadcasting an Olympic Games on home soil.
The bidding, for a package that includes both the 2010 Winter and 2012 Summer Games, has the feel of a heavyweight boxing match.
In one corner there’s the CBC. The reigning champion has broadcast every Olympics since 1996 and has joined forces with the cable sports channel The Score.
Hoping for the knockout is an alliance consisting of CTV Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., which owns Rogers Sportsnet. It’s a challenger with talent and very deep pockets.
“Given that the Games are being held in Canada it’s a big prize,” said Stephen Wenn, a Wilfrid Laurier University professor who studies the IOC’s relationship with television and is co-author of a book on Olympic commercialism.
“The viewership numbers are likely to be very strong.”
Adding an edge is the history between the two networks.
Emotions between the two range from professional respect to personal dislike. CBC hasn’t forgotten the coup CTV pulled off by winning the rights to the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games.
“For CTV to kind of sneak that one out from under the CBC was huge for that network,” said Peter Sisam, vice-president of television for IMG Canada, which is assisting the IOC in the TV deal.
What kind of country is this, where the government competes against its own citizens using its own citizens’ money? This isn’t my kind of Canada. No. Not even close.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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