Canadian Content - Television

Television

See also: Television in Canada

To an even greater extent than on radio, Canadian television programming has been a perennially difficult proposition for the broadcast industry, particularly dramatic programming in prime-time. It is much more economical for Canadian stations to buy the Canadian rights to an American prime-time series instead of financing a new homemade production. Perhaps more importantly, given the reach of the major U.S. broadcast networks in Canada, it is virtually impossible to delay or modify a U.S. program's broadcast schedule, as regularly occurs in other foreign markets, to weed out failures or to otherwise accommodate indigenous programming.

In English Canada, presently only the public network, CBC Television, devotes the vast majority of its prime-time schedule to Canadian content, having dropped U.S. network series in the mid-1990s. The French-language networks, both public and private, also rely largely on Canadian series, relying on dubbed American movies – with a handful of dubbed series – for most of their foreign content.

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Famous quotes containing the word television:

    “We cannot spare our children the influence of harmful values by turning off the television any more than we can keep them home forever or revamp the world before they get there. Merely keeping them in the dark is no protection and, in fact, can make them vulnerable and immature.”
    —Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)

    “It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
    —Gore Vidal (b. 1925)

    “Laughter on American television has taken the place of the chorus in Greek tragedy.... In other countries, the business of laughing is left to the viewers. Here, their laughter is put on the screen, integrated into the show. It is the screen that is laughing and having a good time. You are simply left alone with your consternation.”
    —Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)