From James Bawden:
CRTC Just Plain Wrong On New Canadian Content Regulations
I’m convinced the only regulation the CRTC should insist on is a demand from all private networks that they spend as much on Canadian programming as they spend in L.A. snatching up all the U.S. series.
Last year that figure was almost $700 million –I would be surprised if the private networks spent a third as much on Canadian shows. Continue reading.
Its a shame that the content rules were cut because in my opinion, Canadian scripted tv has never been better.
If Canadian scripted TV has never been better why does the CRTC need any Canadian content rules? People should be lapping it up.
Simply put, the only reason the rules might be necessary is because Canadian consumers don’t want to watch (or listen to) the material in question.
They weren’t cut for primetime or specialty – just daytime.
If private networks were told they have to spend just as much on Canadian shows I could see them pushing and getting the terms of what Canadian means by that I mean any shows filmed in Canada would fall under Canadian content.
This is a retrograde to 1958, the Tories perview of the CBC is very Difenbaker-ish, the idea that private television has that kind of money even with the ownership it has, the reality is that Canadian/Quebecoise Television have doesn’t have THAT kind of cash to produce the type of television the CRTC desires unless you bring in U.S. media partners or International Partners which has not always worked so well or doing Canadian or Quebecoise versions of American shows like Millionaire, The Price is Right, Match Game have either been one offs or last a couple of seasons because for example Price is Right A Vous de Jouer looked like the CBS version only seemingly done on a high school play budget or in the case of Match Game it was a game in itself of who’s that Canadian Celebrity ??? Sure there’s Big Brother Canada or The Amazing Race Canada but at some point Amazing Race Canada is going to run out of Canadian places then what ??? This why all broadcasters Public and Private may alongside Producers/Distributors, cable/satellite companies, consumers and others say this a utter mess the CRTC has created here
Alley
I understand your point but its important to keep in mind most Canadians love there American shows some have said the Crtc has not gone far enough as they think company like Direct tv should be let in.
Compare the amount of Canadian shows and the average ratings for Canadian shows to 10 or 15 years ago and you will see there’s been big improvements.
The Canadian Content regs did next to nothing for real and good quality Canadian stories because – they only stipulate that productions have to have at least a specified percentage of Canadians working on them, which is why so many productions in Canada are American stories not Canadian stories, and there’s so much of that there is very little left of funding for actual Canadian stories. The reason this happened, happens, is because Americans control and run the entire system. Canadians should have long ago protested this situation where most of our tax dollars went to funding American stories produced in Canada by Canadians qualifying as Canadian Content.
You can’t really nit pick and say if shows look American they should not count.
While CBC was always battling stupendous odds and barriers because of Americans running and controlling everything in Canada, the slow-fall demise of the CBC began in 1989 with Brian Mulroney’s signing the Free Trade Agreement, and the ’89 to ’94 chairpersonship of Patrick Watson, who’s portfolio career is mostly that of non-Canadian content, thus revealing I believe that Watson too was part of the ‘suppress and destroy’ Canadian content productions.