Television in Canada
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This article discusses the history, programming and business issues regarding television in Canada. Television technology issues are not covered in this article except to say that in Canada, like the United States, television uses primarily the NTSC and ATSC formats.
As with most media in Canada, the television industry, and the television programming available in that country, are strongly influenced by the American media, perhaps to an extent not seen in any other major industrialized nation outside the U.S. itself. Customers have come to expect the wide variety of choices available in the U.S., but in the eyes of many this has come at the expense of the high-quality indigenous programming available elsewhere, even in comparable English-language markets such as the United Kingdom or Australia. This influence is less pronounced in the predominantly French-language province of Quebec.
History of television in Canada
While American television stations, including affiliates of ABC, NBC and CBS, near the Canadian border were available to view for several years prior, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was the first entity to broadcast television from Canada, in October 1952 in both Montréal and Toronto. Private CBC affiliates began operating shortly afterward to supplement the Corporation's own stations; the first private CBC affiliate in Canada was CKSO in Sudbury, Ontario. At the time all stations were required to be CBC affiliates, as the CBC was the only television network operating in Canada.
Following a review by the Diefenbaker government in the late 1950s, a number of new, "second" stations were licensed in many major markets, many of which began operating before the end of 1960. CTV, the first private network, which grew out of the inevitable association of these new stations, began operating in October 1961. About the same time, CHCH Hamilton disaffiliated from the CBC and became the first station not affiliated with either network, not counting the initial launch period of most of the to-be-CTV stations.
Over the next 25 years or so, many more new stations were launched, primarily CBC stations in major markets replacing private affiliates (which subseqently joined with CTV or became independent) and new independent stations in the largest centres, such as CITY Toronto, CITV Edmonton, and CKND Winnipeg. During this time cable television also began to take hold, securing the fortunes of individuals such as Ted Rogers, who secured the licences for much of Toronto.
The 1980s and 1990s saw exponential growth in the multichannel universe, beginning with pay-TV services and later continuing with various waves of specialty services, usually launched in one fell swoop. The launch of direct-to-home satellite television services in the mid-1990s accelerated this growth.
The early- to mid-1990s in particular also saw further growth and consolidation of broadcast TV. Baton Broadcasting, owner of the CTV affiliate in Toronto and already seen as the network's dominant player, bought or replaced most of the network's other affiliates and ultimately acquired the network itself. Izzy Asper slowly built up a string of stations across the country and created the CanWest Global System, later taking the brand name of its most significant asset, the heretofore Ontario-based Global Television Network.
Additional groups also sprouted up in the form of Western International Communications, CHUM Limited and Craig Media. In 2000, CanWest bought WIC, which had itself grown from the CTV affiliate-owner in British Columbia to include many of the stations of Allarcom and Maclean Hunter, in order to satisfy its long-held desire to enter Alberta, but also giving it a second network. CHUM secured two regional services in Ontario before expanding to British Columbia and merging with Craig, its equivalent in the Prairie provinces.
The early 2000s, aside from the completion of the consolidation described above, brought an apparent convergence craze among the major media conglomerates. CanWest bought the Southam newspaper chain, including the leading broadsheet papers in several major cities, raising new concerns on media concentration. Telecom giant BCE, believing it needed control over content to fuel its new media strategy, formed Bell Globemedia, essentially CTV and its specialty services put together with a single, if influential, newspaper, The Globe and Mail. CanWest continues to pursue its strategy; 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.
Consolidation has also continued between cable companies (see "Distribution systems", below) and between specialty service operators. Aside from CTV and CHUM, significant specialty service operators include Alliance Atlantis, Corus Entertainment (owned by the Shaw family), Astral Media and Rogers Communications. As such, there are now few of the small family-owned television groups that dominated the formative era of Canadian television, the most notable perhaps being the Stirling family.
Television programming
As outlined below, Canadian regulations ensure that the majority of programming aired by Canadian stations are of domestic origin. However, thanks to domestic newscasts and daytime programming, a very large percentage of the airtime in peak viewing hours (in most areas, 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) can be devoted to programs of foreign origin, in large part due to the significant amount of programming available from the U.S., not to mention the availability of the major U.S. broadcast networks themselves via cable or satellite.
A Canadian network is allowed to override, or "simulcast", the cable/satellite feed of an American broadcast signal when they air the same program simultaneously, ensuring that the Canadian broadcaster, not the American broadcaster, is able to benefit from the advertising revenue associated with broadcasting to the Canadian audience (see also simultaneous substitution). Arguably this simulcast right has led to an even greater glut of American programming on Canadian stations, including programs of little relevance to Canadian audiences, or poorly-received series that may never be seen outside North America.
Scheduling
The broadcast schedule of the generalized Canadian television station essentially mirrors that of its U.S. counterpart. Programming begins at about 6:00 a.m., usually with a local or national morning show. Daytime programming, including talk shows and soap operas, follows, although some Canadian stations may air "brokered-time" religious or charitable programming as well, which unlike traditional infomercials 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 programming at consistent times in all time zones, the Newfoundland time zone excluded, meaning that if a program airs in Toronto at 9:00 against, for instance, , the same program will air at 9:00 in Winnipeg against ER and in Halifax at 9:00 (and St. John's at 9:30) against Survivor.
Canadian content
While, under CRTC regulations, the majority of programming broadcast by most channels is Canadian-produced, English-language private broadcasters 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 Trailer Park Boys, the drama Da Vinci's Inquest, and reality series Canadian Idol.
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 series will produce 13 episodes per season, while a sitcom may produce between six and thirteen episodes depending on ratings and production costs. 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.
Languages
While the majority of services operate in English, there are a growing number of similar services in the French language, serving primarily Québec. 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 Canada. Most other French language networks are available only in Quebec, although some have optional cable carriage status in the rest of Canada. (TQS, for instance, is carried on cable in New Brunswick and parts of Ontario.)
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.
The business and regulation of television
The Canadian broadcasting industry, including all programming services (over-the-air or otherwise) and all distributors, is regulated in regards to ownership and content by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which in most cases issues licences for each such operation. The CRTC issues licences pursuant to Canadian laws and the Commission's own regulations and conditions of licence, which regulate such matters as Canadian content, Canadian ownership, and accessibility issues such as closed captioning.
Among other regulations, all Canadian broadcasters and distributors must be at least two-thirds owned and controlled by Canadian citizens; also, all conventional stations, and most established specialty services, are required to air a majority of Canadian content, both throughout its schedule and in its primetime schedule.
Industry Canada regulates the technical aspects of broadcast stations and certain aspects of other licensed undertakings.
Broadcast television
Unlike specialty services, conventional, or over-the-air, broadcast stations are permitted to air a wide variety of news, information, entertainment, sports and other programming without any restriction as to theme or content, and none restrict themselves in that regard. Religious television stations are an exception to the previous statement but must provide a variety of programs reflecting different points of view. CRTC regulations have so far prevented a large number of the infomercial- or religious-based stations now frequently found in major centres in the U.S. from operating in Canada; infomercials, even those made in Canada, are not considered Canadian content.
Nearly all broadcast stations have now been aligned, in one form or another, into national groups based on ownership and/or content. Many of these groups are designated as "networks", in the colloquial sense, below, although in the regulatory sense they may or may not be licensed networks. However, they are often treated very differently from U.S. networks. For instance, most networks provide a full slate of programming, often, but not always, buying the national rights to "syndicated" programs that air across affiliates of multiple American networks. Hence Dr. Phil only airs on CTV stations and Entertainment Tonight only on Global stations. 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 CH and A-Channel are not available. In many markets, there may be only one or two local stations, with other network services provided by an affiliate based hundreds of kilometres away, which rarely happens in the U.S.
Despite a general CRTC policy that limits station ownership to one station per market per language per company, several exceptions have led to "twinstick" (or duopoly) operations in several markets. In some cases this allows multiple stations to serve a small market that could otherwise support only one station.
In larger markets, however, CanWest and CHUM have justified several instances of twinsticks, generally two stations based in separate but neighbouring regions. This was allowed on the basis that, in another owner's hands, stations like CHCH in Hamilton, Ontario and CHEK in Victoria, British Columbia (both CanWest stations) would inevitably turn their focus to the larger Toronto and Vancouver markets respectively, leaving their cities of licence with little or no local news coverage. This has led to the development of the CH and A-Channel systems, respectively. Nonetheless, the local news coverage these stations provide do not prevent them from airing programs with mass appeal during the rest of their schedules, frequently promoted on their sister stations.
All stations have call signs beginning in "CB", "CF", "CH", "CI", "CJ" or "CK", but few now use them. This is in part because Industry Canada has not significantly enforced the station identification regulations in recent years, and in part because of the major networks' desire to minimize the costs associated with multiple brand names. Some newer call signs are rarely known outside the industry (i.e. CKXT for "Sun TV"), while the major networks have largely removed all traces of formerly well-known call signs on local stations or their websites. A notable if partial exception is CITY-TV Toronto, which, along with several sister stations, use the "Citytv" brand name.
Networks, systems and groups
The publicly-funded 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. Both networks are available over-the-air in most of the country.
The first tier of national private networks include CTV, Global, and TVA. CTV, presently the country's most-watched network, and Global are English networks which generally split the most popular foreign programs between them, with significant local news programming in most areas but limited amounts of domestic content in primetime. Both are available over-the-air in most regions. TVA, a French-language network available throughout Québec over-the-air and elsewhere via cable and satellite, airs mostly programming made in Québec, to great success in that province; see also Quebec television.
CTV, Global and TVA are owned by Bell Globemedia, CanWest Global and Quebecor Media respectively.
The remaining networks or systems have a more limited reach or audience appeal. As the CRTC is much more conservative in licensing individual stations than the FCC, they do not reach all markets; in fact both CH and A-Channel consist almost entirely of former CBC affiliates that disaffiliated and quickly turned their focus towards larger nearby markets. They are:
- Citytv - a system of local stations which focus on movies and niche-appeal programs in primetime; owned by CHUM Limited
- CH - a secondary service owned by CanWest, airing Global's "leftovers". Includes one multicultural station in Montreal.
- A-Channel - a secondary, series-based service owned by CHUM
- TQS - a fledgling French-language network controlled by Cogeco and partly owned by CTV; availability in Quebec is roughly equal to that of TVA but availability outside of Quebec is limited
- APTN - a non-profit Aboriginal service carried primarily via cable
- OMNI Television - a system of four niche-interest stations owned by Rogers. Two are licensed as multicultural stations while two are religious, and all have different programming; hence the only real similarities are in name and ownership.
Most markets have at least one provincial educational service available, namely: TVOntario / TFO, Tele-Quebec, Canal SAVOIR (also in Quebec), the Saskatchewan Communications Network, the Knowledge Network (British Columbia), and ACCESS (Alberta). Of these, all but ACCESS are owned by governmental or non-profit agencies.
Other major stations include Channel M, the multicultural station in Vancouver; religious stations CTS (southern Ontario) and The Miracle Channel (southern Alberta); and TVA-owned independent station Sun TV in Toronto.
A number of American stations, such as the Clear Channel-owned independent station KVOS Bellingham, Washington (near Vancouver), and the Fox affiliates in Buffalo, New York (WUTV) and Burlington, Vermont (WFFF), have also aggressively courted Canadian advertisers and are perceived by many viewers and advertisers as effectively Canadian stations.
Many networks, including CBC, Radio-Canada, CTV, Global, and Citytv, have begun distributing digital television signals, although many are presently only available through cable and satellite providers, and in some cases over the air in selected markets such as Toronto.
Premium services
"Pay television" services were launched in Canada in the early 1980s but were largely unsuccessful in their original form. Many shut down, and two (TSN and MuchMusic) converted to specialty services as that format became more successful. However, movie-oriented premium services, including The Movie Network, serving Ontario and east, and Movie Central, serving Manitoba and west, and French-language Super Écran, all successors to the original general-interest pay services, have become very successful and very profitable, more so in recent years thanks to the shift towards digital terminals and the success of original series from sources such as HBO. These services presently operate in a virtual monopoly in their respective markets, although Allarco Entertainment has recently received a licence to compete nationally with the two English services.
The Family Channel is also licensed as a pay service and airs commercial-free, but is now treated by most providers as a specialty service and packaged with other specialty services. Many ethnic services also operate under pay-TV licences.
Specialty services
Specialty services, unlike their counterparts in the U.S., must be licensed by the CRTC. They cannot include general-interest services of the TNT variety - perhaps an indication of why there are now so many broadcast "systems" in the Canadian industry - but do include such categories as sports (TSN), news (CBC Newsworld and CTV Newsnet), music (MuchMusic), arts (Bravo!) and drama (Showcase).
As a general rule, specialty services cannot be directly competitive, however the commission has given leeway in certain broader categories. For instance, in theory CBC Newsworld and CTV Newsnet are the Canadian equivalents of CNN and CNN Headline News respectively, although in practice they are directly competitive in most respects. Similarly, TSN, Rogers Sportsnet and The Score are licensed as national sports, regional sports, and sports news services respectively, but they compete for the rights to several key national broadcast properties, including Major League Baseball and the NHL.
In addition to these, certain American services, including CNN and Spike TV, are permitted, provided they are deemed not to directly compete with Canadian services. They are not subject to the same simulcast rules as the U.S. broadcast networks. Some, such as TBS or CNBC, are passive entrants with little Canadian promotion. Others, such as A&E Network, are more proactive; that service has frequently advertised in Canada with the help of its cable partners (such as in the Rogers-owned Maclean's or in the "ad avails" of U.S. cable services, usually used here to promote Canadian services).
Specialty services can generally be divided into four types. To the end user, there is little if any distinction between the first two ("analogue") and last two ("digital") categories:
- Dual-status - analogue services intended for the basic package of a cable/satellite provider, unless the two parties agree otherwise. These include first-generation services such as CBC Newsworld, The Weather Network, MuchMusic, YTV, CPAC, Vision TV, and, until recently, TSN, and the French-language equivalents of each.
- Modified dual-status - analogue services intended for discretionary packages of a cable/satellite provider, unless the parties agree otherwise. These include second- and third-generation services such as Showcase, Bravo!, Discovery Channel Canada, W Network, Life Network, HGTV Canada, The Comedy Network and Teletoon. Several dual-status services, such as TSN, have changed to or are considering a change to this type due to limits on the rates they can charge on the basic service.
- Category 1 digital - services with mandatory carriage in one or more discretionary packages of the digital service of a cable/satellite provider. These include OUTtv, CTV Travel, G4techTV Canada, CBC Country Canada, Documentary Channel Canada, mentv, Discovery Health Channel Canada, and Independent Film Channel Canada.
- Category 2 digital - services with no mandatory carriage in digital-service discretionary packages. Unlike the other types described above, these services have no protection from other Category 2 services within the same niche but have lighter Canadian content regulations. Certain ones have become more popular than any of the Category 1 services. Category 2 services include Lonestar, Animal Planet Canada, NHL Network, BBC Canada, and spinoff channels such as Showcase Action and Discovery Kids Canada.
Distribution systems
The vast majority of Canadians now receive their television service through some sort of multichannel platform, as opposed to an antenna-based system providing only conventional stations.
There are two main multichannel distribution platforms in Canada. The first, and by far the largest, is cable television, provided, depending on the region, by companies such as Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications, Vidéotron, Cogeco, Persona, and EastLink. Most of these "first-generation" cable companies do not compete with each other, although most telephone companies such as Bell Canada, Telus, Aliant, MTS and SaskTel have recently secured cable television distribution licences in their own territories, several of which are already in use.
Satellite television is provided nationally by both Bell ExpressVu and the StarChoice unit of Shaw, both of which have secured several hundreds of thousands of subscribers since their initial launch in the mid-1990s. Of note as well are the numerous Canadian subscribers to American satellite providers such as DirecTV and Dish Network, which are not legally licensed for distribution in Canada and which, at least publicly, denounce such activity, in the "grey market".
In some areas, an additional option is a form of over-the-air broadcasting, either via MMDS, also known as "wireless cable", or via encrypted low-power transmissions in the NTSC format. The fate of such capacity-limited services, heading into the era of digital television, is uncertain.
Cable/satellite packaging
Under CRTC regulations, a basic cable or satellite package in Canada must include:
- all national CRTC-licensed networks, specifically CBC, Radio-Canada, TVA and APTN;
- all local or regional broadcasters, usually including stations / affiliates of CTV and Global, and (where applicable) Citytv, CH, A-Channel and TQS. Satellite providers carry most but not all local stations, and, unlike their U.S. equivalents, out-of-market stations may be carried nationally;
- the provincial educational broadcasting service(s) (if one is available, as not all provinces have one);
- CPAC, which broadcasts parliamentary sessions and committee meetings, along with some political public affairs programming;
- a similar channel broadcasting the proceedings of the provincial legislature (if one exists); and
- Voiceprint (usually carried on the SAP service of CBC Newsworld).
- Cable providers must also carry local radio stations for reception via cable FM receivers.
- selected specialty services, at a minimum including CBC Newsworld, RDI, The Weather Network and/or MétéoMédia, CTV Newsnet and/or LCN, and Vision TV;
- a community channel (locally-produced public affairs and information programming and community events listings);
- American network affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and Fox (in many markets Fox is carried on a discretionary tier); and
- "exempt" services such as The Shopping Channel, program guides, and real estate / classifieds channels.
See also: List of television stations in Canada by call sign, List of Canadian specialty services and the category below
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