Television in Canada
Encyclopedia
Television in Canada officially began with the opening of the nation's first television stations in Montreal and Toronto in 1952. 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 US itself. Customers have come to expect the wide variety of choices available in the US, 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
.
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.
The American influence, as well as the fear of it, greatly affected the way television developed in Canada. The first decades of the twentieth century saw a change towards industrialization. During this time both the materials and products manufactured as well as the investors and consumers were American. The Canadian dependency on American capital and markets had persisted through the Great Depression and its aftermath. It is not surprising that the situation remained the same during the emergence of television as well as affected its 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 Imperialism to be caused by this dependency on the United States, which had already been created. The issue of economy of scale plays a big role here. “Americans are [were] pushing smaller cultural communication aside with their dominating programming, not because they’re [were] based on a policy but because they have [had] the money- the poorer the country, the more American productions.” English Canadian broadcasting is easy to see how this was problematic for some Anglophone Canadians as well as the Canadian Government. How can 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 maybe radio, that such a wide audience could be reached at the same time. By 1954, a million TV sets had been sold in Canada. Even though they were very expensive, the great majority (9 of 10) of Canadian households owned a TV set by the end of the 1950s. People were so excited and obsessed with this novelty. “It was all we talked about at school. We literally raced home to watch TV,” says TV performer and producer, Lorne Michaels. It became important to Canada that it would be Canadian values projected to this huge audience and soon the whole nation. Though many were attracted to the 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.
Though French Canadians had this fear of expansion of American influence and the difficulties that might arise in protecting the French language, the concern was not the same as the English Canadians’. They did not have the option of purchasing U.S. programming and profitably filling their schedules with cheap, attractive foreign products, mostly because they 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 here is language. The intensity of fears of “continentalism” was as strong as its opposing force of attractiveness of American Television to Canadian viewers. 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. “Perhaps one of its most distinctive aspects was the bringing together of international and local influences, American and European television styles and programming ideas and merging them with the cultural idioms of rapidly modernizing 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, as they went down their separate roads, English and French Canadians were exposed to different ideas and images. In essence, French language broadcasting strengthened a distinct popular culture.
With the fear of the United States stunting the growth of a Canadian nation 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. As Graham Spry, the founder and spokesperson of the Canadian Radio broadcasting, had said about the Radio system, “The Question is the State or the United States?” According to the Canadian government, 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. 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 itself into Canada, as well as to unite Canadians in 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. First, it was to be an establishment of national service. Secondly, it would monitor the entire broadcast system. Evidently, this was a huge responsibility, and a very difficult one to fulfill. Canada is a very vast country, which makes it very difficult for one corporation to control the broadcasting system from coast to coast, all while establishing a network to almost 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 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 a necessity in order to survive as a nation. Also, the government still referred to the Canadian broadcasting system as the “single system.” Amongst other things, this implied that both private and public networks were working toward the same goals, notably 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). Thanks to their protests, Bill C-58 was passed. Amongst many changes, Bill C-58 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. This can be inferred through the vagueness and ineffective policies passed in the aim of protecting Canadian culture. For example, 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, it seems that 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 is so difficult to police such a huge system. Still, if it weren’t for the involvement of the Canadian government, would media outlets in Canada belong to Canadians, or would Americans own them? Though North American society seems to believe that the government’s involvement in television and news outlets is wrong, this might be an example of how the government saved Canadian Television. 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.
, 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, 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.
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 (40.2% Toronto and Hamilton, 17.2% Niagara Peninsula
) and 34.6% in the Windsor
region near Detroit. 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 an initial cash deposit.
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 subsequently joined with CTV or became independent) and new independent stations in the largest centres, 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 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; in late 2005 BCE announced it would sell most of its interests in Globemedia to a consortium of investors including the Thomson
family and Torstar
, although it still retains a minority stake in the company.
In many respects, particularly 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, in fact, a single station serves an entire province (or even multiple provinces, in the case of the Maritimes) through a network of rebroadcasters rather than through multiple licensed stations. Some privately owned network affiliates do still exist, although these are now relatively rare and exist only in smaller television markets.
Bell Globemedia (soon after renamed CTVglobemedia
and then Bell Media) announced plans to acquire CHUM, in a deal that would place Canada's four largest private English-language broadcast services under just two owners (in CTVgm's case, CTV and Citytv). The enlarged CTVgm would also own interests in nearly 40 specialty channels and pay services. As part of the proposal, CTVgm would sell several of CHUM's less valuable properties, such as the smaller A-Channel system, to Rogers Communications
, Canada's largest cable provider and already a major media company in its own right.
This sparked another round of media consolidation. In early 2007, CanWest, in partnership with Goldman Sachs
, announced an agreement to buy Alliance Atlantis
, another major specialty channel operator, and more deals are expected in the near future. Other major specialty operators include Corus Entertainment
(owned by the Shaw family) and Astral Media
.
On June 8, 2007, however, the CRTC approved the CHUM merger, conditional on CTV divesting itself of Citytv rather than A-Channel.
Consolidation has also continued between cable companies (see Multichannel television in Canada
) and between specialty channel operators. 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, which owns CJON
in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
. The twinstick
model of broadcasting, in which a single locally owned company operated both CTV and CBC affiliates in a community, is also now rare — within English Canada, only the cities of Thunder Bay
and Lloydminster
still receive television service from a twinstick operation, and of those two, only Thunder Bay's Thunder Bay Television
is still locally owned.
A Statistics Canada
study, conducted in November 2004, found that only 37.2% of what Canadians watched was Canadian content
.
See also: fee-for-carriage
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. In addition, high rated American shows cannot be seen if the Canadian network overriding the signal interrupts the program for a news bulletin, unless the cable company switches the signal back to the original.
. 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 Toronto
, carry a single newscast during the late-afternoon/early-evening period, specifically from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. However, as in the U.S., "strip" programming fills the following hour, at least in the Eastern and Pacific time zones, and is followed by prime time
programming. One or more newscasts follow, usually beginning at 11:00 p.m.; the main exception is The National, 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 all programming at local time, except for a 30-minute delay in the Newfoundland time zone.
Overnight programming varies from broadcaster to broadcaster, and may consist of purchased programming or infomercials.
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.
. 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.
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 third-language channels have been licensed as Category 2
services on digital cable
.
.
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.
- 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. However, for historical reasons, The Oprah Winfrey Show
airs on a mixture of stations, albeit one dominated by CTV.
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 A is not available. In many markets, including some major cities, there is only a handful of local stations, with other network services provided by an affiliate based hundreds of kilometres away. For instance, in Ottawa, only three English networks/systems – CBC, CTV and A – have stations based in the market; the "local" Global and Citytv stations are in fact rebroadcasters of Toronto-area stations. Such a scenario would be virtually unheard of in a major American market.
Despite a general CRTC policy that limits station ownership to one station per market per language per company, several exceptions have led to twinstick
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 E! and A 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. While Industry Canada nominally maintains a requirement for stations to identify themselves every hour on the hour, in practice this is rarely enforced. Meanwhile the major networks have striven 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.
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, albeit 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 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 Quebec over-the-air and elsewhere via cable and satellite, airs mostly programming made in Quebec, to great success in that province; see also Quebec television. CTV, Global and TVA are owned by Bell Canada Enterprises through its Bell Media division, Shaw Communications
and Quebecor Media respectively.
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; in fact A consist almost entirely of former CBC affiliates that disaffiliated and quickly turned their focus towards larger nearby markets.
These networks include:
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 education
al 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.
A number of American stations, such as the Newport Television
-owned independent station KVOS-TV
in Bellingham, Washington
, 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.
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.
Specialty channel
s, unlike cable network
s in the U.S., must be licensed by the CRTC. They must 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.
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
.
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
.
Media in Canada
Canada has a well-developed media sector, but its cultural output — particularly in English films, television shows, and magazines — is often overshadowed by imports from the United States. Television, magazines, and newspapers are primarily for-profit corporations based on advertising,...
, 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 US itself. Customers have come to expect the wide variety of choices available in the US, 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
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
.
Development of Television
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.
The American influence, as well as the fear of it, greatly affected the way television developed in Canada. The first decades of the twentieth century saw a change towards industrialization. During this time both the materials and products manufactured as well as the investors and consumers were American. The Canadian dependency on American capital and markets had persisted through the Great Depression and its aftermath. It is not surprising that the situation remained the same during the emergence of television as well as affected its 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 Imperialism to be caused by this dependency on the United States, which had already been created. The issue of economy of scale plays a big role here. “Americans are [were] pushing smaller cultural communication aside with their dominating programming, not because they’re [were] based on a policy but because they have [had] the money- the poorer the country, the more American productions.” English Canadian broadcasting is easy to see how this was problematic for some Anglophone Canadians as well as the Canadian Government. How can 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 maybe radio, that such a wide audience could be reached at the same time. By 1954, a million TV sets had been sold in Canada. Even though they were very expensive, the great majority (9 of 10) of Canadian households owned a TV set by the end of the 1950s. People were so excited and obsessed with this novelty. “It was all we talked about at school. We literally raced home to watch TV,” says TV performer and producer, Lorne Michaels. It became important to Canada that it would be Canadian values projected to this huge audience and soon the whole nation. Though many were attracted to the 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.
Though French Canadians had this fear of expansion of American influence and the difficulties that might arise in protecting the French language, the concern was not the same as the English Canadians’. They did not have the option of purchasing U.S. programming and profitably filling their schedules with cheap, attractive foreign products, mostly because they 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 here is language. The intensity of fears of “continentalism” was as strong as its opposing force of attractiveness of American Television to Canadian viewers. 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
La famille Plouffe
La famille Plouffe was a Canadian television drama, more specifically a téléroman, about a Quebec family that first aired in the French-language on Société Radio-Canada in 1953. The show was created to fill a void in francophone television in Canada...
. 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. “Perhaps one of its most distinctive aspects was the bringing together of international and local influences, American and European television styles and programming ideas and merging them with the cultural idioms of rapidly modernizing 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, as they went down their separate roads, English and French Canadians were exposed to different ideas and images. In essence, French language broadcasting strengthened a distinct popular culture.
With the fear of the United States stunting the growth of a Canadian nation 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. As Graham Spry, the founder and spokesperson of the Canadian Radio broadcasting, had said about the Radio system, “The Question is the State or the United States?” According to the Canadian government, 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. 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 itself into Canada, as well as to unite Canadians in 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. First, it was to be an establishment of national service. Secondly, it would monitor the entire broadcast system. Evidently, this was a huge responsibility, and a very difficult one to fulfill. Canada is a very vast country, which makes it very difficult for one corporation to control the broadcasting system from coast to coast, all while establishing a network to almost 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 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 a necessity in order to survive as a nation. Also, the government still referred to the Canadian broadcasting system as the “single system.” Amongst other things, this implied that both private and public networks were working toward the same goals, notably 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). Thanks to their protests, Bill C-58 was passed. Amongst many changes, Bill C-58 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. This can be inferred through the vagueness and ineffective policies passed in the aim of protecting Canadian culture. For example, 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, it seems that 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 is so difficult to police such a huge system. Still, if it weren’t for the involvement of the Canadian government, would media outlets in Canada belong to Canadians, or would Americans own them? Though North American society seems to believe that the government’s involvement in television and news outlets is wrong, this might be an example of how the government saved Canadian Television. 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
While American television stations, including affiliates of ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, 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, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
(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
CICI-TV
CICI-TV is a Canadian television station, broadcasting in Sudbury, Ontario. It is an owned-and-operated station of the CTV Television Network, and is the flagship station of that network's system in northern Ontario, CTV Northern Ontario....
in Sudbury, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
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.
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
Golden Horseshoe
The Golden Horseshoe is a densely populated and industrialized region centred around the Greater Toronto Area at the western end of Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada, with outer boundaries stretching south to Lake Erie and north to Georgian Bay. Most of it is also part of the Quebec City...
region (40.2% Toronto and Hamilton, 17.2% Niagara Peninsula
Niagara Peninsula
The Niagara Peninsula is the portion of Southern Ontario, Canada lying between the south shore of Lake Ontario and the north shore of Lake Erie. It stretches from the Niagara River in the east to Hamilton, Ontario in the west. The population of the peninsula is roughly 1,000,000 people...
) and 34.6% in the Windsor
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
region near Detroit. Television watching outside Ontario was limited to British Columbia's Lower Mainland
Lower Mainland
The Lower Mainland is a name commonly applied to the region surrounding and including Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As of 2007, 2,524,113 people live in the region; sixteen of the province's thirty most populous municipalities are located there.While the term Lower Mainland has been...
with access to American programming from Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
and some sets in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. Television sales were promoted not only by the arrival of CBC Television, but by revised credit
Credit (finance)
Credit is the trust which allows one party to provide resources to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately , but instead arranges either to repay or return those resources at a later date. The resources provided may be financial Credit is the trust...
practices at that time which allowed purchases without requiring an initial cash deposit.
Following a review by the Diefenbaker
John Diefenbaker
John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...
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
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
, 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
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
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 subsequently joined with CTV or became independent) and new independent stations in the largest centres, such as CITY-TV
CITY-TV
CITY-DT, Channel 57 , is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada owned and operated by Rogers Media...
Toronto, CITV-TV
CITV-TV
CITV-DT is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Known on air as Global Edmonton, the station is owned by Shaw Media, and is an owned-and-operated station of the Global Television Network. It transmits on channel 13 and cable 8 in Edmonton, and is carried on the Bell TV and Shaw...
Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
, and CKND-TV
CKND-TV
CKND-DT is a television station that broadcasts from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is the Manitoba outlet for the Global Television Network.-History:...
Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
. During this time cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
also began to take hold, securing the fortunes of individuals such as Ted Rogers
Edward Rogers III
Edward Samuel Rogers III is, as of 2009, deputy chairman of Rogers Communications.Edward Rogers was appointed Deputy Chairman of Rogers Communications on September 15th, 2009...
, 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
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
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
Izzy Asper
Israel Harold "Izzy" Asper, , Canadian tax lawyer and media magnate, was the founder of the now defunct CanWest Global Communications Corp and father to its former CEO and President Leonard Asper, former director and corporate secretary Gail Asper, as well as Executive Vice President David 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
CIII-TV
CIII-DT-41 is a television station owned by Shaw Communications that serves much of the population of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is a flagship station of the Global Television Network...
, the heretofore Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
-based Global Television Network
Global Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
.
Additional groups also sprouted up in the form of Western International Communications
Western International Communications
WIC Western International Communications Ltd.The apparent occurrence of "RAS syndrome" here was in fact part of the company's legal name. was a Canadian media company that operated from 1982 to 2000, with operations including broadcast and specialty television, radio, and satellite distribution via...
, CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a media company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1945 to 2007. Immediately prior to its acquisition, it held full or joint control of two Canadian television systems — Citytv and A-Channel — comprising 11 local stations, and one CBC Television affiliate, one...
and Craig Media. In 2000, CanWest bought WIC, which had itself grown from the CTV affiliate-owner in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
to include many of the stations of Allarcom and Maclean Hunter, in order to satisfy its long-held desire to enter Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, 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
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
papers in several major cities, raising new concerns on media concentration. Telecom giant BCE
Bell Canada
Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...
, believing it needed control over content to fuel its new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
strategy, formed Bell Globemedia
CTVglobemedia
CTVglobemedia , was one of Canada's largest private media companies. Its operations include newspaper publishing , television broadcasting and production , radio broadcasting , and their respective Internet properties.Originally established by BCE and the Thomson family in 2001 combining CTV Inc.,...
, essentially CTV and its specialty services put together with a single, if influential, newspaper, The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
. Canwest continues to pursue its strategy; in late 2005 BCE announced it would sell most of its interests in Globemedia to a consortium of investors including the Thomson
Thomson Corporation
The Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies.Thomson was active in financial services, healthcare sectors, law, science & technology research, and tax & accounting sectors...
family and Torstar
Torstar
Torstar Corporation is an independently-owned Canadian broadly based media company that is named after its principal holding, the Toronto Star daily newspaper....
, although it still retains a minority stake in the company.
In many respects, particularly 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
Affiliate
An affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.- Corporate structure :A corporation may be referred to as an affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid...
model that formerly predominated. In some cases, in fact, a single station serves an entire province (or even multiple provinces, in the case of the Maritimes) through a network of rebroadcasters rather than through multiple licensed stations. Some privately owned network affiliates do still exist, although these are now relatively rare and exist only in smaller television markets.
Recent developments
- The proposed acquisitions outlined in the following section are all pending Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approval. See also: 2007 Canada broadcast TV realignment2007 Canada broadcast TV realignmentIn 2007, significant ownership changes occurred in Canada's broadcast television industry, involving nearly every network and television system. In addition to the shuffling of television network affiliations and network mergers, several new broadcast translators and new television stations also...
.
Bell Globemedia (soon after renamed CTVglobemedia
CTVglobemedia
CTVglobemedia , was one of Canada's largest private media companies. Its operations include newspaper publishing , television broadcasting and production , radio broadcasting , and their respective Internet properties.Originally established by BCE and the Thomson family in 2001 combining CTV Inc.,...
and then Bell Media) announced plans to acquire CHUM, in a deal that would place Canada's four largest private English-language broadcast services under just two owners (in CTVgm's case, CTV and Citytv). The enlarged CTVgm would also own interests in nearly 40 specialty channels and pay services. As part of the proposal, CTVgm would sell several of CHUM's less valuable properties, such as the smaller A-Channel system, to Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications Inc. is one of Canada's largest communications companies, particularly in the field of wireless communications, cable television, home phone and internet with additional telecommunications and mass media assets...
, Canada's largest cable provider and already a major media company in its own right.
This sparked another round of media consolidation. In early 2007, CanWest, in partnership with Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...
, announced an agreement to buy Alliance Atlantis
Alliance Atlantis
Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. was a Toronto-based media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operator in Canada. Alliance Atlantis also had offices in Halifax, Los Angeles, London, Dublin, Madrid, Barcelona, Shannon and Sydney.Alliance Atlantis was acquired by Canwest...
, another major specialty channel operator, and more deals are expected in the near future. Other major specialty operators include Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment Inc. is a publicly traded Canadian media and entertainment conglomerate.Corus is a leading Canadian specialty television and radio producer, with additional assets in pay television, advertising services, television broadcasting, children's book publishing and children's...
(owned by the Shaw family) and Astral Media
Astral Media
Astral Media Inc. is a Canadian media corporation. It is Canada's largest radio broadcaster with 83 radio stations in eight provinces, and is a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, including The Movie Network, Super Écran, Family, Teletoon, Canal D, Canal Vie, VRAK.TV,...
.
On June 8, 2007, however, the CRTC approved the CHUM merger, conditional on CTV divesting itself of Citytv rather than A-Channel.
Consolidation has also continued between cable companies (see Multichannel television in Canada
Multichannel television in Canada
Many Canadians now receive their television service through some sort of multichannel television platform, such as cable television or satellite television, as opposed to an antenna-based system providing only conventional stations...
) and between specialty channel operators. 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
Geoff Stirling
Geoffrey William Stirling is a Canadian businessman. Stirling, along with other members of his family, owns several media outlets in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador under the corporate brand Stirling Communications International...
family, which owns CJON
CJON-TV
CJON-DT is a Canadian English language television station broadcasting on channel 21 in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, with additional transmitters and cable coverage throughout the province. It is known on-air as NTV, for Newfoundland Television...
in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...
. The twinstick
Twinstick
A twinstick, in Canadian broadcasting, is a term for two television stations, broadcasting in the same market, which are owned by the same company...
model of broadcasting, in which a single locally owned company operated both CTV and CBC affiliates in a community, is also now rare — within English Canada, only the cities of Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay
-In Canada:Thunder Bay is the name of three places in the province of Ontario, Canada along Lake Superior:*Thunder Bay District, Ontario, a district in Northwestern Ontario*Thunder Bay, a city in Thunder Bay District*Thunder Bay, Unorganized, Ontario...
and Lloydminster
Lloydminster
Lloydminster is a Canadian city which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan...
still receive television service from a twinstick operation, and of those two, only Thunder Bay's Thunder Bay Television
Thunder Bay Television
Dougall Media is a Canadian media company, which has several television, radio and publishing holdings in Northwestern Ontario.-Television:Thunder Bay Television is the name under which CKPR, a CBC affiliate in Thunder Bay, Ontario operates. It is co-owned with CHFD, a Global affiliate in the same...
is still locally owned.
A Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada is the Canadian federal government agency commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. Its headquarters is in Ottawa....
study, conducted in November 2004, found that only 37.2% of what Canadians watched was Canadian content
Canadian content
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from...
.
See also: fee-for-carriage
Fee-for-carriage
Fee-for-carriage, value-for-signal, negotiation for value, or the "TV tax" all refer to a proposed Canadian television regulatory policy which would require cable and satellite television companies to compensate conventional, over-the-air television stations for the right to carry their local signals...
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, or even as terrestrial signals in border markets.A Canadian network is allowed to override the cable/satellite feed of an American broadcast signal
Simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requiring Canadian cable, direct broadcast satellite and multichannel multipoint distribution service television distribution companies to substitute the signal of a foreign or...
when they air the same program simultaneously, ensuring that the Canadian broadcaster, not the American broadcaster, is able to benefit from the advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
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. In addition, high rated American shows cannot be seen if the Canadian network overriding the signal interrupts the program for a news bulletin, unless the cable company switches the signal back to the original.
Scheduling
Many Canadian broadcasters broadcast on a 24-hour schedule. Daily programming begins at about 6:00 a.m., usually with a local or national morning showBreakfast television
Breakfast television or morning show , is a type of infotainment television program, broadcast live in the morning...
. Daytime programming, including talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
s and soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s, follows, although some Canadian stations may air "brokered-time" religious or charitable programming as well, which unlike traditional infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
s can count towards Canadian content requirements.
As opposed to the U.S. model, most stations, even in major markets like Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, carry a single newscast during the late-afternoon/early-evening period, specifically from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. However, as in the U.S., "strip" programming fills the following hour, at least in the Eastern and Pacific time zones, and is followed by prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
programming. One or more newscasts follow, usually beginning at 11:00 p.m.; the main exception is The National, 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
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
— have historically received U.S. network feeds from the Pacific zone, not from the Mountain zone. Similarly, those in Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada is the region of Canada comprising the four provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec: the three Maritime provinces – New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia – and Newfoundland and Labrador...
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 all programming at local time, except for a 30-minute delay in the Newfoundland time zone.
Overnight programming varies from broadcaster to broadcaster, and may consist of purchased programming or infomercials.
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 CTVCTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
and Global
Global Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
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
Corner Gas
Corner Gas is a Canadian television sitcom created by Brent Butt. The series ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009. Re-runs still air on CTV and The Comedy Network in Canada; it formerly aired on WGN America in the United States....
and Little Mosque on the Prairie
Little Mosque on the Prairie
Little Mosque on the Prairie is a Canadian sitcom on CBC, created by Zarqa Nawaz and produced by WestWind Pictures. It is filmed in Toronto, Ontario and Indian Head, Saskatchewan...
, the drama Da Vinci's Inquest
Da Vinci's Inquest
Da Vinci's Inquest is a Canadian dramatic television series that aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2005. Seven seasons of thirteen episodes each were filmed for a total of ninety-one episodes....
, and the mockumentary Trailer Park Boys
Trailer Park Boys
Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian comedy mockumentary television series created and directed by Mike Clattenburg that focuses on the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, some of whom are ex-convicts, living in the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The...
.
Scripted television programming in Canada tends toward the shorter runs more typical of British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
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
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
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.
Languages
While the majority of services operate in English, there are a growing number of similar services in the French language, serving primarily QuebecQuebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. Télévision de Radio-Canada
Télévision de Radio-Canada
Télévision de Radio-Canada is a Canadian French language television network. It is owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, known in French as Société Radio-Canada. Headquarters are at Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal, which is also home to the network's flagship station, CBFT-DT...
, the French-language equivalent of CBC Television, broadcasts terrestrially across Canada, while TVA
TVA (TV network)
TVA is a privately owned French language television network in Canada. The network is currently owned by Groupe TVA Inc. , a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media...
, one of Quebec's two commercial French language networks, is available across Canada on cable.
RDI
Réseau de l'information
Réseau de l'information is a Canadian French language Category C news channel operated by CBC/Radio-Canada. RDI began broadcasting on January 1, 1995, and is considered the French-language equivalent of the CBC News Network, also owned by the CBC....
, the French equivalent of CBC Newsworld
CBC Newsworld
CBC News Network is a Canadian English language Category C specialty news channel owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. It is the world's third-oldest television service of this nature, after CNN in the United States and...
, 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
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
and parts of Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
and is available nationally by satellite.
The Ontario government's French public television network TFO
TFO
TFO is a Canadian French language educational public television network in the province of Ontario. It is the only French-language television network in Canada whose operations are based entirely outside of Quebec....
is the only French language broadcaster in Canada whose operations are located entirely outside of Quebec.
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
CFMT-TV
CFMT-DT, channel 47, is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with rebroadcasters in Ottawa and London. The station broadcasts multicultural programming targeting European and Latin American communities throughout Southern Ontario. Part of the Omni Television group of stations...
and CJMT
CJMT-TV
CJMT-DT is a Canadian television station, which broadcasts multicultural programming in Toronto, Ontario. As one of the Omni Television stations owned by Rogers Media, it uses the on-air brand OMNI.2, and is a sister station to CFMT ....
in Toronto, CJNT
CJNT-TV
CJNT-DT is a Canadian multicultural television station in Montreal, Quebec. The station is owned and operated by Channel Zero and uses the on-air brand Metro 14.-History:...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, CJEO
CJEO-TV
CJEO-DT, branded as Omni Alberta, is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta. The station is owned by Rogers Communications, and broadcasts a multicultural programming format as part of Rogers' Omni Television system...
in Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
, CJCO
CJCO-TV
CJCO-DT, branded as OMNI Calgary, is a television station in Calgary, Alberta. The station is owned by Rogers Communications, and broadcasts a multicultural programming format as part of Rogers' Omni Television system...
in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
and CHNM
CHNM-TV
CHNM-DT, channel 20 , is a television station based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada...
in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, air multicultural programming in a variety of languages, while Telelatino
Telelatino
Telelatino, also referred to as TLN, is a Canadian Category A Specialty channel broadcasting general interest programming from Canada and around the world, primarily in Italian and Spanish...
airs programming in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
on basic cable. Numerous third-language channels have been licensed as Category 2
Category 2 specialty channel
A Category B service is a Canadian specialty television channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, may be carried, optionally, by all digital cable television and direct broadcast satellite providers.Unlike Category A services, Category B services...
services on digital cable
Digital cable
Digital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...
.
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 captioningClosed captioning
Closed captioning is the process of displaying text on a television, video screen or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information to individuals who wish to access it...
.
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 infomercialInfomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
- 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
Dr. Phil (TV series)
Dr. Phil is a reality/talk television show hosted by Phil McGraw. After McGraw's success with his segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil debuted on September 16, 2002...
only airs on CTV stations and Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...
only on Global stations. However, for historical reasons, The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
airs on a mixture of stations, albeit one dominated by CTV.
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
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
, particularly in smaller markets. For instance, in Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
, two CBC affiliates are available, a local privately owned station
CKWS-TV
CKWS is an affiliate of the CBC Television Network in Kingston, Ontario, providing coverage to Eastern Ontario from Campbellford to Morrisburg and from Perth to Oswego, New York in the United States....
and a CBC-owned station
CBOT (TV)
CBOT-DT is a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television station in Ottawa, Ontario. The station's studios are located in the CBC Ottawa Broadcast Centre.-History:...
from Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, while A is not available. In many markets, including some major cities, there is only a handful of local stations, with other network services provided by an affiliate based hundreds of kilometres away. For instance, in Ottawa, only three English networks/systems – CBC, CTV and A – have stations based in the market; the "local" Global and Citytv stations are in fact rebroadcasters of Toronto-area stations. Such a scenario would be virtually unheard of in a major American market.
Despite a general CRTC policy that limits station ownership to one station per market per language per company, several exceptions have led to twinstick
Twinstick
A twinstick, in Canadian broadcasting, is a term for two television stations, broadcasting in the same market, which are owned by the same company...
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
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
and CHEK
Chek
Chek or CHEK may refer to:graffiti artist "chek larok/cheksta* Chek, Kyrgyzstan* CHEK-TV, a TV station in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada...
in Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
(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 E! and A 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
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
s beginning in "CB", "CF", "CH", "CI", "CJ" or "CK", but few now use them. While Industry Canada nominally maintains a requirement for stations to identify themselves every hour on the hour, in practice this is rarely enforced. Meanwhile the major networks have striven 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
CITY-TV
CITY-DT, Channel 57 , is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada owned and operated by Rogers Media...
Toronto, which, along with several sister stations, use the "Citytv
Citytv
Citytv is a Canadian English language television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications under its Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. division...
" brand name.
Networks, systems and groups
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
operates two broadcast networks, CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
and la Télévision de Radio-Canada
Télévision de Radio-Canada
Télévision de Radio-Canada is a Canadian French language television network. It is owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, known in French as Société Radio-Canada. Headquarters are at Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal, which is also home to the network's flagship station, CBFT-DT...
, operating in English and French respectively. Both are devoted primarily to domestic content, albeit 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 first tier of national private networks include CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
, Global
Global Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
, and TVA
TVA (TV network)
TVA is a privately owned French language television network in Canada. The network is currently owned by Groupe TVA Inc. , a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media...
. 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 Quebec over-the-air and elsewhere via cable and satellite, airs mostly programming made in Quebec, to great success in that province; see also Quebec television. CTV, Global and TVA are owned by Bell Canada Enterprises through its Bell Media division, Shaw Communications
Shaw Communications
Shaw Communications is Canada's largest telecommunications company that provides telephone, Canada's fastest Internet and television services as well as broadcasting and soon Wifi. Shaw is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta...
and Quebecor Media respectively.
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; in fact A consist almost entirely of former CBC affiliates that disaffiliated and quickly turned their focus towards larger nearby markets.
These networks include:
- CitytvCitytvCitytv is a Canadian English language television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications under its Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. division...
- a system of local stations owned by Rogers CommunicationsRogers CommunicationsRogers Communications Inc. is one of Canada's largest communications companies, particularly in the field of wireless communications, cable television, home phone and internet with additional telecommunications and mass media assets...
which focus on movies and niche-appeal programs in primetime, although gradually adding more broad-appeal series. - CTV Two - a secondary service owned by CTV
- V - a French-language network owned by Remstar; availability in Quebec is roughly equal to that of TVA but availability outside of Quebec is limited
- APTNAboriginal Peoples Television NetworkAboriginal Peoples Television Network is a Canadian broadcast and cable television network. APTN airs and produces programs made by, for and about Aboriginal Peoples...
- a non-profit AboriginalAboriginal peoples in CanadaAboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....
service carried primarily via cable
- Omni TelevisionOMNI TelevisionOmni Television, corporately styled as OMNI Television, is a Canadian television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications. It consists of the company's conventional television stations in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta which are licensed as multicultural stations...
- a system of five multicultural stations owned by Rogers. These channels also air syndicated programming. - JoytvJoytvJoytv is a privately held Canadian television system owned by ZoomerMedia. Joytv airs a mix of multi-faith and family-oriented programming in the form of dramas, comedies, news magazines, talk shows and more.-History:...
- a system of two religiousReligious broadcastingReligious broadcasting refers to broadcasting by religious organizations, usually with a religious message. Many religious organizations have long recorded content such as sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their Internet websites.While this article emphasises...
stations owned by S-VOXS-VOXS-VOX Foundation is a Canadian non-profit media organization dedicated to producing content on faith and spirituality.The organization is the successor to the non-profit entity that operated VisionTV, and later other related Canadian specialty channels, from 1988 to 2010...
, which were sold by Rogers and formally part of the Omni Television system. - CTSCrossroads Television SystemCrossroads Television System, or CTS, is a privately held Canadian television system.CTS airs predominantly Christian-based religious programming, most notably 100 Huntley Street, The Michael Coren Show and LIFE Today with James & Betty Robison, as well as other religious and faith based...
- a system of three religiousReligious broadcastingReligious broadcasting refers to broadcasting by religious organizations, usually with a religious message. Many religious organizations have long recorded content such as sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their Internet websites.While this article emphasises...
-based stations owned by Crossroads Christian CommunicationsCrossroads Christian CommunicationsCrossroads Christian Communications is a Canadian non-profit charitable corporation located in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. While it focuses on media development and production, it also has extensive involvement in Christian missions and aid and relief work....
.
Many smaller markets have stations that receive programming from more than one network. Most notably, NTV
CJON-TV
CJON-DT is a Canadian English language television station broadcasting on channel 21 in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, with additional transmitters and cable coverage throughout the province. It is known on-air as NTV, for Newfoundland Television...
in Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
airs CTV's newscasts but relies mainly on Global for entertainment programs.
Some markets have at least one provincial education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
al service available, namely TVOntario
TVOntario
TVOntario, often referred to only as TVO , is a publicly funded, educational English-language television station and media organization in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario...
and TFO
TFO
TFO is a Canadian French language educational public television network in the province of Ontario. It is the only French-language television network in Canada whose operations are based entirely outside of Quebec....
(Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
), Télé-Québec
Télé-Québec
Télé-Québec is a French language public educational television network in the Canadian province of Quebec. Known legally as Société de télédiffusion du Québec , it is a provincial crown corporation owned by the Government of Quebec...
and Canal SAVOIR
CFTU-TV
CFTU-TV is a Canadian French language educational television station in the province of Quebec, owned by a private consortium known as CANAL, consisting primarily of Quebec-based post-secondary institutions. CFTU currently uses the on-air brand, Canal Savoir...
(Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
), the Saskatchewan Communications Network
Saskatchewan Communications Network
SCN is a Canadian English language cable television entertainment, information, and educational channel in the province of Saskatchewan...
, Knowledge (British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
), and Access
Access (TV channel)
CTV Two Alberta is a Canadian English language entertainment, information, and educational television channel in the province of Alberta...
(Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
). Of these, all but Access are owned by governmental or non-profit agencies, and Access is owned by CTVglobemedia
CTVglobemedia
CTVglobemedia , was one of Canada's largest private media companies. Its operations include newspaper publishing , television broadcasting and production , radio broadcasting , and their respective Internet properties.Originally established by BCE and the Thomson family in 2001 combining CTV Inc.,...
.
Other major stations include NTV, an independent station in St. John's
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...
airing Global programming; The Miracle Channel
CJIL-TV
CJIL-DT is a Canadian English-language Christian-based television station licensed to and based in Lethbridge, Alberta. CJIL-DT uses the on-air name The Miracle Channel...
(southern Alberta); and TVA/Sun Media-owned independent station Sun TV
CKXT-TV
CKXT-DT was a broadcast television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and serving much of southern and eastern Ontario, owned by Quebecor Media through its Groupe TVA unit. At the time of the station's closure on November 1, 2011, the station was serving as an over-the-air simulcast of...
in Toronto.
A number of American stations, such as the Newport Television
Newport Television
Newport Television, LLC is a television station holding company founded by Providence Equity Partners and Sandy DiPasquale in 2007 to acquire the television stations owned by Clear Channel Communications. In September 2007, Newport agreed to sell KFTY and KVOS-TV to LK Station Group LLC for $26.6...
-owned independent station KVOS-TV
KVOS-TV
KVOS-TV is television station licensed in Bellingham, Washington and is an affiliate of Me-TV. The station's over-the-air transmissions are on digital channel 35, though through PSIP the station remaps to its former analog channel 12...
in Bellingham, Washington
Bellingham, Washington
Bellingham is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is the twelfth-largest city in the state. Situated on Bellingham Bay, Bellingham is protected by Lummi Island, Portage Island, and the Lummi Peninsula, and opens onto the Strait of Georgia...
, and the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
affiliates in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
(WUTV
WUTV
WUTV, virtual channel 29, is the Fox-affiliated television station in Buffalo, New York. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 14. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, in a duopoly with the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate WNYO-TV...
) and Burlington, Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
Burlington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the shire town of Chittenden County. Burlington lies south of the U.S.-Canadian border and some south of Montreal....
(WFFF
WFFF-TV
WFFF-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Vermont's Champlain Valley and Upstate New York's North Country. Licensed to Burlington, Vermont, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 43 from a transmitter on Vermont's highest peak, Mount Mansfield...
), have also aggressively courted Canadian advertisers and are perceived by many viewers and advertisers as effectively Canadian stations.
Multichannel television
CableCable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
and satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
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
Rogers Cable
Rogers Cable Inc., a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, in Manitoba, Southern & Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.The...
and Shaw Communications
Shaw Communications
Shaw Communications is Canada's largest telecommunications company that provides telephone, Canada's fastest Internet and television services as well as broadcasting and soon Wifi. Shaw is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta...
, while the two licensed satellite providers are Bell TV and Shaw-owned Shaw Direct.
Specialty channel
A specialty channel can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted television market at a specific demographic....
s, unlike cable network
Cable network
A cable channel is a television channel available via cable television. Such channels are usually also available via satellite television, including direct broadcast satellite providers such as DirecTV, Dish Network and BSkyB...
s in the U.S., must be licensed by the CRTC. They must be focused on a specific genre and cannot include general-interest services of the TNT
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
or USA
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
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
The Sports Network
The Sports Network, commonly abbreviated as TSN, is a Canadian English language Category C specialty channel and is Canada's leading English language sports TV channel. TSN premiered in 1984, in the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels...
), news (CBC Newsworld
CBC Newsworld
CBC News Network is a Canadian English language Category C specialty news channel owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. It is the world's third-oldest television service of this nature, after CNN in the United States and...
and CTV News Channel), music (MuchMusic
MuchMusic
MuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...
), arts (Bravo!) and drama (Showcase
Showcase Television
Showcase is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Shaw Media. Showcase is a predominantly fiction-based service centred around scripted television series and films....
). Anglophone premium television services include The Movie Network
The Movie Network
The Movie Network is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service, owned by Astral Media. The service is licensed to operate east of the Ontario-Manitoba border, excluding the territories...
east of the Ontario-Manitoba border, Movie Central
Movie Central
Movie Central is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service. Movie Central is designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territories...
west of that border, Super Channel nationally, and Super Écran
Super Écran
Super Écran is a Canadian French language Category A premium television service that broadcasts nationally via satellite or cable subscribers. The network is owned by Astral Media...
in French-speaking Canada.
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
Country Music Television
Country Music Television, or CMT, is an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming includes music videos, taped concerts, movies, biographies of country music stars, game shows, and reality programs...
.
Technology
In Canada television uses primarily the NTSCNTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
and ATSC formats.
Many networks, including CBC, Radio-Canada, CTV, Global, and Citytv, have begun distributing digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
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
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
.
The CRTC has set August 31, 2011 as the deadline for over-the-air television broadcasting in Canada to move entirely to digital transmission
Digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
. This is just over two years later than the switchover date in the United States
DTV transition in the United States
The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
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See also
- List of television stations in Canada by call sign
- List of Canadian television channels
- Canadian science fiction televisionCanadian science fiction television-History of science fiction television in Canada:Science fiction in Canada was produced by the CBC in its early years, notably the series Space Command . Actors such as James Doohan and William Shatner first appeared on Canadian television, before finding success in the United States. In the 1970s,...
- List of Canadian television series
- Canadian Television SalesCanadian Television SalesCanadian Television Sales is a U.S. rep firm that provides information to American advertising agencies so they have the ability to place advertising on Canadian television, radio stations and online properties...
Further reading
- Druick, Zoë. Aspa Kotsopoulos (2008)Programming reality: perspectives on English-Canadian television, Wilfrid Laurier University Press ISBN 9781554580101