On January 31st the CRTC granted a class B licence to a new cable channel called the Philantropy Channel. The station will go on the air on December 12th this year. Here is an excerpt from the station's press release.
"This channel is the first of its kind", said Peter Clarke, founder and President. "Launching The Philanthropy Channel in Canada is especially appropriate because Canadians are world leaders in philanthropy." More than 160,000 charities and non-profit organizations are registered in Canada, over $1.5 billion is dispersed annually by more than 3,000 Canadian philanthropic foundations, and more than 12 million Canadians offers his or her services as a volunteer every year.
Among other things, the network will offer programming about the philanthropic interests of private individuals and foundations, as well as pop-culture icons such as Bill Gates, Bono and Oprah Winfrey.
"The Philanthropy Channel is where like-minded people will be able to share their stories and passion for giving and helping at all levels," Clarke said. "As an independent Canadian broadcaster, we are excited to provide a service that gives voice to those people and organizations that shape social change in our communities and around the world. The Philanthropy Channel will appeal to the philanthropist in all of us."
What the channel seeks to be exactly is kind of foggy. If I am interpreting the press release properly the station is meant to be an outlet for non-profits to promote themselves. Now this is nothing new. Organizations such as World Vision and Foster Parents Plan have been given air time for decades. On a soggy afternoon we've seen Rob Black and Mehgan fellows with strugling families in the third world. Not to mock the work done by these organizations put repetition leads to some cynicism. If the new channel were to give us new orgnaizations and new prespectives there may some impact. Other wise it can easily turn into white noise.
It is certainly a daring concept with many pluses and minuses. To be the home of inspirationaly programming has been the aim of other channels in the past. When Vision launched it seek to a spiritual and inspirational channel, a philosophy it eventually migrated from as it moved up to the triple digits of cable. One and I Channel also seeked for insipiration and have amanged to stay on the air in digitial but have never developed a strong audience. Inspiration was the main goal of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) when it launched in 2011. All it has lead to has been short lived series, many paniced executives, and a money pit.
The intention of the Philanthropy channel are nobel, but easily mocked if it is nothing but 24 hours of starving people played to an endless of loop of Sarah McLoughlin's most melancholly songs. If this is meant to expose viewers to a new world and new ways to give it needs to be selective and careful as to who and what they air. It is all in the execution.
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