So where do we stand today in our attempt to launch Canada’s first national public access television channel?
Slowly but surely, it’s moving forward!
A partnership is in the works, finding the first cable company to carry the channel is ongoing, development of the Automated Broadcast System is continuing, new Canadian programming is being found and put on the air…
But the best news is that the latest Linux distribution upgrade to our broadcast servers appears to have resolved the frequent synchronization issues we were having with the live Internet broadcast. Under the old system, the Internet streams would frequently go out of sync by as much as a second. But since the latest updates were applied, we’ve yet to find a single show go out of sync.
The only issue we’ve encountered is with the MPEG4/H.264 encoded test stream, which crashed while attempting to stream a movie that had caused us problems in the past (it worked perfectly on all the other test streams). So we’ve decided to drop the MPEG4/H.264 format altogether. The test stream would have never gone into production anyway since it’s encumbered with too many software patents whose excessively high licensing fees could have reached the tens of thousands of dollars per year.
And with Google announcing the development of a new competing open source streaming audio/video format called WebM or VP8, very soon there won’t be any reason to consider patent encumbered audio/video formats at all.
Because of all of these improvements, this corporation will soon begin offering consultation services for organizations wishing to implement their own Internet and cable based television channel infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of traditional television channels.
Yes, it’s a new era for broadcast television, one that is no longer encumbered by legacy equipment or software licensing fees, allowing all of us to concentrate on what’s most important: the content.
Today’s television advertising is incredibly dull, dull, DULL!
Boring, outdated, too long, message forgotten a split-second after the end… It’s incredibly depressing. It’s one of the major reasons I don’t even have cable at home.
You heard right. I’m launching my own digital cable/DTH satellite channel, yet I don’t even have cable at home. It’s like a restaurant owner without a kitchen. Or a plumber without a bathroom.
In an effort to hopefully bring back some entertainment value to the world of television advertising, this channel will not be afraid to push the boundaries a bit, even at the risk of having a few viewers complain to the CRTC. This doesn’t mean however that we’ll dive head first into the world of bad taste. The ads for feminine hygiene and erectile dysfunction products have already reached that level. Instead, we’ll start to accept the type of commercials that are normally played in Europe without any problems whatsoever, but which are never played on North America television usually due to the possibility of a backlash from special interest groups.
Here’s an example of what we’re ready to accept.
And that’s just the generic one. Ansell also has ads for specific products which you can find at their LifeStyles Canada Web site (warning: slightly adult content).
Ignore the ad with the girl. That one just reinforces a few stereotypes that are simply no longer appropriate in today’s society. In fact, we’re more likely to refuse that type of ad even though the vast majority of Canadian television channels would probably air it without hesitation.
Do you have a television commercial that’s a bit off the beaten path and you’re not entirely sure we’ll air it? Send us a link. We’ll let you know if and at what time we’ll put it on the tube.
And the starting rate for a 30 second spot? $10 Canadian. Yes! Ten bucks! One purple Sir John bill!
Plus GST of course. Unfortunately, there’s no escaping that.
The Montreal Salon Son et Image will be held this weekend at the Sheraton Center in downtown Montreal from April 3 to April 5, and The Canadian Public will be there to catch all the action. And if there are enough willing participants, the 15 Second Elevator Pitch Challenge will be back with another group of finalists.
Last year, the elevator pitch challenge’s scorecard was created after everyone had made their pitches. This may not seem very fair at first, but it was only after watching all the pitches that it became possible to create a simple yet complete list of what must be included in a 15 second elevator pitch in order for it to be effective.
The technical points are as follows:
Presenter’s name: 10 points.
Company name: 20 points.
Product name: 15 points.
Product description: 15 points.
Finishing on time: 10 points.
Coordinates (www): 30 points.
Total: 100 points.
In order to avoid seeing most participants achieve a perfect score however, this year’s challenge will see the addition of the artistic representation scorecard, which once again will be created only after all the pitches have been viewed. At the very least, the scorecard will include basic elements such as proper attire, voice quality, enthusiasm, and creativity.
How many participants from last year will try to improve their performance this year? How many new faces will take a chance and try to pitch their products in an incredibly short amount of time? Stay tuned!
In the meantime, here’s the video of last year’s show.
Update: the challenge was not held this year. Finding enough participants would have diverted too much time away from other tasks, such as the recording of the StereophileDebate, for which highlights will be included in the upcoming video on the show.
This doesn’t mean the challenge will be dropped. Far from it. Each and every video from last year’s challenge contained so many critical elements required to deliver a great elevator pitch, that I want to expand the scope of the competition to something much more elaborate.
If you’ve been wondering what kind of advertising this channel is ready to accept, here’s an example of just how wild and out of control your ad can be.
Unfortunately, this particular ad could never be accepted for broadcast because our CRTC license only allows us to accept national paid advertisement. And regrettably, this ad qualifies as local paid advertisement.
However, if this condition of license wasn’t in place, we could have accepted the ad as long as the “weed” reference was removed since that would very likely be a violation of Canadian advertising standards, and possibly a federal offense.
And how much would it have cost Jones to advertise on our channel if he could?
As little as thirty bucks. That’s $10 per 30 second spot times three.
As long as the product you sell is legal and legitimate, and the ad doesn’t violate any advertising standards, you’re good.
As I’ve mentioned in the Production page, this channel has three basic submission rules.
No explicit depictions of human sexuality,
No promotion of religion,
No promotion of hatred.
This doesn’t mean there can’t be any reasonable discussions on these subjects. It simply means that your submission can’t actively promote or exploit these particular subject matters. For example, you can discuss issues related to human sexuality, but you can’t actually show anyone engaged in sexual activity.
It’s important to understand that the scope of these rules extends to paid advertising.
Recently, the Conservative party has been running advertising on Canadian radio and television in an attempt to prevent the formation of a coalition government. This coalition would be formed by the Liberal and NDP parties, with the Bloc Québecois promising not to interfere in the process or vote against the coalition government for a set amount of time.
However, considering the Bloc Québecois’ close relationship with the French Canadian population, by constantly emphasizing the “Separatist Bloc” in their ads, the Conservative party is giving the impression that French Canadians are responsible for the current political crisis. Because of this indirect and passive promotion of hatred against French Canadians, the ads would not be cleared for broadcast on this channel.
When I originally proposed my concept for a public access television channel on many public on-line forums and listed my basic rules, one individual jokingly suggested that I add “No politics” to the rules. After hearing the Conservative ads, I’m starting to wonder if I should.
