ATV open house

Over the weekend I went to the ATV open house. It was pretty good. There was a good crowd there. The major stars were outside and they had long lineups for pictures and autographs.

Me and my kids wanted to see the inside of the studio. So we lined up for the guided tour. It was about a 20 minute lineup to get in but it was worth the wait. One thing that was interesting was that the mayor was at the head of the line greeting people as they were about to get to the staging area for the groups for the tours. I hadn't met him in person before.

Inside the studio was really cool. Our guides were Rick Grant and a friendly woman who was in advertising production. We saw the set for BT and live at 5. The control room was cool too and we were allowed to be in there while they directed a 1 minute segment outside where Steve Murphy spoke with some MPs.

The news room where they shoot live at 5 and the 6 o clock news was pretty good. We got to stand in front of the weather screen and point to Cape Breton on screen. That was fun. At the weather station Tina Simpkin spoke about how they get the forecast ready. She is a good looking woman.

It was a good time. I'm glad I went to it. As for the reason for the open house. They are struggling in this economic and advertising downturn. I can see how they would want to levy a fee on the cable and satellite companies who carry their signal. Although the medium is the message and we've been given a very one sided view of things from CTV.

But make no mistake. There's no way the cable/sat operators will just absorb such a fee for CTV. Any levy will just be tacked onto everyone's bill. Still is BT, live at 5, news at 6, 11, weekend news, etalk, CTV Canadian content worth an extra $2-$5 per month added to your cable bill?