[dba-Tech] Franchising a TV Program

Hi Bryan,

I realize that I am about to sell the baby with the bathwater, but my only
experience with the TV/film production industry is on the scriptwriting
side, and I know Nothing about the ancillary sides.

Suppose that I had an idea for how to franchise a CBC program for
international sales (ala Jeopoardy, American Idol, etc. etc. etc.And
further suppose that I had foreign connections through whom this might be
done. How might I further this notion? I'm not after a big piece of the
pie, although not averse to same, but I think that CBC has launched a few
fantastic ideas and the particular market I would look to franchise these
into is China.

I realize you are far removed from that particular end of the business, but
I'm looking for people to talk to, and existing examples of where this sort
of models has worked. Can you supply any possible assistance, suggestions,
etc.?

I think that CBC has captured some really great programming ideas, and that
these notions could possibly be ported to the China market (to mention only
a couple), and I have an emotional interest in seeing this idea happen.

Is there anything that you can suggest, or a couple of people within the
Ceeb that I should speak with, or...? anything else that might help this
notion become concrete?

I don't want to spill all the beans quite yet, but I have some ideas. And
being one of the most stalwart subscribers to all things CBC, I haven't
even given a thought to doing it outside the org. Should my dreams prove
fruitful, I would get a tiny slice for my efforts, but that is not my
interest: my interest is in helping CBC become as famous as BBC, and to not
only survive but become immune to tax-cuts. That is my real mission. I
think I have a couple of ideas for internationalizing our (I say that as an
addict, a taxpayer and a huge fan) product.

I want IN to the international marketing of our product. I have no idea how
to enter the job-pool to achieve this. Fuck it. I'll work for nothing to
achieve this. Of course, a stipend would be appreciated, but that is not
the point.

I have some ideas. Perhaps they have already grown stale on the tree of
potentially-international-ventures. Perhaps not. I want to enter this game.
I have no idea how to enter this, but it's not that I want a job, it's that
I want to make CBC as internationally vital as BBC. That's what I'm about.

Any possible thing you can do to help me in my mission would be most
gratefully accepted. I have a few particular ideas in mind, but those are
not the point. What I am ultimately after is making CBC as important as
BBC, at all intellectual levels. If I could help make that happen, I would
work 100 hours a week for free, just to be a part of the experience of
service to the community that is CBC. The only thing I might add is that I
think we could be of even larger service (I'm thinking of the post-midnight
radio programming that got killed), and that I would love that stuff to be
revised.

And while I'm lamenting the ax-ing of vital CBC programming, let me say
that Rick McGinnis-Ray (sp?) and Dispatches is among the most lamented
assassinations. I altered my schedule with dates and wives and business
associates for decades to listen to Dispatches!

And before closing this maudlin missive, I must nod to the greatest cbc
radio contribution of all: As It Happens. For about two decades I have
daily muted the TV in favour of AIH, and I feel nothing more intimate that
this nightly input. I can recite all the hosts over the decades, and I feel
that no single program has proved more invaluable to me personally. In a
different way, CBC Ideas has done a similar service.

Without these programs, my life would be seriously compromised. I think
that I stand not alone in this. I also think that when push comes to shove,
if you're going to sacrifice anything, kill CBC TV and let CBC Radio live,
and not only live, but thrive, in a way not compromised by commercial
interests, advertisers peddling this or that tampon or detergent or car,

If I could wish for anything from CRTC, it would be the abolition of ads
from CBC-TV. Make it as pure as CBC-Radio, whose only ads invite you to
listen to forthcoming programs on CBC-Radio.

As a person who's recently turned 65, I suppose that I am one of the force
that is called Grey Power. I haven't yet signed up in a formal sense, but I
do stand for a couple of basic principles:

1. To the extent that you measure all social activity in terms of dollars,
you diminish not only society but also and more importantly yourself; by
which I mean, you not only become a whore, but you brag about it, and even
worse, you insist that everyone else define ourselves as whores.

2. Certain people whose bad circumstances have led society to call them
Whores, are to be embraced and loved and welcomed back into the collection
of us people whose weaknesses have caused mistakes.

3. Clause No. 2 does not apply to certain classes of whores: this list
could grow too long for the average person's ability to concentrate, but
let me name a few:

a) they buy up 10 adjacent buildings, their sole purpose to off the
residents and turn the block into a trendy boutique block;
b) they lock down the block and tell every working girl therein that 39%
goes to the Kung Lok Tong, else something bad happen to you and your family
in Shanghai.
c) The first several hits are free, girl. After that you pay $500 a day,
which means you got to work, bitch!

This is what is going on in downtown Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and even
such burbs as Guelph.

It has become my mission to expose this and perhaps even to stop this. I
have looked into the toilet and seen human-trafficking on a huge scale in
this -- our pretended civilized nation -- and I have seen that shit is
going on that involves immigration officials at the top, and then extending
down into the deeps, and I need to help stop this shit from occurring.

I have no idea how you could help, and I don't mean to lean on you. All I
mean to say is that I am deep-diving into this and if I never surface, then
you might know where it happened. I'm 65 years old, which is to say, beyond
threat. Further, I have no wife no kids etc. so no one could be kidnapped
that would in any way compromise me. Which net net net is probably to say
that should I disappear, I shall not be missed. I am prepared to take that
chance.

Before I became a programmer and author about programming, I was a
journalist, and this sort of story was exactly my turf.

I am about to dive into deep waters. In case I don't re-surface, it's been
fun to be a member of this group. But now I have something to do and write
about that is much more important than my latest Access bug.

I may or may not make it out of this one. That's not meant for cheap drama,
it's a simple fact. Doesn't matter. This shit has got to stop, and if not
by me then perhaps the next one.

I realize that this is way off topic. Sorry about that. If I make it back,
I'll be sure to say Hello. Meanwhile, Bye for Now.


If you have an


-- 
Arthur
Cell: 647.710.1314

Prediction is difficult, especially of the future.
  -- Niels Bohr