Group rips on CBC movie night
TORONTO (CP) — The CBC would do better to acquire the rights of other hockey league games for Saturday night telecast, instead of “foreign” movies for the duration of the current NHL lockout, says Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.
In an open latter to CBC president Robert Rabinovitch on Monday, Friends says that in the place of Hockey Night in Canada, the public broadcaster could be airing Canadian Hockey League games, such as Drummondville at P.E.I. next Saturday night.
“In the last month of your mandate as CBC president, we find it highly regrettable that you would preside over a scheduling change that will have the effect of reducing Canadian content on CBC Television’s prime time schedule to a level last seen in the 1980s,” says Friends spokesman Ian Morrison.
“Hockey is an important part of Canadian culture.”
Last Saturday, CBC aired the popcorn classics Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Disney’s Dinosaur. On Oct. 30, the network will show a prime-time pre-Halloween airing of Monsters, Inc.
The open letter is just the latest in a series of critical broadsides aimed at the CBC for failing to come up with Canadian programming alternatives in light of the current NHL dispute.
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