Television in Canada
Nonetheless, new content is often aimed at a broader North American audience, although the similarities may be less pronounced in the predominantly French-language province of Quebec.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 television stations from Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit or Seattle with the help of elevated outdoor antennas and amplifiers.The distinct social, political, and economic situation of Canada shaped the historic development of mass communication and television in the country.Three factors 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.Even with the emergence of radio, Canada was already trying to keep foreign ownership and programming at a minimum to avoid the American imperialism that would be caused by such dependency on the United States, which in fact was already incipient.[7] Gradually, French Canadians showed a strong preference for Quebec-produced television programs,[7] which was significant considering the fierce American competition that English Canada dealt with (and still deals with to this day).With the fear of the United States stunting the growth of Canada as well as the country becoming increasingly divided by language, the government showed huge concern with how television affected Canadians.[16] Among other concerns, 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.While American television stations, including affiliates of ABC, NBC and CBS, near the Canada–US border were available for several years prior, and gained a sizeable audience in cities like Toronto, within range of U.S. signals, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was the first entity to broadcast television programming within Canada, launching in September 1952 in both Montreal and Toronto.Television viewership outside Ontario was limited to British Columbia's Lower Mainland with access to American programming from Seattle and some sets in Montreal.[19] 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.[20] The original plan was withdrawn for regulatory and financial reasons by 1969,[21] but a scaled-down version resulted in the 1974 launch of CKGN-TV in Toronto, whose branding as Global Television Network would eventually extend nationwide.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.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.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.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.The French-language commercial networks air significantly more Canadian content than their English counterparts, and domestic programming is far more popular than imports.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.Religious television stations are an exception to the previous statement but must provide a variety of programs reflecting different points of view.However, for historical reasons, The Oprah Winfrey Show (until it ended its run in 2011) aired on a mixture of stations, albeit one dominated by CTV.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.In larger markets, however, Canwest and CHUM had justified several instances of twinsticks, generally two stations based in separate but neighbouring regions.Both are devoted primarily to domestic content, albeit with different programming: 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 on its English counterpart over the same time.Much like CTV and Global, Citytv originally focused on movies and niche-appeal programs in primetime, although it has gradually added more series of broader appeal, despite lacking a presence in Atlantic Canada.Of these, all except CTV 2 Alberta and Citytv Saskatchewan are owned by governmental or nonprofit agencies; CTV Two Alberta is owned by Bell Media and Citytv Saskatchewan by Rogers Communications, and both serve as educational broadcasters during the day while offering the programming of one of Canada's commercial television networks or systems in prime time.Cable and satellite television services are available throughout Canada, delivering local and often regional stations, the major U.S. networks, and additional programming via specialty and other non-broadcast channels.Along with international services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and others, majors local providers includes Crave, CBC Gem, ICI Tou.TV and Club illico.
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