Why are Toronto OTA stations constantly changing program line-up?

[Schmerpy]

...and of course the easiest solution is to just ignore all this silliness and watch American television instead. That's what I generally do, but my PVR has troubles tuning CBS in the winter months, which is what has caused me to examine the situation with Criminal Minds all over again.

I would think the advertisers who pay to have their material aired during these time slots would object to anything that has the viewing audience fleeing Canadian broadcasts, but alas, maybe the the Canadian advertisers just aren't that sophisticated.

If I were advertising on one of these stations and I see the programming musical chairs happening, I'd be up in arms.

[PokerFace]

Sure, there are several threads about simsubbing and the increased advertising dollars they garner, as well as the evils of the specialty channels, but this post is more about my fear of OTA programming becoming even more limited than it currently is.

I remember many years ago, when I had cancelled Rogers Cable and used my indoor antenna (from 2nd floor of a Toronto house) to receive the analog CTV and CKVR Barrie. When a new CBS episode of Criminal Minds was skipped by CTV, it would often be shown a few days later (or in some cases a bit earlier) on CTV.

Nowadays, with the almost complete program duplication of the various CTV shows on Bravo, Space, Comedy and all the other imitators, it doesn't make much sense for CTV1+2 to air the US programming without also simsubbing them in the Toronto area.

Since I assume that the OTA, CTV Toronto signal is viewed by more people than that of the OTA CTV2 signal, I also assume that advertisers pay more to advertise on CTV than on CTV2 (plus some regions might not even receive CTV2 in HD on their Cable/Satellite systems, but since things change too often for me to keep track of them, I'm just guessing).

This week's episode of Criminal Minds (CBS/CTV2) also airs in Primetime, on Friday on Bravo. There's obviously no simsub for the Bravo airing (the CTV2 Wednesday airing IS a simsub with CBS), but since CTV owns the Canadian broadcast rights for the show, it might as well add it to the Bravo lineup (instead of pleasing the OTA viewers of CTV with a later broadcast within a few days), so as to avoid buying the rights for other programming (such as TNT or USA Network shows) on its specialty channels (Bravo, Space, Comedy, etc.).

If the CRTC removed the option for simsubbing the US programming, CTV might decide to air Criminal Minds a day or two before the CBS broadcast on CTV(1) to attract some of the eyeballs that would normally watch the CBS airing. Or, it might decide to keep it off CTV AND even CTV2, just to see if it could entice viewers like me (with limited Cable TV or Satellite packages) to subscribe to Bravo. The specialty channels make the big bucks, so OTA viewers are often treated like 9th-class citizens.

I would like to watch the American TV show Suits on CTV(1 or 2), but since it only airs on Bravo, I would need to add at least another tier to my cable package and pay even more to watch it. I would think about adding Bravo and even Space, but since they both carry so many repeat airings of the US programs that CTV1+2 air, I'd rather wait for a possible DVD release of Suits (or perhaps one day stream/download the episodes from the Internet).

As an OTA fan, I'm just glad that CTV doesn't keep ALL of its US cable programming for Bravo and Space. What's The Protector doing on CTV2? It's a cancelled Lifetime TV show that would be better suited to Bravo (since there's no simsub possibility for CTV2 -- and that might have been enough to force me to subscribe to Bravo -- especially if CTV2 suddenly stopped airing the remaining episodes -- not that they are great, but since I'm an Ally Walker fan, I couldn't live without finishing the season).

Did I mention that writing off-topic posts is what I live for? Yes, I think I did. It's too bad that moderators aren't paid extra for reading the off-topic posts, because that might be enough of a reason to encourage even more of them.

[Schmerpy]

BTW, as I have mentioned a few times, CTV2 is not receivable to most people in the GTA. Therefore, when CTV moves a show to CTV2, it essentially kills that show for about 2.5 million potential OTA viewers.