Television in Canada
The Beginning
“When will I learn? The answers to life’s problems aren’t at the bottom of a bottle,
they’re on TV!”
-Homer Simpson
Canadian television broadcasting officially began with the opening of the nation's first
television stations in Montreal and Toronto in 1952. Programming available has always
been strongly influenced by the American media, and Canadian viewers have come to
expect the wide variety of choices available in the U.S. Many believe that this has come
at the expense of high-quality indigenous programming, although U.S. influence is less
pronounced in the predominantly French-language province of Quebec.
Television in Canada actually pre-dates any telecasts originating in the country, since
thousands of television sets capable of receiving U.S.-based signals were installed in
homes near the U.S. border between 1946 and 1952. Homes in southern and southwestern
Ontario and portions of British Columbia, including the Toronto, Hamilton, London,
Windsor, Victoria and Vancouver areas, were able to receive TV broadcasts from Buffalo,
Cleveland, Detroit or Seattle with the help of elevated outdoor antennas and amplifiers.
U.S. television programs, and the networks that originated them, thus became popular in
those Canadian cities within range of their signals--and those cities represented a sizable
proportion of the total Canadian population. This helped spur development of a
specifically Canadian television programming and transmission system during the late
1940s and early 1950s, but at the same time, caused it to develop within American
technical standards previously mandated by the FCC between 1941 and 1946.
Since the first Canadian stations (CBFT in Montreal and CBLT in Toronto) signed on in
September of 1952, television developed differently in Canada than in the United States
because it was introduced and developed in a different context. The distinct social,
political, and economic situation of Canada shaped the historic development of mass
communication and television in the country. There are mainly three factors that have
made the historical development of television in Canada a unique one: The threat of
American influence; the language divide; and, the government’s response to both of
these.
It is not surprising that American influence remained pervasive during television
development in Canada. Even with the emergence of radio, Canada was already trying to
keep foreign ownership and programming at a minimum, to avoid American influence
and dependency. Even in the US, major broadcasters were pushing smaller cultural
communication aside with their dominating programming; this was not based on policy
but on money – the more money, the more market penetration.
This was a problem for Anglophone Canadian broadcasters as well as the Canadian
Government. How could any sense of “Canadianism” come out of such an attractive and
rich American world? There was a fear of communicating ideas and opinions that were
not Canadian, to Canadians… especially the youth. After all, it was the first time, with
the exception of radio, that such a wide audience could be reached at the same time.
Culture Schlock
“It was all we talked about at school. We literally raced home to watch TV.”
-Lorne Michaels (Canadian TV performer and producer)
By 1954, a million TV sets had been sold in Canada. Even though they were very
expensive, 9 out of 10 of Canadian households owned a TV set by the end of the 1950s.
It became important to Canadian broadcasters and cultural critics that it would be
Canadian values projected to this huge national audience. Though many were attracted to
American television programs, some feared that Canada would get stuck in this rut of
American popular culture. This was a time when Canadian national identity was very
vague. Canada was not only made up of Francophones and Anglophones, but also
immigrants from around the world, mostly from Europe. This fear of American influence
convinced the Canadian Government that their involvement was necessary in order for
Canadian broadcasting to express and encourage Canadian identity and national unity.
French Canadians also feared expansion of American influence and the difficulties that
might arise in protecting the French language, but the concern was different from English
Canada’s. Francophones did not have the option of purchasing U.S. programming and
profitably filling their schedules with cheap, attractive foreign products, basically because
those products were not attractive to the French audience. In this way, society affected the
division in the Canadian broadcasting industry as much as the division affected society.
The key issue was language.
Most Anglophone viewers could relate easily to the American programs, as much as they
did to their Canadian programs, since the people looked the same as they did and they
spoke in the same language as they did. For example, in 1957 the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation presented its audience with American programs such as the Ed Sullivan
Show. However, the ten most popular programs on French Television were made in
Quebec, like La Famille Plouffe. Year after year, French Canadians showed a strong
preference for Quebec–made TV. This is significant considering the fierce American
competition English Canada was and still is dealing with.
French Television was distinct from English television, in more ways than just language.
One of its most distinctive aspects was bringing together international and local
influences, American and European television styles and programming ideas, then
merging them with a modern and assertive Quebec. The merging of local and foreign
ideas and techniques was a novelty in North American Television. Since English and
French Television developed separately, English and French Canadians were exposed to
different ideas and images. In essence, French language broadcasting strengthened a
distinct popular culture.
Big Brother is Programming
“The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem”. -Milton Friedman (Economist)
With the fear of the United States stunting the growth of Canadian culture as well as the
country being even more divided by language, the government showed huge concern in
what television was doing to Canada and how they would fix it. According to the
Canadian government, the survival of Canada depended on public funding for Canadian
programs which would be produced, broadcast and controlled by a public corporation.
The Broadcasting Act of 1932 was the beginning of government involvement, and its
main aim was the “Canadianization of mass media.” In other words, it wanted to create a
Canadian broadcasting system to replace the American system that had infiltrated
Canada, as well as unite Canadians by creating a national identity. The Act of 1932
created a national network for each electronic medium in the two official languages of
French and English. When it was created, the Act referred mostly to radio broadcasting
but it also included television once it appeared, in 1952.
The most important thing this Act did was create the CRBC, which would be replaced by
the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) in a later revision. This corporation, created
by the government had two main responsibilities - firstly, it was to be an establishment of
national service and secondly, it would monitor the entire broadcast system.
This was a huge responsibility, and a very difficult one to fulfill. Canada is a very vast
country, which made it very difficult for one corporation to control the broadcasting
system from coast to coast, as well as establish a network to compete in this system and
in the American system.
Before 1958, the Canadian law prohibited the creation of private television networks.
Private stations did emerge but they could not exist independently. They were obliged to
be affiliated with the French national network or the English national network.
The Act of 1958, as well as its revised version in 1968, allowed for the existence of
private television networks. The private stations were now recognized as direct
competitors to CBC, which maintained its role as national broadcaster but lost its
regulatory power. The 1968 Broadcasting Act also created the CRTC, The Canadian
Radio-Television Commission, which later became the Canadian Radio-Television and
Telecommunications Commission. The government’s involvement through law and
creation of national commissions was seen as necessary in order to survive culturally as a
nation.
There was the implication that both private and public networks were working toward the
national objective of unity and Canadian content and ownership. Government
intervention did help the Canadian broadcasting industry economically, but failed in
creating a distinct Canadian culture in contrast to American popular culture. It did
however, allow for Quebec to run its own broadcasting which in turn led to a distinct
Quebec identity.
Economically, it helped out the Canadian broadcasters, particularly thanks to the
Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), who introduced Bill C-58 which removed
tax deductibility benefits for Canadian Corporations advertising on American stations.
The 1968 Act had also given priority carriage for Canadian broadcast services. Policies
such as these produced important economic benefits for Canadian broadcasters.
Economic prosperity for Canadian broadcasters took priority over Canadian identity, in
that it was not compromised for the latter. Canadian content regulations were introduced
in 1959 and revised again in 1978. However, “Canadian Content” is broadly defined as
programs of “general interest to Canadians’. Since Canadians can so easily identify with
Americans and their popular culture as well as the two countries being tied so closely
economically, almost anything made in the U.S. can be of general interest to Canadians.
The late 1980s saw some attempts to change this, but it was difficult to police such a
huge system.
Though North American society believes that government involvement in television and
news outlets is wrong, government intervention throughout the development of television
in Canada affected the way it developed in the country. It did not develop in a free market
but through laws and policies. Television was destroying the already vague Canadian
identity and the Canadian government responded in the attempt of using television as a
tool to gain a national identity that was overshadowed by American identity.
Broadcast Television Expands
“You can present the material, but you can’t make me care.”
-Calvin and Hobbes (Comic strip)
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was the first entity to broadcast
television from Canada, in September 1952 in both Montreal and Toronto. Private CBC
affiliates began operating late in 1953 to supplement the Corporation's own stations; the
first private CBC affiliate in Canada was CKSO in Sudbury, Ontario in October of that
year. At the time all stations were required to be CBC affiliates, as the CBC was the only
television network operating in Canada. American television stations, including affiliates
of ABC, NBC and CBS, near the Canadian border were available to view for several
years prior, and gained a sizable audience in cities like Toronto which were within range
of U.S. signals.
In 1948, there were 325 television sets in Canada, but thousands more were sold in the
years from 1948 to 1952, most of them tuned to a single Buffalo channel, a single Seattle
channel, one of three broadcasting from Cleveland or one of three broadcasting from
Detroit. When Canadian television began, the Radio-Television Manufacturers
Association of Canada estimated that 85,000 sets were expected to be sold in 1952. 95%
of these were concentrated in Ontario, with 57.4% in the Golden Horseshoe region
Television watching outside Ontario was limited to British Columbia's Lower Mainland
with access to American programming from Seattle, and some sets in Montreal.
Television sales were promoted not only by the arrival of CBC Television, but by revised
credit practices at that time which allowed purchases without requiring a cash deposit.
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.
Over the next 25 years or so, many more new stations were launched, primarily CBC
stations in major markets replacing private affiliates (which subsequently joined with
CTV or became independent) and new independent stations in the largest centers, such as
CITY-TV Toronto, CITV-TV Edmonton, and CKND-TV Winnipeg. During this time
cable television also began to take hold, securing the fortunes of individuals such as Ted
Rogers, who secured the licenses 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. Specialty channels, unlike cable networks in the U.S.,
must be licensed by the CRTC. They must also be focused on a specific genre and cannot
include general-interest services of the TNT or USA variety; as a result programs from
these U.S. channels often end up on conventional stations, not cable. Specialty channels
include such categories as sports (TSN), news (CBC Newsworld and CTV News
Channel), music (MuchMusic), arts (Bravo!) and drama (Showcase). Anglophone
premium television services include The Movie Network east of the Ontario-Manitoba
border, Movie Central west of that border, Super Channel nationally, and Super Écran in
French-speaking Canada.
The early- to mid-1990s in particular also saw further growth and consolidation of
broadcast TV. As well, the launch of direct-to-home satellite television services in the
mid-1990s accelerated this growth.
Since the consolidation phase of the late 1990s and early 2000s the television industry in
Canada now more closely resembles the British or Australian models, in which the vast
majority of stations are directly owned by their networks and offer only slight variance in
local scheduling apart from local or regional newscasts, rather than the American network
affiliate model that formerly predominated. In some cases, a single station serves an
entire province (or even multiple provinces, in the case of the Maritimes) through a
network of re-broadcasters rather than through multiple licensed stations. Some privatelyowned network affiliates do still exist, although these are now relatively rare and exist
only in smaller television markets.
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CanCon Means Never Having to Say “I’m Watching!”
“Imitation is the sincerest form of television.”
-Fred Allen (Comedian)
Canadian regulations ensure that the majority of programming aired by Canadian stations
are of domestic origin, but thanks to domestic newscasts and daytime programming, a
very large percentage of the airtime in peak viewing hours (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 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. Arguably this
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.
*A Statistics Canada study, conducted in November 2004, found that only 37.2% of
what Canadians watched was Canadian content.
While under Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
regulations at least 60% of program has to be Canadian-produced, and 50% on prime
time, English-language private broadcasters such as CTV and Global have always had
difficulty airing more than a bare minimum of indigenous programming in primetime.
Among the most successful recent series are the comedies Corner Gas and Little Mosque
on the Prairie, the drama Da Vinci's Inquest, and the mockumentary Trailer Park Boys.
Scripted television programming in Canada tends toward the shorter runs more typical of
British television rather than the longer seasons that predominate in the United States. A
typical Canadian drama or comedy series will produce between six and thirteen episodes
in its first season, although an exceptionally popular series such as Corner Gas may
produce up to 20 episodes in later seasons. Less expensive forms of programming, such
as news and sketch comedy programs, will usually produce many more episodes each
year, coming closer to the American model.
The French commercial networks air significantly more Canadian content than their
English counterparts.
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It’s Still TV, No Matter What Language It’s In
“A different language is a different vision of life.”
-Federico Fellini (Film Director)
While the majority of services operate in English, there are a growing number of similar
services in the French language, serving primarily Quebec. Télévision de Radio-Canada,
the French-language equivalent of CBC Television, broadcasts terrestrially across
Canada, while TVA, one of Quebec's two commercial French language networks, is
available across Canada on cable.
RDI, the French equivalent of CBC Newsworld, also has cross-Canada cable carriage
rights, as does TV5 Québec Canada. Most other French language networks are available
only in Quebec, although some have optional cable carriage status in the rest of Canada.
V, for instance, is carried on cable in New Brunswick and parts of Ontario and is
available nationally by satellite.
The Ontario government's French public television network TFO is the only French
language broadcaster in Canada whose operations are located entirely outside of Quebec.
In addition, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, a service devoted mainly to
programming from the First Nations, is considered a network by the CRTC, although the
network airs terrestrially only in the three Canadian territories, and is available only on
cable in most of Canada.
Other ethnic and multicultural services, serving one or more cultural groups outside of
these two official languages, are also growing in strength. Six terrestrial TV stations,
CFMT and CJMT in Toronto, CJNT in Montreal, CJEO in Edmonton, CJCO in Calgary
and CHNM in Vancouver, air multicultural programming in a variety of languages, while
Telelatino airs programming in Italian and Spanish on basic cable. Numerous thirdlanguage channels have been licensed as services on digital cable.
Networks, systems and groups
“The great thing about television is that if something important happens anywhere in the
world, day or night, you can always change the channel.”
-Taxi (TV series 1978-1983)
The publicly-funded CBC operates two broadcast networks, CBC Television and la
Télévision de Radio-Canada, operating in English and French respectively. Both are
devoted primarily to domestic content, but with different results: The French-language
service, which does not have significant foreign competition, has been considered a major
success in recent years, while many have found much to be desired in its English
counterpart over the same time.
The English network in particular has suffered immensely due to various cuts to, and
restructurings of, the CBC's budget, beginning in the late 1980s, as well as greater
competition with private broadcasters, both domestic and foreign, in English Canada.
Both networks are available over-the-air in most of the country.
The remaining networks or systems have a more limited reach or audience appeal. As the
CRTC is much more conservative in licensing individual stations than the FCC, they do
not reach all markets.
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.
Some markets have at least one provincial educational service available, namely
TVOntario and TFO (Ontario), Télé-Québec and Canal SAVOIR (Quebec), the
Saskatchewan Communications Network, Knowledge (British Columbia), and Access
(Alberta). Of these, all but Access are owned by governmental or non-profit agencies, and
Access is owned by CTVglobemedia.
Other major stations include NTV, an independent station in St. John's airing Global
programming; The Miracle Channel (southern Alberta); and TVA/Sun Media-owned
independent station Sun TV in Toronto.
Multichannel television
“Television enables you to be entertained in your home by people you wouldn’t have in
your home.”
-David Frost (Media Personality)
Cable and satellite television services are available throughout Canada, delivering local
and often regional stations, the major U.S. networks, and additional programming via
specialty and other non-broadcast channels. The largest and best-known cable providers
are Rogers Cable and Shaw Communications, while the two licensed satellite providers
are Bell TV and Shaw-owned Shaw Direct.
Some U.S. channels are also available, although these are also subject to CRTC approval.
Aside from the four main broadcast networks, they are generally prohibited if a similar
Canadian channel has already launched at the time of the request for Canadian carriage.
American cable networks have occasionally been removed outright if an equivalent
Canadian channel is licensed, as in the case of CMT.
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Technology
“If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we'd still be eating frozen
radio dinners.”
-Johnny Carson (TV talk show host)
In Canada television uses primarily the NTSC and ATSC formats. 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
The CRTC has set August 31, 2011 as the deadline for over-the-air television
broadcasting in Canada to move entirely to digital transmission. This is just over two
years later than the switchover date in the United States.
Into the Future
“I do not think every home will have its own projecting machine, although the wealthier
people will possess them, no doubt.”
- Thomas Edison (Inventor, 1913)
Into the 21st Century, Canadian television faces some large challenges. The industry is
alternating between a protective model that promotes national culture and identity, and an
unrestricted approach that calls for a large-scale de- regulation of the industry.
The industry is confronted with this difficult choice because of a number of key political
decisions that have helped shape the way television has been integrated into the Canadian
social fabric.
For example, there is the complex relationship and delicate balance between the nation,
state and culture in the political formation of a sovereign country. Also, the impact of
multiculturalism and globalization on the regulatory framework and the potential
development of international markets and audiences comes into play. The nature of the
audience and the cultural value of television as a 'mass' medium, as well as the
technological environment, and the subsequent impact on the cultural value of meaning
must be considered.
In order for the Canadian television industry to survive it must organise itself around new
conceptions of multiculturalism, globalization, and technological advancements. The
industry must embrace a more diverse model of languages, cultures, and viewing
strategies, with the ultimate goal of re-imagining the nation through the revitalisation of
one of the principal cultural conduits of national identity.
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Social Effects
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The most interesting effect of Television, and indeed mass media, on Canadian culture, is
that it has been used to create and form Canadian culture itself. Communications by
water and land made Canadian federation possible; electronic communications today
make possible the conduct of business, the political process and the sharing of culture and
information.
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Since Confederation, Canada has been a landmass much larger than most empires in
history; governing its distant settlements and bringing them together in some form of
political, social and cultural unity has been primarily a problem of communications
management.
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Since Canada's inception, governments have recognized the importance of
communications in Canadian life, and communications systems usually have been
developed under government sponsorship and always under government control. Since
1932 the federal government has been directly involved in first radio and then TV.
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Since the late 1930s it has had its own filmmaking agency, the National Film Board
which produces and distributes films. Since the 1920s the government has regulated
broadcasting and telephone systems; today it is a partner in Satellite Communications.
Private business has played an increasingly large role in broadcasting, particularly since
the early 1960s. But many communities, especially in the North, would not be reached by
mass communications without the active participation of the government.
In many other ways Canada is a special case, because Canada exists next door to the most
powerful and innovative communications system in the world. American mass culture
dominates the Canadian imagination. Most countries regulate imported culture through
quotas on broadcasting, but Canada has set up few barriers and most have been
ineffective.
Canadian nationalism became a more powerful force in the 1960s and the 1970s than at
any point since the 1920s, and the appreciation and development of national and regional
Canadian culture became a public issue. This interest has led to fundamental changes in
publishing and the performing arts, but has made no great impression on TV because a
more powerful counterforce was at work: cable TV.
Bringing American stations to a majority of viewers, cable effectively put Canadian
broadcasters in a minority in their own country, pushing Canadian content and
entertainment out to the edge of the country's consciousness. In a period when mass
communications in Canada might have flourished, they found themselves more
overshadowed than ever.
The effect of cable was marked even in Québec. The first 2 decades of TV had tended to
strengthen Québec’s identity by producing a generation of French Canadian TV writers,
stars and commentators - the most famous being René Levesque, a commentator on
Radio-Canada in the 1950s who became provincial premier in 1976.
But when cable made a broad spectrum of American stations available, French Canadians
in considerable numbers began viewing them, and TV presented yet another threat to the
survival of the French language. In mass communications, every fresh development
brings social problems as well as benefits.
Critics blame television for everything from obesity to the murder rate. That is no
different in Canada than anywhere else, but the basic social impact is purely homegrown
- the Canadian television industry was built to unite, shape, promote, and encourage a
Canadian identity and culture….entertainment was just a by-product.
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