Don't touch that dial

The CRTC is conducting a review of what should constitute basic cable television service in Canada. For those of you scoring at home, this page already weighed in on this issue when Angus Reid called me last week: seriously, does anyone consider this page as part of the "media" and ineligible to answer poll questions? At present, eight cable channels are fighting to remain on basic cable while three are looking to join the basic cable party. What's unclear is whether or not the losers will be moved to the programming of "extended" basic cable, or the digital tier where cable networks go to die. Among the potential cuts:

CBC Newsworld - Putting Newsworld on the block is a disgusting outright sop to private broadcasters, particularly Bell/Globemedia, whose CTV Newsnet can run unopposed.

YTV - YTV fills a valuable programming niche in providing shows that tweens, teens, and older types like this page in search of an anime fix will actually find entertaining, as opposed to the pablum Disney cooks up for Family Channel.

MuchMusic - Bell Globemedia bought MTV Canada from Craig Broadcasting, then they bought the CHUM/CITY menagerie, including MuchMusic. Is anyone surprised Much is on the block? MuchMusic still shows music videos. MTV has 'reality' shows which make you wish your remote had a 'flush' button.

Vision TV - God, no: and I can't tell if the pun is intended! A national, accessible, multifaith TV network is easily important enough to be left on basic cable. Polls consistently show that most Canadians believe in some kind of God. Vision broadcasts the word of some kind of God, or Gods, so why not give the people what they want?

The Weather Network - There's a few things I like about the Weather Network, mainly that they branched out a little into being 'The Environment Network'. What I can't stand is when they go to commercial, they pull the local temperature & forecast 'bug' (the little graphic), so I can't see what it's like out just before heading out the door. For those of you scoring at home, I can't explain, but looking out the window doesn't work in my specific locale. I need this channel.

Many of the new channels looking get on basic cable repeat existing programming mandates: is a national Metis network necessary when it could find a home on APTN? Doesn't a National Broadcast Reading Service do the same thing as Voiceprint (available via SAP) does? What does the CANAL multicultural channel offer that local multicultural access channels (or in Vancouver, Channel M) don't already?

What the CRTC needs to realize is that Canadians have a largely democratic view of basic cable. They expect basic channels to have majority appeal, with established space where minority and special inter views can be heard. If the CRTC wants to establish a basic cable tier that reflects a democratic, populist, egalitarian sensibility, consider pulling bourgeois hobby channels like Home & Garden Television, The Food Network, and the infernal combustion engine that is Speed Network. The one question the CRTC should also ask is that if the basic cable tier is so valuable, why do American network affiliates get guaranteed spots for the sole purpose of letting Canadian private broadcasters simulcast popular American shows and take in twice the ad money?