| Television In Canada |
Article Index for Television In |
Website Links For Television |
Information AboutTelevision In Canada |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT TELEVISION IN CANADA | |
| canadian television | |
|
As with most Media In Canada , the television industry, and the television programming available in that country, are strongly influenced by the American media, perhaps to an extent not seen in any other major industrialized nation outside the U.S. itself. Customers have come to expect the wide variety of choices available in the U.S., but in the eyes of many this has come at the expense of the high-quality indigenous programming available elsewhere, even in comparable English-language markets such as the United Kingdom or Australia . This influence is less pronounced in the predominantly French-language province of Quebec . HISTORY OF TELEVISION IN CANADA While American television stations, including affiliates of ABC , NBC and CBS , near the Canadian border were available to view for several years prior, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was the first entity to broadcast television from Canada, in October 1952 in both Montréal and Toronto. Private CBC affiliates began operating shortly after to supplement the Corporation's own stations; at the time all stations were required to be CBC affiliates. Following a review by the Diefenbaker government in the late 1950s , a number of new, "second" stations were licensed in many major markets, many of which began operating before the end of 1960 . CTV , the first private network, which grew out of the inevitable association of these new stations, began operating in October 1961 . About the same time, CHCH Hamilton disaffiliated from the CBC and became the first station not affiliated with either network, not counting the initial launch period of most of the to-be-CTV stations. Over the next 25 years or so, many more new stations were launched, primarily CBC stations in major markets replacing private affiliates (which subseqently joined with CTV or became independent) and new independent stations in the largest centres, such as CITY Toronto, CITV Edmonton , and CKND Winnipeg . During this time Cable Television also began to take hold, securing the fortunes of individuals such as Ted Rogers , who secured the licences for much of Toronto. The 1980s and 1990s saw exponential growth in the multichannel universe, beginning with Pay-TV services and later continuing with various waves of specialty services, usually launched in one fell swoop. The launch of direct-to-home Satellite Television services in the mid-1990s accelerated this growth. The early- to mid-1990s in particular also saw further growth and consolidation of broadcast TV. Baton Broadcasting , owner of the CTV affiliate in Toronto and already seen as the network's dominant player, bought or replaced most of the network's other affiliates and ultimately acquired the network itself. Izzy Asper slowly built up a string of stations across the country and created the CanWest Global System, later taking the brand name of its most significant Asset , the heretofore Ontario -based Global Television Network . Additional groups also sprouted up in the form of Western International Communications , CHUM Limited and Craig Media . In 2000 , CanWest bought WIC, which had itself grown from the CTV affiliate-owner in British Columbia to include many of the stations of Allarcom and Maclean Hunter , in order to satisfy its long-held desire to enter Alberta , but also giving it a second network. CHUM secured two regional services in Ontario before expanding to British Columbia and merging with Craig, its equivalent in the Prairie Provinces . The early 2000s , aside from the completion of the consolidation described above, brought an apparent Convergence craze among the major media conglomerates. CanWest bought the Southam Newspaper chain, including the leading Broadsheet papers in several major cities, raising new concerns on Media Concentration . Telecom giant BCE , believing it needed control over content to fuel its New Media strategy, formed Bell Globemedia , essentially CTV and its specialty services put together with a single, if influential, newspaper, '' The Globe And Mail ''. CanWest continues to pursue its strategy; BCE has recently announced plans to sell most of its interest. Consolidation has also continued between cable companies (see "Distribution systems", below) and between specialty service operators. Aside from CTV and CHUM, significant specialty service operators include Alliance Atlantis , Corus Entertainment (owned by the Shaw family), Astral Media and Rogers Communications . As such, there are now few of the small family-owned television groups that dominated the formative era of Canadian television, the most notable perhaps being the Stirling family. TELEVISION PROGRAMMING As outlined below, Canadian regulations ensure that the majority of programming aired by Canadian stations are of domestic origin. However, thanks to domestic newscasts and daytime programming, a very large percentage of the airtime in peak viewing hours (in most areas, 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) can be devoted to programs of foreign origin, in large part due to the significant amount of programming available from the U.S., not to mention the availability of the major U.S. broadcast networks themselves via cable or satellite. A Canadian network is allowed to override, or "simulcast", the cable/satellite feed of an American broadcast signal when they air the same program simultaneously, ensuring that the Canadian broadcaster, not the American broadcaster, is able to benefit from the Advertising revenue associated with broadcasting to the Canadian audience (see also Simultaneous Substitution ). Arguably this simulcast right has led to an even greater glut of American programming on Canadian stations, including programs of little relevance to Canadian audiences, or poorly-received series that may never be seen outside North America. Scheduling The broadcast schedule of the generalized Canadian television station essentially mirrors that of its U.S. counterpart. Programming begins at about 6:00 a.m., usually with a local or national Morning Show . Daytime programming, including Talk Show s and Soap Opera s, follows, although some Canadian stations may air "brokered-time" religious or charitable programming as well, which unlike traditional Infomercial s can count towards Canadian content requirements. As opposed to the U.S. model, most stations, even in major markets like '', which airs at 10:00 on CBC. To maximize simultaneous substitution opportunities, in the Eastern and Pacific time zones, prime time programming airs from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m., while in the Central zone it generally airs from 7:00 to 10:00, in both cases mirroring the U.S. networks. However, viewers in the Mountain time zone — i.e. Alberta — have historically received U.S. network feeds from the Pacific zone, not from the Mountain zone. Similarly, those in Atlantic Canada receive U.S. feeds from the Eastern time zone. Local stations in those regions also use 8:00 to 11:00 (8:00 or 8:30 to 11:30 in Newfoundland) as prime time, but with most programming advanced by an hour, and 10:00 p.m. programming either aired earlier in the evening or on another day. CBC Television airs programming at consistent times in all time zones, the Newfoundland time zone excluded, meaning that if a program airs in Toronto at 9:00 against, for instance, ''''. Canadian content ''For more specific information on French language Canadian programming, see Quebec Television or individual network articles.'' While Canadian Content - other than News - has usually struggled against sleeker American productions, there have been nonetheless a number of successful Canadian-made programmes. In the 1980s and early 1990s , distinctly Canadian Drama series such as CBC's '' Street Legal '' or CTV's '' E.N.G. '' consistently drew hundreds of thousands of viewers each week. In the latter part of the 1990s and the early 2000s , Global's '' Traders '' and the CBC drama '' Da Vinci's Inquest '' completed long runs, buoyed by critical approval if not overwhelming viewer success. As for CTV, after short-lived runs of planned "flagship" drama series such as '' The City '', '' The Associates '' and '' The Eleventh Hour '', the network has recently found ratings success with the Reality Television series '' Canadian Idol '' and with the Sitcom '' Corner Gas ''. Another recent, if moderate, success is the CBC Dramedy '' This Is Wonderland ''. Specialty services also naturally produce Canadian content. Although most programmes come and go virtually unnoticed by the general public, some, most notably Showcase 's Mockumentary series, '' Trailer Park Boys '', have been able to generate a strong mass appeal. Despite these indigenous successes, Canadian networks have frequently fulfilled Cancon requirements by airing series produced in Canada but intended primarily for the lucrative ''. Even the current run of '' Doctor Who '', a BBC /CBC co-production filmed in Britain, might be considered Cancon - the CRTC's definition includes all programming produced in-house by the CBC, although the applicability of this definition is at best unclear. LANGUAGES While the majority of services operate in English , there are a growing number of similar services in the French Language , serving primarily Québec . Other ethnic and multicultural services, serving one or more cultural groups outside of these two official languages, are also growing in strength. THE BUSINESS AND REGULATION OF TELEVISION The Canadian broadcasting industry, including all programming services (over-the-air or otherwise) and all distributors, is regulated in regards to ownership and content by the Canadian Radio-television And Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which in most cases issues licences for each such operation. The CRTC issues licences pursuant to Canadian laws and the Commission's own regulations and conditions of licence, which regulate such matters as Canadian content, Canadian ownership, and accessibility issues such as Closed Captioning . Among other regulations, all Canadian broadcasters and distributors must be at least two-thirds owned and controlled by Canadian citizens; also, all conventional stations, and most established specialty services, are required to air a majority of Canadian content, both throughout its schedule and in its primetime schedule. Industry Canada regulates the technical aspects of broadcast stations and certain aspects of other licensed undertakings. Broadcast television Unlike specialty services, conventional, or over-the-air, broadcast stations are permitted to air a wide variety of news, information, entertainment, sports and other programming without any restriction as to theme or content, and none restrict themselves in that regard. Religious television stations are an exception to the previous statement but must provide a variety of programs reflecting different points of view. CRTC regulations have so far prevented a large number of the Infomercial - or religious-based stations now frequently found in major centres in the U.S. from operating in Canada; infomercials, even those made in Canada, are not considered Canadian content. Nearly all broadcast stations have now been aligned, in one form or another, into national groups based on ownership and/or content. Many of these groups are designated as "networks", in the colloquial sense, below, although in the regulatory sense they may or may not be licensed networks. However, they are often treated very differently from U.S. networks. For instance, most networks provide a full slate of programming, often, but not always, buying the national rights to "syndicated" programs that air across affiliates of multiple American networks. Hence '' Dr. Phil '' only airs on CTV stations and '' Entertainment Tonight '' only on Global stations. Also, it is not uncommon to find multiple affiliates of one network, and no affiliates of another network, available in the same market on basic Cable , particularly in smaller markets. For instance, in Kingston, Ontario , two CBC affiliates are available, a local privately-owned Station and a CBC-owned Station from Ottawa , while CH and A-Channel are not available. In many markets, there may be only one or two local stations, with other network services provided by an affiliate based hundreds of kilometres away, which rarely happens in the U.S. Despite a general CRTC policy that limits station ownership to one station per market per language per company, several exceptions have led to " Twinstick " (or Duopoly ) operations in several markets. In some cases this allows multiple stations to serve a small market that could otherwise support only one station. In larger markets, however, CanWest and CHUM have justified several instances of twinsticks, generally two stations based in separate but neighbouring regions. This was allowed on the basis that, in another owner's hands, stations like CHCH in Hamilton, Ontario and CHEK in Victoria, British Columbia (both CanWest stations) would inevitably turn their focus to the larger Toronto and Vancouver markets respectively, leaving their cities of licence with little or no local news coverage. This has led to the development of the CH and A-Channel systems, respectively. Nonetheless, the local news coverage these stations provide do not prevent them from airing programs with mass appeal during the rest of their schedules, frequently promoted on their sister stations. All stations have Call Sign s beginning in "CB", "CF", "CH", "CI", "CJ" or "CK", but few now use them. This is in part because Industry Canada has not significantly enforced the station identification regulations in recent years, and in part because of the major networks' desire to minimize the costs associated with multiple brand names. Some newer call signs are rarely known outside the industry (i.e. CKXT for "Sun TV"), while the major networks have largely removed all traces of formerly well-known call signs on local stations or their websites. A notable if partial exception is CITY-TV Toronto, which, along with several sister stations, use the " Citytv " brand name. Networks, systems and groups The publicly-funded . Both networks are available over-the-air in most of the country. The first tier of national private networks include CTV , Global , and TVA . CTV, presently the country's most-watched network, and Global are English networks which generally split the most popular foreign programs between them, with significant local news programming in most areas but limited amounts of domestic content in primetime. Both are available over-the-air in most regions. TVA, a French-language network available throughout Québec over-the-air and elsewhere via cable and satellite, airs mostly programming made in Québec, to great success in that province; see also Quebec Television . CTV, Global and TVA are owned by Bell Globemedia , CanWest Global and Quebecor Media respectively. The remaining networks or systems have a more limited reach or audience appeal. They are:
Many smaller markets have stations that receive programming from more than one network. Most notably, NTV in Newfoundland And Labrador airs CTV's newscasts but relies mainly on Global for entertainment programs. Most markets have at least one provincial / TFO , Tele-Quebec , Canal SAVOIR (also in Quebec ), the Saskatchewan Communications Network , the Knowledge Network ( British Columbia ), and ACCESS ( Alberta ). Of these, all but ACCESS are owned by governmental or non-profit agencies. Other major stations include Channel M , the multicultural station in Vancouver ; religious stations CTS (southern Ontario) and The Miracle Channel (southern Alberta); and TVA-owned independent station Sun TV in Toronto. A number of American stations, such as the Clear Channel -owned independent station KVOS Bellingham, Washington (near Vancouver), and the Fox affiliates in Buffalo, New York ( WUTV ) and Burlington, Vermont ( WFFF ), have also aggressively courted Canadian advertisers and are perceived by many viewers and advertisers as effectively Canadian stations. Many networks, including CBC, Radio-Canada, CTV, Global, and Citytv, have begun distributing Digital Television signals, although many are presently only available through cable and satellite providers, and in some cases over the air in selected markets such as Toronto . Canadian content regulations The CRTC presently requires that 60% of programming aired between 6:00 a.m. and 12:00 midnight, and 50% of programming aired between 6:00 p.m. and 12:00 midnight, be of Canadian origin. However, historically, much of these requirements have been fulfilled by low-cost news, current affairs and talk programmes in off-peak hours. It is usually not difficult to fill the daytime schedule with a sufficient amount of Cancon, while two-thirds of the latter requirement can be filled simply by airing an hour of news every night at 6:00 p.m. and again at 11:00 p.m. As described above under "Programming", often the remaining domestic content has consisted of low-cost Science Fiction or Drama programming primarily intended for sale to the U.S. and elsewhere, and has aired on nights or in timeslots where it is unlikely to attract a large audience, freeing up other timeslots for American network programming. Over the years the CRTC has tried a number of strategies intended to increase the success of Canadian programming, including expenditure requirements and time credits (i.e. a single hour of Cancon counts for more than an hour) for productions with specific requirements. Its most recent policy, issued in 1999 , requires stations owned by the largest private groups, including CTV, Global/CH, Citytv/A-Channel, and TVA/Sun TV, to air an average of eight hours per week of "priority programming", including drama, variety, documentary and entertainment magazine programs. Drama programs which meet specific requirements, including the number of Canadians in key production roles, can count for additional time credits for this purpose but not for the purposes of the overall 60%/50% requirements. (Global/CH and Citytv/A-Channel are generally prohibited from sharing priority programming, and it is unlikely that TVA will repurpose French-language programming on Sun TV.) These current regulations have been criticized by actors' and directors' groups, among others, for not adequately favouring dramas. Indeed, the rise in popularity of low-cost Reality Television in general has driven Canadian broadcasters to air more of these programmes, often classified as documentaries or variety programmes, as opposed to higher-cost dramas. As well, entertainment newsmagazines now regularly air during the "priority" period on CTV ('' ETalk Daily ''), Global ('' ET Canada ''), A-Channel ('' Star! Daily ''), and Sun TV ('' Inside Jam! ''), presumably to serve this very purpose. The CRTC has since modified its policies slightly by increasing the incentives for airing new drama programmes. Broadcasters will now receive additional minutes of advertising above the 12 minutes per hour generally permitted, which can be aired anywhere in the schedule, in exchange for increasing the number of Canadian dramas aired and meeting certain other drama-related targets. However, contrary to some media reports, these are ''not'' mandatory targets; hence several groups are unsatisfied and wish that the CRTC compel the major networks to air a minimum number of hours of drama. The reader should note that requirements for specialty and premium services often differ greatly from those of broadcast stations. Most long-established specialty services are expected to devote at least 50% of airtime to Cancon, while category 2 digital services and most premium services have much looser restrictions. Premium services "Pay television" services were launched in Canada in the early 1980s but were largely unsuccessful in their original form. Many shut down, and two (TSN and MuchMusic) converted to specialty services as that format became more successful. However, movie-oriented Premium services, including The Movie Network , serving Ontario and east, and Movie Central , serving Manitoba and west, both successors to the original general-interest pay services, have become very successful and very profitable, more so in recent years thanks to the shift towards digital terminals and the success of original series from sources such as HBO . Both services presently operate in a virtual monopoly in their respective markets, although that may change in the near future. The Family Channel is also licensed as a pay service and airs commercial-free, but is now treated by most providers as a specialty service and packaged with other specialty services. Many ethnic services also operate under pay-TV licences. Specialty services Specialty Service s, unlike their counterparts in the U.S., must be licensed by the CRTC. They cannot include general-interest services of the TNT variety - perhaps an indication of why there are now so many broadcast "systems" in the Canadian industry - but do include such categories as sports ( TSN ), news ( CBC Newsworld and CTV Newsnet ), music ( MuchMusic ), arts ( Bravo! ) and drama ( Showcase ). As a general rule, specialty services cannot be directly competitive, however the commission has given leeway in certain broader categories. For instance, in theory CBC Newsworld and CTV Newsnet are the Canadian equivalents of CNN and CNN Headline News respectively, although in practice they are directly competitive in most respects. Similarly, TSN, Rogers Sportsnet and The Score are licensed as national sports, regional sports, and sports news services respectively, but they compete for the rights to several key national broadcast properties, including Major League Baseball and the NHL . In addition to these, certain American services, including CNN and Spike TV , are permitted, provided they are deemed not to directly compete with Canadian services. They are not subject to the same simulcast rules as the U.S. broadcast networks. Some, such as TBS or CNBC , are passive entrants with little Canadian promotion. Others, such as A&E Network , are more proactive; that service has frequently advertised in Canada with the help of its cable partners (such as in the Rogers -owned '' Maclean's '' or in the "ad avails" of U.S. cable services, usually used here to promote Canadian services). Specialty services can generally be divided into four types. To the end user, there is little if any distinction between the first two ("analogue") and last two ("digital") categories:
Distribution systems The vast majority of Canadians now receive their television service through some sort of multichannel platform, as opposed to an antenna-based system providing only conventional stations. There are two main multichannel distribution platforms in Canada. The first, and by far the largest, is cable television, provided, depending on the region, by companies such as Rogers Communications , Shaw Communications , Vidéotron , Cogeco , Persona , and EastLink . Most of these "first-generation" cable companies do not compete with each other, although most telephone companies such as Bell Canada , Telus , Aliant , MTS and SaskTel have recently secured cable television distribution licences in their own territories, several of which are already in use. Satellite television is provided nationally by both Bell ExpressVu and the StarChoice unit of Shaw, both of which have secured several hundreds of thousands of subscribers since their initial launch in the mid- 1990s . Of note as well are the numerous Canadian subscribers to American satellite providers such as DirecTV and Dish Network , which are not legally licensed for distribution in Canada and which, at least publicly, denounce such activity, in the " Grey Market ". In some areas, an additional option is a form of over-the-air broadcasting, either via MMDS , also known as "wireless cable", or via encrypted low-power transmissions in the NTSC format. The fate of such capacity-limited services, heading into the era of digital television, is uncertain. Cable/satellite packaging Under CRTC regulations, a basic cable or satellite package in Canada must include:
Traditionally the package also includes
Other "discretionary tiers" or packages include other Canadian specialty or premium services and foreign services, as noted above. The distribution of these services is covered by various regulations, including one that states that a package cannot consist exclusively of foreign services and must maintain a certain ratio of Canadian to foreign services. ''See also:'' List Of Television Stations In Canada By Call Sign , List Of Canadian Specialty Services and the category below |
|
|