I'm studious about time from my days in music, where we had to be off the stage.
But I'm very frustrated. This is a time for dialogue and there's obviously no chance for that. I'm going to ask three questions up front, and then allow just for answers.
I'd like to begin, Madam Rawat, with this issue of the low-power transmitters for digital.
One of the issues we're dealing with is what to do with the analog towers that connect the country and allow people to use the rabbit-ear signals, which they might lose. The only option that seems to be coming forward is that people have to purchase cable packages in order to enjoy the public broadcaster. My first question would be whether there is a way to transform the analog towers we presently have for digital. If you've looked at the costs, what kind of investment would it be to ensure we have these digital transmitters available?
My second question is to you, Mr. Bensimon, because of your experience at National Film Board.
National Film Board has suffered immense financial cutbacks, yet I think the quality of the films coming out is still unparalleled. It is one of Canada's great success stories. I'm looking at a whole bunch of cultural silos that were built for the 20th century notion of what Canada was. We have Telefilm, which some say is very challenged. We have CBC. We have National Film Board. We have the Canadian Television Fund. Yet we don't seem to have a holistic view in this multi-channel universe; we have all these funding envelopes, some of which are doing very well and some of which are probably doing very poorly.
Is there a way of radically redefining how we're doing things so we can have some cohesion among these various envelopes to actually create the kind of international success we should be having in television?
My third question would be to our university panel.
We've heard about the million options out there in the new media. Basically I look on the web, and there are 10 million blogs, and they're all absolutely boring. My kids relentlessly troll the Internet looking for content. Good content is expensive. What has changed as far as I can see is that they still watch TV, but never at eight o'clock. They watch TV by buying DVDs. We watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer night after night after night, based on when they want to watch it. They watch YouTube. Right now, they're watching The Mighty Boosh and Never Mind the Buzzcocks every night--when they want to watch it.
So there's the issue of content, but someone has to produce that content. How do we get it out there? I'd like to hear from you on that.
As a supplementary to that, I'd like to know whether you have looked at the LaPierre report called A Canadian Charter for the Cultural Citizen Online.That is one of the most profound things I've read in the last number of years--and it's collecting dust somewhere in the heritage department. Mr. LaPierre said the need to develop an online cultural capacity to create a notion of citizenship in the 21st century.... I've never heard that report mentioned again. Is there any relevance to it?
I'll pass it over.