Keywords Broadcasting

Canada was a pioneer in SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS, and was the first to use geostationary satellites in domestic COMMUNICATIONS. The national broadcasting service, the CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, distributes most of its programs nationally by satellites, also using them in the assembling of programs.

Television services to the Canadian North are almost completely dependent on satellites and Earth stations. As a result of these technical developments, 99% of the population has a choice of 2 TV channels, 91% has 3 channels, and over 50% has 8 or more.

The weak element in the broadcasting system lies not in the physical facilities but in the amount of original Canadian programming (see RADIO PROGRAMMING; TELEVISION PROGRAMMING; MUSIC BROADCASTING). The CBC produces an impressive number of radio and TV programs in English and French, many of high quality, but the private TV stations broadcasting in English have depended mostly on imported foreign (principally US) programs for prime time. Many of these imported programs have been popular, but such dependency has led to a continuing struggle to devise public policies that would ensure a more distinctively Canadian broadcasting service.

For the past 50 years Canada has employed a combination of public and private enterprise, falling somewhere between the strong state-owned element of the British system and the less regulated private-enterprise system of the US. The stages in this evolution can be related to successive Acts of Parliament and to the regulating bodies set up to license stations and to establish and administer the rules.

The Pioneer Stage (1913-28)
Under the Radiotelegraph Act of 1913, a government minister (for most of this period, the minister of marine and fisheries) had the power to license radio broadcasting stations and to charge a $1 licence fee on each receiving set. The first licence was issued in 1919 (to XWA, an experimental station in Montréal operated by Canadian Marconi Co), and by 1928 over 60 stations were in operation, most of them of low power or providing intermittent service. Regulations were minimal.

Emergence of Public Ownership and Regulations (1928-36)
By 1936, the present pattern in the ownership and control of broadcasting had emerged. In 1928 the government established a royal commission, under the chairmanship of Sir John AIRD, to advise on the future of broadcasting in Canada. Canadian radio development had been rudimentary, and many listeners were turning to American stations and the newly established US networks. Moreover, Canadian stations were experiencing greater interference from unregulated frequencies in the US.

There were also many complaints about intrusive advertising on the commercial stations in both Canada and the US, and some saw a possible model in the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Aird Commission's report (1929) proposed a publicly owned corporation not unlike the BBC, and its main recommendations were taken up by an active group of citizens organized as the Canadian Radio League. Broadcasting, they argued, should be regarded as a national public service rather than merely as a profit-making industry, and its ownership and operating structure should be organized to recognize this principle.

Québec, supported by Ontario, contested the right of the federal government to assume control of broadcasting, and a reference was made to the Supreme Court of Canada with a subsequent appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Its judgement (1932) confirmed federal jurisdiction over radio communication and the content of programs; and a special parliamentary committee was appointed to devise the means for implementing the Aird Commission's recommendations.

An Act creating the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC) was passed with all-party support on 26 May 1932. The 3-man commission was empowered to regulate, control and carry on broadcasting in Canada; to originate and transmit programs; to lease, purchase or construct stations; and eventually to assume complete ownership of all Canadian broadcasting, if the means were provided. In its term of office, the commission was beset by many difficulties.

In the depths of the Depression, the government of R.B. Bennett never gave the commission the money to carry out its programming responsibilities satisfactorily. The CRBC managed to establish outlets in only 5 centres; in most cities privately owned stations distributed the commission's network programs. Thus the mixed system, combining public and private stations in one network, was established. It characterizes CBC radio and TV to the present day.

The CBC as Operator and Regulator (1936-58)
The weaknesses of the Radio Commission and growing criticism in Parliament led to a new broadcasting Act when the Liberals under W.L. Mackenzie King took office in 1935. The commission had been regarded as too dependent on government; suspicions were aroused that some of its decisions had been influenced by partisan considerations. The new prime minister, at the urging of the Radio League, determined to revise the legislation to reflect more fully the Aird Report and to bring it up to date.

By 1936, the year the revised Canadian Broadcasting Act was passed, conditions were considerably altered. The number of homes purchasing licences for their radios had increased from one-half million in 1931 to 1 million by the end of 1936. Canadians had become accustomed to receiving their own network programs, in English or French, for at least a few afternoon and evening hours.

There was no thought in government of abandoning the national experiment. But the private radio stations had not only survived, they had prospered. Private radio provided music, weather and community information. Most private stations also carried popular American entertainment programs, with which Canadian advertisers were eager to be associated.

In November 1936 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with a board of 9 governors, replaced the Radio Commission, and it enjoyed much greater autonomy. Financed by an increased licence fee, the CBC took vigorous steps to increase Canadian coverage through high-powered regional transmitters. It also expanded the national program services by broadcasting many more hours each week, incorporating in its schedule some imported programs from the US networks. By 1944 it operated 3 radio networks, 2 in English (Trans-Canada and Dominion) and one in French.

The private radio stations were not allowed to form their own national network, although under the rather liberal regulations of the CBC they indeed thrived. There were some complaints about the CBC's alleged monopoly position, but successive parliamentary committees and the Royal Commission on NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE ARTS, LETTERS AND SCIENCES (Massey Commission) all expressed approval of the governing system and of the contribution of the CBC to Canada's cultural life.

The arrival of TELEVISION in 1952 foreshadowed an end to the system under which the CBC was at once the regulatory authority and the principal Canadian programmer. Television began under CBC auspices, as the Massey Commission had recommended, but the twin responsibilities for program production and national distribution were so expensive that the government of Louis St. Laurent decided against construction of CBC outlets in every province. CBC-TV could not be self-sufficient, as was BBC-TV in Britain. Once more, private-station licensees were expected to distribute the national programs provided by the CBC.

It must be said that the policy adopted by the government in the mid-1950s, of authorizing only one station, public or private, in the principal Canadian cities, was extraordinarily successful in spreading TV service rapidly across the land. However, appetites for additional TV outlets were so quickly stimulated that a one-station policy for each city could not be maintained, and a Royal Commission on Broadcasting (Fowler Commission) in 1955-57 led to new legislation.

Regulation by the BBG (1958-68)
The Broadcasting Act of 1958, replacing the legislation of 1936, was introduced by the Conservative government of John Diefenbaker. During the previous decade the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, representing most private radio and TV stations, had conducted a vigorous campaign to convince the public that it was unjust to have the same public body (the CBC) as operator and as regulator of its private competition.

This argument persuaded the Progressive Conservative Party to abandon its support of the 1936 legislation and to proceed with the new Act. It continued to treat all broadcasting in Canada as a single system, with a 15-member Board of Broadcast Governors assigned the responsibility of regulating "the activities of public and private broadcasting stations in Canada and the relationship between them" and "ensuring the continued existence and efficient operation of a national broadcasting system."

The BBG was to hear applications for new stations and make recommendations to the government minister who issued such licences. Despite the BBG's regulatory authority, the CBC continued to have its own board of directors under the Act, and continued to report directly to Parliament.

Under the BBG, the TV system expanded rapidly, and radio became more a local and community service, except for the radio networks of the CBC. A second TV network, CTV, consisting of second stations in the larger Canadian cities, began operations in 1961, and the CBC-TV networks in English and French continued to distribute programs, partly commercial and partly unsponsored, through CBC-owned stations and a larger number of private affiliates.

Broadcasting Under the CRTC (1968-Present)
The 1958 legislation had brought about disputes between the 2 public agencies, the BBG and CBC, and in 1968 a new Act was passed to correct some of the ambiguities. The authority to issue licences was delegated to the Canadian Radio-Television Commission, and the new legislation brought CABLE TV, already securely established in a number of cities, under the authority of the new regulatory body, the CRTC (in 1976 renamed the CANADIAN RADIO-TELEVISION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, also CRTC).

The CRTC has been more active than the BBG in trying to ensure that radio and TV stations and networks (in the words of the Act) "should be effectively owned and controlled by Canadians so as to safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social and economic fabric of Canada," and also that the programming provided should be "of high standard, using predominantly Canadian creative and other resources." The CBC has had no difficulty in meeting or exceeding the Canadian-content quotas imposed by the CRTC, but the private stations and networks have barely met the minimum standards, especially in prime time. Added to the effect of importing American TV by cable, the result of these minimum standards has been that more US than Canadian programs are available to Canadian audiences.

The CRTC clearly did not intend to increase the share of viewing time going to American TV programs, but that has happened. There are several explanations. Most important was the decision, influenced by public demand, to license cable systems in all parts of Canada to import, first, the principal US networks, followed in succeeding years by numbers of other US cable and pay-TV channels. Thus, US program services (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, the Fox Network, CNN and various specialty channels) are available almost everywhere.

Adding to the locally available domestic stations and networks, the CRTC has licensed Global Television (now aspiring to become the third national network for English-speaking viewers), and 2 dozen or more specialty channels, offering news, popular music, sports, arts, natural science and youth programs as well as movie channels (the latter on pay-TV). The result has been a fragmentation of the market, so that neither the CBC or CTV has the audience it once had.

Moreover, because of the CRTC's loose definition of prime time as the hours from 6 PM to midnight, the private broadcasters are allowed to cluster their American programming within the peak hours, between 7 and 11 PM. All this has increased the share of audience watching US programs to about 75% among those receiving English-language programs. The situation is not as serious in French-speaking Canada, where about 60% of TV programs are Canadian in origin. Even in Québec, however, the share of non-Canadian viewing has been growing.

The CBC continues to distribute a great deal of Canadian programming, on both television and radio, English and French, regional as well as national. Unlike the private stations, its television networks in prime time are predominantly Canadian in content. In Québec, the private television network, TVA, splits its program offerings more evenly between Canadian and US services, and is therefore an important contributor to the program fare provided to French-speaking viewers.

Whether broadcasting will help preserve Canada's cultural sovereignty is still unresolved; the question will grow in complexity as technology advances. Canada has built the biggest physical system in the world, but in large part has turned it over to the US entertainment industry. Canadian governments are now searching for a way to establish a national information grid using all the possibilities of a modern TELECOMMUNICATIONS system. As for broadcasting, there is the future prospect (as of March 1996) of satellite-to-home distribution systems as an alternative to cable. One direct-to-home service is currently proceeding under CRTC authorization.

In 1985 a new Conservative government appointed a Task Force under the co-chairmanship of Gerald CAPLAN and Florian Sauvageau to advise it on changes that should be made in broadcasting policy. The 7-member task force brought in a unanimous report. All broadcasting undertakings, they said, should be part of a composite system, and all licensees regarded as trustees of the Canadian public - a principle established by former bodies such as the Massey and Fowler Commissions.

The CBC should have a central role in assuring that Canadians have a truly Canadian broadcasting system; any new statute should continue to recognize it as the national broadcasting service, in both radio and television, in English and in French. Its basis of funding should be secure, for the same period as its station and network licences. CBC television might remain partly commercial, but as soon as possible should phase out its American programming. The CRTC should set conditions of licence to ensure that private stations and networks would in future commit greater resources to Canadian programs.

Some degree of state support and protection for the entire private sector should be provided, in return for which each component would contribute to the objectives of the broadcasting system. In fact, the private television sector has public support benefiting it in 2 principal ways. Under the policy of simultaneous program substitution, the CRTC authorizes cable companies to substitute a local station's broadcast of a US program, complete with the commercials sold by the Canadian station or network, if scheduled at the same time as the program is available from a US source. In this way, the Canadian broadcaster benefits from the increased size of audience and the attendant Canadian productions is reduced by financial assistance given through Telefilm Canada and its Broadcast Fund.

The report of the task force was reviewed at length by all-party committees of the House of Commons, prior to the passing of a new Broadcasting Act early in 1991. In general, this most recent legislation accepts the Caplan-Sauvageau recommendations regarding the objectives for Canadian broadcasting, and the CRTC accepted a recommendation that the CBC be licensed to provide an all-news channel (Newsworld in English, RDI in French). However, the government refused to act on the recommendation for longer-term and stable funding for the CBC.

Successive cuts in CBC appropriations begun in 1986 in fact led to increasing reliance by CBC on advertising revenue. A Liberal government elected in 1993 has promised stable, multiyear funding for the CBC, but until the present has not delivered on this pledge.

In 1995 the Minister of Canadian Heritage asked a 3-member committee (under the chairmanship of Pierre Juneau) to review the mandate of the CBC, the National Film Board and Telefilm, and their performance. In its report ("Making Our Voices Heard ") the Mandate Review Committee asked for a largely noncommercial CBC, continuation of its satisfactory radio performance, improved performance in television, and (once again) a multiyear system of funding for the CBC, to replace annual parliamentary appropriations. This recommendation is now under consideration by the government of Jean Chrétien in a period when the existence of Canada as a unified federation seems fragile.

Author FRANK W. PEERS

Suggested Reading
David Ellis, Evolution of the Canadian Broadcasting System (1979); F. W. Peers, The Public Eye (1979).

Links to Other Sites
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
The website for the Canadian Radio-Televison and Telecommunications Commission. Click on the "Consumers" link for information about current issues concerning communications industries and technologies in Canada.

Glossary: TV News
A glossary of TV news terms, jargon, and slang. From the website for the School of Journalism, University of King's College.

Ryerson Review of Journalism
The "Ryerson Review of Journalism" covers current issues pertaining to the Canadian news media.

CBC Museum
This CBC multimedia website celebrates more than 60 years of outstanding radio and television broadcasting in Canada.

Barbara Frum
This multimedia CBC website profiles the career of distinguished broadcaster, Barbara Frum. Includes numerous video and audio clips.

Canadian Film and Television Production Association
The Canadian Film and Television Production Association is a non-profit trade association representing numerous Canadian production companies involved in television, film, and interactive media.

Canadian Television Programming In English
A historical overview of Canadian television production and broadcasting. Focuses on news, current affairs, drama, comedy, children’s shows, sports, and more. Includes some comparisons with the US television industry. From the Museum of Broadcasting Communications in Chicago.

The MZTV Museum of Television
This multimedia “Timeline of Television” traces the development of the television industry in Canada, the US, and in Europe. Highlights television shows and personalities from the past. Also features an extensive online exhibit of old television receivers. From Moses Znaimer’s MZTV Museum of Television in Toronto.

Pierre Juneau
Listen to a 1970 CBC audio clip of Pierre Juneau talking about the issue of Canadian content in television and radio programming. From the CBC Digital Archives feature "Ruling the Airwaves: The CRTC and Canadian Content."

Hockey Night in Canada
Tune into some great audio clips from the early days of hockey broadcasting on CBC Radio.

Canadian Retransmission Collective
The website for the Canadian Retransmission Collective, an organization that tracks program retransmission and promotes the payment of retransmission royalties to program producers.

Standard Radio Inc.
The website for the privately owned Canadian broadcast company Standard Radio Inc. Features links to the company’s radio stations and an overview of charitable activities in the communities they serve.

CBC: Norman Campbell
Norman Campbell reminisces about his prolific career in music and television in this 1982 audio clip from CBC Radio's "Variety Tonight."

Canadian Private Copying Collective
Find out what Canada's Copyright Act has to say about private copying of music and related royalty collection issues.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Tune into the CBC website, the multimedia gateway to the network's radio and television programming from every region of Canada. Features extensive online news summaries and in-depth reports.

CTVglobemedia Inc.
The website for CTVglobemedia Inc., a Canadian multi-media company which owns CTV Inc., The Globe and Mail newspaper, and other media assets.

CBC Television Series, 1952-1982
Browse or search this complete listing of television programs produced in Canada and broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation between 1952 and 1982. From Queen's Department of Film and Media.

Scenario Productions
This site offers an extensive selection of audio clips from classic CBC radio plays and other popular programs.

Daryl Duke
An obituary for award-winning director and broadcaster Daryl Duke. From variety.com.

ACTRA
The website for the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists.

newslab.ca
Newslab.ca offers news, commentary, and analysis on Canada’s media in an Internet age.The project is run by Alfred Hermida, a journalist who leads the ijournalism programme at the Graduate School of Journalism of the University of British Columbia.

CTV says economic model for TV is broken, shuts two Ontario stations
A news story about economic issues related to the television broadcasting industry. From Canadian Press.

Mediacaster
The website for "mediacaster" offers the latest news about Canada's media sector.

Gemini Awards
The official website for the Gemini Awards, which honour the best in Canadian television as determined by members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and other industry professionals.