Hey, thanks for the message.
I can remember as far back when I was a kid with the Smurfs being interrupted on NBC by Global in the 80's. Obviously I didn't understand the industry and the technical side of things back then when I was 5 years old like I do now (especially now that I am an Engineer), but I still remember the NBC Roller Coster and Bill Cosby and the rest of the Cosby family doing promos and hosting entire segments for Saturday morning cartoons, and it being cut out whenever Global interrupted NBC. I still have the Smurfs on tape and I have started to convert them over to digital format. Everytime I see a stupid Global logo, I have to replace it with a glorious NBC Peacock by overlaying the original video layer.
Fast forward to the 90's, and CrapTV used to interrupt the greatest telecast ever - the NBA on NBC. Everything was superb about the NBA on NBC - from the graphics, to the announcers, to the music, to the key matchups. Nothing will ever beat MJ going up against the Knicks at the Garden with Marv Albert calling the game on NBC. But when CTV did interrupt, it was painful to watch. Everything was butchered. NBA on NBC promos - which were awesome themselves, were cut out, and often times CTV would have a useless announcer in between commercials come on a spew out incorrect stats and then throw it back to NBC in mid-play. The worst was the stupid Canadian Tire updates during the 1996 NBA Finals where CrapTV would actually reduce the screen size and show baseball scores. It would drive me insane. I've had to do a lot of editing during the conversion over to digital for all my old Bulls games whenever CrapTV hijacked the feed - including inserting NBA on NBC promos from other games! I'll never forgive them for interrupting the NBA on NBC and ruining some great memories of that telecast. This is where my pure hatred for simsubbing comes from - from the interruption of the NBA on NBC. This is when I learned more about the broadcasting industry. I actually didn't watch the 2002 NBA Finals because I couldn't stand CrapTV's interruptions anymore.
Now today these simsub debacles continue, and more people are learning about the broadcasting state of affairs in Canada through various online forums like this one. The worst part is, Global and CTV are just keeping the money from simsubbing and not re-investing in quality Canadian programs that attract viewers, or instead, they do things like outbid the CBC for the rights to the Hockey Night in Canada theme song, or buy other media companies like Alliance Atlantis. This is not what the rule was put in place for!!!
The NFL on CBS for me is another great sports telecast - almost to the level of the NBA on NBC - and now CrapTV is once again ruining it. Not to mention all the other shows that Globull and CrapTV ruin on a daily basis. Hopefully my DVD will be an eye opener to all 17 different organizations I sent it to, and hopefully things will change, but until then, all we can do is complain. The best thing in my opinion is to go after the advertisers and tell them that you will no longer support them - that will hit CTV and Global the hardest.