Funniest Things On TV Indeed

If you live in Canada, you've probably seen them. No, they're not any new sitcom or comedy program, but the 'usually aired back-to-back' ads from the TV networks and the Cable companies where they attack each other over whether the cablers should have to pay a fee-for-carriage for local programming to the casters....or the casters can charge fee-for-carriage for local programming to the cablers, depending on your perspective of course. 'Local' is the operative word here...a word that generally just means 'news' for the most part, and is getting misused and misrepresented here way more than not when you consider the reality of our Canadian "with loads of American shows and hardly any homegrown programs" television landscape.

Bill Glisky from the Belleville Intelligencer has a nice article on the topic:

That's because the funniest thing on television right now is a commercial. Two of them actually. And neither is intended to be funny; they just are.

The commercials in question are those pitting big cable companies against big television stations. Some stations have taken to regularly running them back to back, which adds to the amusement value.

The ads in question are based on the claim by Canadian television stations that cable stations should be forced to pay for "local" programming since they charge viewers a fee to provide cable service but don't pay anything for the programming itself.

The cable networks counter they shouldn't be forced to pay the television stations anything, in part because those stations already make lots of money through advertising, and that the television stations are simply seeking a government bailout.
Basically its two groups who between them make more money than anyone watching the commercials will see in their lifetime trying to win public support so they can either make more money or spend less.

Read the rest of Glisky's take HERE.

I'm not posting these ads with the intention of picking a side or a winner...there are no winners here, just losers.

First you have the Cable Companies fake 'man in the street' ad:



Funny!

Then you have the Broadcaster's 'ominous highlighted words' ad:



Funny too! What's also amusing is they ask you to "Join the conversation" at their website, yet they recently disabled comments on all of their 'articles' since the majority of them were critical of the campaign so there's not really much of a conversation going on.

They both play like those cheesy cheap smear ads you see during an election campaign. Butcept we, the consumer, don't actually get to elect 'the candidate' we believe in or support, as in there is no 'vote'...the casters and cablers are really just lobbying for CRTC sympathy for when they all gather for a hearing next month to try to hash out a solution...again.

Nope, we just have to watch and bear it. But hopefully we can also muster up a grin, because when you stop and look and listen and think about it all, it is pretty funny.