Resident politico watchers who like to take in Burnaby city council meetings from the comfort of their living rooms may have noticed there was not the usual live council coverage Monday night.
Council coverage was rescheduled in favour of Game 3 of the Western Hockey League playoff finals between Victoria and Portland.
Shaw TV sent an email to the city clerk’s office on April 1 advising that the April 7 council meeting would not air live, and instead WHL playoffs games would be shown.
Monday night’s council will be broadcast on Saturday, April 12 instead, according to the email.
If a Game 7 is necessary, the Monday April 14 meeting will also not air live but will be broadcast Saturday April 19.
The email states this move is “due to Shaw’s commitment to live coverage of WHL playoffs for the 2014 season.”
Coun.
Nick Volkow said he sees this as just another step in Shaw’s movement toward a more commercial model and away from its Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications mandate to serve local communities.
“This is a for-profit operation, the WHL,” he said. “When did that become community broadcasting?”
Volkow said now, more than ever, it is important to broadcast the meetings consistently because fewer media outlets are covering Burnaby council than in years past.
“There is a viewership that is very interested in what goes on, and they want to see the council meeting as it is happening and not delayed four or five days,” Volkow said.
The city streams the meetings on its website, Burnaby.ca, but Volkow said that method leaves out a significant group of the population.
“Not everyone has a computer,” he said. “But everyone has a TV.”
Volkow said many seniors in particular don’t own computers and yet they are very interested and invested in what goes on at council.
“On average Shaw TV airs 308 hours of city council meetings per month across the country alongside local celebrations, parades, festivals and education and a variety of sports including the WHL,” Shaw vice president of public relations Chethan Laksham told the NOW in an emailed statement.
“Shaw TV chooses to air city council meetings because of our commitment to the community programming and to our viewers. We can assure our viewers that we do everything possible to provide them access to relevant local content.”
Volkow and the Burnaby council took Shaw to task in 2012 when the company cancelled live broadcast of the meetings for the same reason, to cover hockey.
At the time council passed a resolution to send a letter to the CRTC regarding the cancellation. The company reversed its decision a few days later.
