Rogers seeks to revive multicultural OMNI newscasts in CRTC proposal

[timecode]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...ticle30450213/

"Rogers Media, a division of Rogers Communications Inc., is bluntly asking for “a quid pro quo,” said Colette Watson, the company’s vice-president of broadcast and TV operations, in an interview. Rogers would pledge to restore daily, half-hour newscasts in Punjabi, Mandarin, Cantonese and Italian, add more ethnic programming to its schedule and invest in Canadian programming, including in-house production. In return, the special status would allow Rogers to expand OMNI’s viewership and charge TV distributors a fee of 12 cents per cable or satellite subscriber, bringing in $14-million in new revenue each year.
...
If Rogers succeeds, viewers in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto would still be able to watch existing OMNI channels for free over the air. Programming would be repackaged between the local stations and the regional feeds – Pacific, Prairies, East and Quebec – with “a little bit” more Canadian content."


I think this will be great news for those who speak Punjabi, Mandarin and Cantonese. Let's see if Rogers can make it work.

I do think that serving new Canadians in those languages kind of falls under a public service, that should be done by the CBC. I know they have an existing mandate... that dates from when it was started in the 50s.

[InMontreal]

Official press release : http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases...582977111.html

What Rogers really wants to do : Receive a few cents from those 12-13 millions cable/satellite subscribers each month for a basic cable channel named Omni Regional that will simply timeshift Omni's programming produced for their OTA stations. That subscription revenue will simply finance restoration of deleted newscasts.

Paying for programming you already receive for free over-the-air in Van, Ed, Cal and To. Sounds promising ! Sounds like a bailout !

[CDN Viewer]

If I understand correctly this 'new' OMNI will not replace the existing stations, it will exist alongside them, sounds a little redundant to me?! They eliminated programming as well as the 3rd language newscasts and now are proposing to add them back as if they are doing viewers a favour- this is a cash grab plain and simple, Greed at its highest level. Not only should this application not be approved but the existing stations should be shut down as they are no longer needed. There are tons of ethnic channels available serving virtually any ethnic group imaginable from South America, Europe, Middle East, Asia & Africa and they are available at reasonable rates- OMNI TV is now a relic from a bygone era.

[InMontreal]

Montreal's ICI is like a cooperative, where producers actually WANT to produce their own shows but are also responsible for their show's ad sales. The Omni Regional will just add a few of those Mtl shows to its Vancouver and Toronto cable feeds. Vancouver-Omni-produced may show up on "Omni Regional" Toronto feed...

Last time I checked Omni 1-2's programming, one of those channels was 50 % filled with daytime US programming with a simsub checkmate plan and a dump for primetime simsub dillemas (just like Bell's CTV Two), some Simpsons reruns and late-night talk-shows simsubs. All this changed over time (I expected a few Murdoch Mysteries reruns there), maybe due to the launch of shomi, but that doesn't mean anything about Rogers' commitment to non-english programming.

[bigoranget]

Almost all English programming is gone from Omni.1 and Omni.2 in Toronto. They have had little to no syndication programs for over a year now. Not sure about out west.

[timecode]

Almost all English programming is gone from Omni.1 and Omni.2 in Toronto. They have had little to no syndication programs for over a year now. Not sure about out west.

However The Bachelor pre-empted the Omn Mandarin & Cantonese shows earlier this year, on Mondays I believe.


Also HNIC in Punjabi also pre-empted the Omni Mandarin & Cantonese shows during the playoffs.

There are tons of ethnic channels available serving virtually any ethnic group imaginable from South America, Europe, Middle East, Asia & Africa and they are available at reasonable rates- OMNI TV is now a relic from a bygone era.

However those ethnic channels do not have any news about Canadian issues! Canadian news in their own language is important, for immigrants to make informed decisions about who to vote for, and whether to support new sex ed curriculums in their kids' schools. It is a valuable tool to help new Canadians understand their country. However maybe it is more of a public service, that should be taken over by CBC or TVO etc.

If I understand correctly this 'new' OMNI will not replace the existing stations, it will exist alongside them, sounds a little redundant to me?!

Maybe they will be "must carry" in markets that they were not allowed to be shown in, with just the terrestrial channels. Like maybe the Vancouver channel would be seen all over BC, for example.

[GoLocal]

Almost all English programming is gone from Omni.1 and Omni.2 in Toronto. They have had little to no syndication programs for over a year now. Not sure about out west.

Out Vancouver way, all English-language syndicated programming (including even the last holdout, Two and a Half Men) has been dropped, it's 100% ethnic now (other than the increased amount of documentary programming which replaced the syndicated shows, the end result of Rogers overpaying for the rights to broadcast Hockey Night in Canada on its channels). Even The Bachelor has been moved over to City in Vancouver.

[bigoranget]

Out Vancouver way, all English-language syndicated programming (including even the last holdout, Two and a Half Men) has been dropped, it's 100% ethnic now (other than the increased amount of documentary programming which replaced the syndicated shows, the end result of Rogers overpaying for the rights to broadcast Hockey Night in Canada on its channels). Even The Bachelor has been moved over to City in Vancouver.

Yes, I recall Two and a Half Men being one of the last holdouts of non ethnic programming airing on Omni.2 That seemed to stop when City started airing it weekdays at 10 and 10:30pm

[Mayhem]

I think this will be great news for those who speak Punjabi, Mandarin and Cantonese. Let's see if Rogers can make it work.

• MSNBC Canada: 2001-2004
• CityNews Channel: 2011-2013
• Viceland: 2016-

I don't see this working out too well for Rogers. New "News" channels haven't been able to work since the 2000's, and Global BC1 is operating on life support from recent data I've seen.

[timecode]

Those were specialty channels, they weren't low on the dial (so to speak) The whole point is to have it a must carry, not a specialty channel that you must subscribe to.

You forgot the Edge 102 channel. RIP

[InMontreal]

You forgot the Edge 102 channel. RIP

Edge TV was O&O by Corus, not Rogers, and had no "news" department.

What are the chances of Rogers obtaining their bailout for Omni ?

[GoLocal]

What are the chances of Rogers obtaining their bailout for Omni ?

Not so sure about that, as Rogers has already been using City and the revenue from the shows it airs (some of which it moved over from Omni) to subsidize Omni and its ethnic/documentary programming. If Omni can't stand on its own without the American syndicated shows it once had to keep it going, then perhaps Omni should simply shut down entirely.

[timecode]

Not so sure about that, as Rogers has already been using City and the revenue from the shows it airs (some of which it moved over from Omni) to subsidize Omni and its ethnic/documentary programming. If Omni can't stand on its own without the American syndicated shows it once had to keep it going, then perhaps Omni should simply shut down entirely.

Do you have proof of this? Omni docs are paid for by government grants.

[GoLocal]

Do you have proof of this? Omni docs are paid for by government grants.

In part, yes - but I'm talking about the broadcasting of said docs (which, as I said further up, were added to replace and compensate for the syndicated programs Rogers either dropped or moved to City thanks to their overpaying for Hockey Night in Canada). The docs were added simply because they're cheap filler for OMNI (and I also noticed City is now adding more docs to its schedule on the weekends - including docs from sister cable channel Viceland - most likely for the same reasons docs were added to OMNI).