Big v. local

The Rogers Cable decision to displace the Watertown public TV station WPBS from its Ottawa line-up and to replace it with a Detroit PBS station is a cautionary tale on the threat to localism posed by an increasingly wired world, and a media environment dominated by "pipeline" owners who have little committment to relevant local service.

WPBS has a decades-long relationship with its Ottawa audience, more than 1600 of whom are contributing station members. Ottawa businesses are well-represented in the station's underwriting lineup, and programming at the station is formulated with a Canadian audience in mind. Ironically, WPBS has shown a level of respect for Canadian audience that could serve as model for all US border broadcasters. Canadians have long complained of arrogant self-centeredness in US media, which treats the nation (to quote Jon Stewart), as "that country we keep in the attic."

The same players that dominate North American cable TV also dominate broadband internet, and have been lobbying vigorously for a two-tier Internet to ration bandwidth--giving priority to their own media properties and those of their contractors, over media produced elsewhere. HD reruns of Gilligan's Island"--fast lane; NCPR broadcast stream--slow lane.

One would think that the new environment offering thousands of audio and video channels would usher in a Golden Age for localized niche content providers. One would think wrong. So far anyway.