Needed - A new Business Model for Television
by Gerald Trites

A Globe and Mail article today points to the difficulty that many television stations and networks are having. Their business model hasn't changed for decades, and with the advent of new technologies, the internet, internet applications like Youtube, and other pressures, the traditional industry is having a tough time. The CRTC, the industry regulator, also has a tough challenge ahead of it. Many of its policies, such as the requirements for Canadian content, have been framed in the context of an industry with lots of money. Now that is no longer the case, and so some of those policies will have to go. Which ones remains to be seen.

Essentially, television is in process of merging with the internet, and ultimately all vestiges of the traditional industry, such as the networks and local TV stations, will disappear, or become so radically transformed as to be unrecognizable.

A major shortcoming of all this change, in this industry as well as in the newspaper industry, is the decline of local stations and papers. The Internet is decidedly global in scope, and there seems little movement in favour of local or community audiences. There needs to be something to enable communities to communicate with each other. There certainly is lots if capability in the internet for such communication, but the best, most viable, approach has yet to emerge.