Canadian content
Encyclopedia
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio
and television
broadcasters
(including cable and satellite specialty channel
s) must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from Canada
. It also refers to that content itself, and, more generally, to cultural and creative content that is Canadian in nature.
Other countries employ similar quota
systems. For example, Australia
n broadcasters are required to broadcast a certain percentage of Australasian content alongside international content. Similar domestic content quota laws also exist in the Philippines
, Mexico
, Nigeria
, France
, Israel
, Ireland
, South Africa
, Jamaica
, the United Kingdom
, and New Zealand
. (In the UK, Ireland, and France, this rule is now a European Union
content rule rather than a domestic content rule.) The United States
does not have any domestic content regulations, and any implementation of such a rule would face legal challenges under press freedoms granted under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution
. Due to the strength of the US media industry both domestically and worldwide, any such regulations would be mostly unnecessary in English.
), was adopted in 1971 as a way to define and identify Canadian content in pieces of music for the purposes of increasing exposure of Canadian music on Canadian radio through content regulations governing a percentage (25%) of airplay that is to be devoted to Canadian music. The percentage was increased to 30 per cent in the 1980s, and to 35 per cent taking effect on January 3, 1999. However, most new commercial radio stations licensed since 1999 have been licensed at 40 per cent.
Some stations — especially those playing formats where there may be a limited number of Canadian recordings suitable for airplay, such as classical, jazz
or oldies
, may be allowed by the CRTC to meet Canadian content targets as low as 20 per cent. Stations in Windsor, Ontario
are also permitted to meet lower Canadian content targets, due to Windsor's proximity to the Metro Detroit
media market in the United States
.
Community radio and campus-based community radio stations often choose to meet higher Canadian content levels than commercial broadcasters because of their mandate to support up-and-coming Canadian artists and provide content not readily available on commercial radio or the CBC. However, legal Canadian content requirements may be lower for campus and community stations as they often air large quantities of category 3 music.
Before the MAPL system was established in 1971 Canadian music
was regarded with indifference on Canadian radio. This was a major hurdle for Canadian musicians since they could not gain attention in their home country without having a hit single in the United States or Europe first. Even after MAPL was implemented, in the early 1970s some radio stations were criticised for restricting their Canadian content to off-peak listening hours, in program blocks mockingly known as "beaver hour
s". This practise is now prevented by CRTC regulations that stipulate that CanCon percentages must be met between 6 am and 6 pm, rather than allowing a station to save all their Canadian content for off-peak hours.
On satellite radio
services, Canadian content regulation is applied in aggregate over the whole subscription package. The licensed satellite radio broadcasters, Sirius Canada
and XM Radio Canada
, are not required to adjust the programming on the international broadcast services they offer, but must offer a minimum number of Canadian-produced channels with at least 85 per cent Canadian content on those services.
There are four special cases where a musical selection may qualify as Canadian content:
This last criterion was added in 1991, to accommodate Bryan Adams
' album Waking Up the Neighbours
. Adams had collaborated with British
record producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, and as a result, neither the album nor the worldwide smash hit single "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You
" qualified as Canadian content under the existing rules. After extensive controversy in the summer of that year, the CRTC changed the rules to allow for such collaborations. Other Canadian artists with long-time international careers, like Anne Murray
, Celine Dion
, Avril Lavigne
and Shania Twain
, have used recording studios in Canada specifically to maintain Cancon status.
Every radio station in Canada must meet Canadian content quotas, therefore, the MAPL logo, created by Stan Klees, on album packaging and on the compact disc itself increases the chance that the music will receive airplay in Canada. The MAPL logo is a circle divided into four parts, one part for each of the four "MAPL" categories. The categories in which the music qualifies are black with a white initial M, A, P or L. The categories for which the music does not qualify are in white, with a black letter.
In 2005, the website Indie Pool launched a campaign to have the CRTC review and modify the current Canadian content rules to put greater stress on supporting new and emerging artists. The group's petition is signed by approximately 5,000 Canadian artists and music fans to date, but is not widely supported by Canadian media or acknowledged by the CRTC.
In 2006, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters
, in a submission to the CRTC, proposed a lessening of Canadian content regulating to 25 percent, arguing that conventional radio faced more competition from alternative music sources such as Internet radio
, satellite radio
and iPod
s, and, in the same submission, proposed stricter new guidelines on the licensing of new radio stations. In another submission, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
argued the Canadian broadcasting industry is in a healthy position and did not need to have the Canadian content rules relaxed.
and sports talk host Bob McCown
.
Syndicated programming from the United States invariably airs after 7:00 p.m. local time in virtually all markets, and usually features non-political programs such as Joy Browne
, The Jim Rome Show
and Coast to Coast AM
. Due to their limited relevance to Canadian audiences, more political American shows such as The Rush Limbaugh Show
are rarely picked up by Canadian radio stations, although the now defunct CFBN aired Dennis Miller
and the Glenn Beck Program
on tape delay in the evenings for a few months, from April through November 2007, when CFBN stopped broadcasting over the air, and The Phil Hendrie Show
aired for many years on CKTB, even during the period when it focused on political content. Miller also aired on CHAM
for two years from 2008 to 2010. No rule prevents programs such as Limbaugh or Beck from being aired on Canadian radio stations; such programs are simply not carried because their focus on American politics limits their appeal to Canadian radio audiences, especially given the high rights fees Limbaugh charges his affiliates.
As in the United States in the 1980s, the trend for AM stations in Canada in the 1990s was to apply for an FM broadcasting license or move away from music in favour of talk radio
formats. (Since the late 2000s, AM radio in North America has been declining as stations have shut down and moved to FM.) The total amount of Canadian-produced content declined as broadcasters could license syndicated radio programs produced in the U.S., while the Cancon regulations were conceived to apply to music only, and not to spoken-word programming. This became particularly controversial in 1998 when stations in Toronto
and Montreal
(ironically on FM), started airing The Howard Stern Show from New York City
during prime daytime hours. Stern was forced off the air not because of Canadian content, but because the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
reprimanded the stations broadcasting Stern numerous times for Stern's comments, which prompted the two stations to drop him in short order. Stern would later move exclusively to satellite radio.
American shows that combine talk and music, such as Delilah
and John Tesh
, will usually have special playlists for airing in Canada to assist in meeting Canadian content requirements. Because of the different requirements, American syndicated oldies
programs are widely popular in Canada, such as American Gold
, Wolfman Jack
, and M. G. Kelly's American Hit List. These shows usually do not substitute Canadian songs, due in part to a fairly large library of Canadian musicians already in rotation in the format (such as The Guess Who
, Gordon Lightfoot
, Paul Anka
, Terry Jacks
or R. Dean Taylor
). In other formats, an American syndicated program will sometimes be counterbalanced with an all-Canadian program; for instance, CKMX will broadcast Country Countdown USA
and America's Grand Ole Opry
Weekend, counterbalancing that with the Canadian syndicated programs Country Gold with Will Brown, Canadian Country Countdown and Hugh McLennan's Spirit of the West, the last of which is also carried by several U.S. stations. American syndicated series are usually played in "off peak" and weekend hours.
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.
, is sometimes claimed as one of the worst television shows ever produced. However, even given these limitations, some productions managed to rise above the mediocre - both SCTV
(originally on Global
) and Smith & Smith
(CHCH
) grew from local low-budget productions with a limited audience to large production companies with a North American audience.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, distinctly Canadian drama
series such as CBC's Street Legal
or CTV
's E.N.G.
consistently drew hundreds of thousands of viewers each week. In the latter part of the 1990s and the early 2000s, Global
's Traders
and the CBC drama Da Vinci's Inquest
completed long runs, buoyed by critical approval if not overwhelming viewer success. As for CTV, after short-lived runs of planned "flagship" drama series such as The City, The Associates
and The Eleventh Hour, the network has recently found ratings success with the reality television
series Canadian Idol
and with the sitcom Corner Gas
, the latter now syndicated to the US
. The CBC dramedy This is Wonderland
was a moderate success with a loyal fan base, but was nonetheless cancelled in 2006 after three seasons.
Specialty channel
s also naturally produce Canadian content, some of which, most notably Showcase
's mockumentary
series Trailer Park Boys
, have been able to generate a strong mass appeal.
Despite these indigenous successes, Canadian networks have frequently fulfilled Cancon requirements by airing series filmed in Canada but intended primarily for the lucrative United States
market. Recent examples include CTV's Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye
, Mysterious Ways and Twice in a Lifetime
, Global's Zoe Busiek: Wild Card, and Citytv
's Stargate SG-1
. International co-productions such as Jozi-H
, The Tudors
, Charlie Jade
and the current revival of Doctor Who
are also common. Another increasingly common practice in recent years has been for the networks, instead of investing in new Canadian drama programming, to rebroadcast series that previously aired on Canadian cable
networks, such as ReGenesis
, Terminal City
or Durham County
.
As well, Canadian commercial television networks increasingly schedule a large percentage of their Canadian productions to air in the summer
season; although traditionally a season of low viewership, this practice has actually been beneficial for Canadian television productions, as a widespread viewer preference for new programming over off-season repeats has resulted in these series improving their ratings in Canada, as well as increasing their chances of gaining a lucrative sale to one of the big four American networks, a revenue stream which is generally unavailable during the fall and winter television seasons.
The Red Green Show
was also a success, being imported into the United States via PBS
. That show's cast often did pledge drive
specials and received strong viewer support on PBS stations in the northern part of the United States, such as Minnesota
, Wisconsin
, Michigan
, New Hampshire
and New York
.
The television show SCTV
created the two-minute long "Great White North" sketch
with the characters Bob and Doug McKenzie
to both fulfill and make fun of the Canadian content rules, as the sketch was loaded with Canadian stereotypes. It became the most popular segment of the show and the characters, played by Rick Moranis
and Dave Thomas
, would be featured in comedy albums, commercials and a feature film (Strange Brew
).
A few Canadian television series, including Due South
, The Listener
and Flashpoint
, have also been picked up by American networks and aired in prime time, although the majority of Canadian TV series which have aired in the United States have done so either in syndication or on cable networks. SCTV aired in a late night slot on NBC
in the early 1980s. CBS aired a late-night block of crime dramas in the late 1980s which included a number of Canadian series, including Night Heat
, Hot Shots
, Adderly
and Diamonds
, and later aired The Kids in the Hall
in a late-night slot as well.
or drama
programming primarily intended for sale to the U.S.
and elsewhere, and has aired on nights or in time-slots where it is unlikely to attract a large audience, freeing up other time-slots for American network programming. It is also a fairly common occurrence for stations to sign off during the overnight graveyard slot
s to reduce their Cancon liability.
Over the years the CRTC has tried a number of strategies intended to increase the success of Canadian programming, including expenditure requirements and time credits (i.e. a single hour of Cancon counts for more than an hour) for productions with specific requirements. Its most recent policy, issued in 1999, requires stations owned by the largest private groups, including CTV/A, Global, Citytv/OMNI
, and TVA
/Sun TV
, to air an average of eight hours per week (between 7 and 11 p.m.) of priority programming, including the following categories:
Drama programs which meet specific requirements, including the number of Canadians in key production roles, can count for additional time credits for this purpose but not for the purposes of the overall 60%/50% requirements.
These current regulations have been criticised by actors' and directors' groups, among others, for not adequately favouring dramas. Indeed, reality television
series began to grow in popularity soon after the policy was announced, driving Canadian broadcasters to produce more of these programs as opposed to higher-cost dramas. (For instance, the audition episodes of Canadian Idol
could qualify as "documentaries", and the performance / results episodes as "variety".) As well, entertainment newsmagazines now regularly air during the "priority" period on CTV (eTalk Daily), Global (ET Canada), E! (E! News Weekend), and Sun TV (Inside Jam!), largely due to their priority standing.
The CRTC later modified its policies slightly by increasing the incentives for airing new drama programs. Broadcasters could receive additional minutes of advertising above the 12 minutes per hour generally permitted, which could be aired anywhere in the schedule, in exchange for increasing the number of Canadian dramas aired and meeting certain other drama-related targets. However, these are not mandatory targets. Moreover, in 2007 the commission effectively negated these incentives by announcing the gradual removal of all limits on TV advertising. Several cultural lobby groups and performing-arts labour unions have called on the CRTC to compel the major networks to air a minimum number of hours of Canadian drama, or spend an arbitrary percentage of revenues on producing such drama programs.
Requirements for specialty channels and premium television services — channels available only on cable and satellite — often differ greatly from those of broadcast stations. Most long-established specialty channels are expected to devote at least 50% of airtime to Cancon, while category 2 digital channels and most premium services have much lower restrictions. However, specialty channels are allowed to take part in the advertising incentives.
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
broadcasters
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
(including cable and satellite specialty channel
Specialty channel
A specialty channel can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted television market at a specific demographic....
s) must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It also refers to that content itself, and, more generally, to cultural and creative content that is Canadian in nature.
Other countries employ similar quota
Quota
-Commerce:* Import quota, a type of trade restriction* Production quota* Sales quota, a minimum sales goal for a set time span* Tariff-rate quota, a type of trade restriction-Electoral systems:* Droop quota* Election threshold* Hagenbach-Bischoff quota...
systems. For example, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n broadcasters are required to broadcast a certain percentage of Australasian content alongside international content. Similar domestic content quota laws also exist in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. (In the UK, Ireland, and France, this rule is now a European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
content rule rather than a domestic content rule.) The United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
does not have any domestic content regulations, and any implementation of such a rule would face legal challenges under press freedoms granted under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
. Due to the strength of the US media industry both domestically and worldwide, any such regulations would be mostly unnecessary in English.
Radio
For music, the requirements are referred to as the MAPL system. Following an extensive public hearing process organised by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the MAPL system, created by Stan Klees (co-creator of the Juno AwardJuno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
), was adopted in 1971 as a way to define and identify Canadian content in pieces of music for the purposes of increasing exposure of Canadian music on Canadian radio through content regulations governing a percentage (25%) of airplay that is to be devoted to Canadian music. The percentage was increased to 30 per cent in the 1980s, and to 35 per cent taking effect on January 3, 1999. However, most new commercial radio stations licensed since 1999 have been licensed at 40 per cent.
Some stations — especially those playing formats where there may be a limited number of Canadian recordings suitable for airplay, such as classical, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
or oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
, may be allowed by the CRTC to meet Canadian content targets as low as 20 per cent. Stations in Windsor, Ontario
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
are also permitted to meet lower Canadian content targets, due to Windsor's proximity to the Metro Detroit
Metro Detroit
The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is the metropolitan area located in Southeast Michigan centered on the city of Detroit which shares an international border with Windsor, Ontario. The Detroit metropolitan area is the second largest U.S. metropolitan area...
media market in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Community radio and campus-based community radio stations often choose to meet higher Canadian content levels than commercial broadcasters because of their mandate to support up-and-coming Canadian artists and provide content not readily available on commercial radio or the CBC. However, legal Canadian content requirements may be lower for campus and community stations as they often air large quantities of category 3 music.
Before the MAPL system was established in 1971 Canadian music
Music of Canada
The music of Canada has influences that have shaped the country. Aboriginals, the British, and the French have all made unique contributions to the musical heritage of Canada. The music has subsequently been heavily influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between...
was regarded with indifference on Canadian radio. This was a major hurdle for Canadian musicians since they could not gain attention in their home country without having a hit single in the United States or Europe first. Even after MAPL was implemented, in the early 1970s some radio stations were criticised for restricting their Canadian content to off-peak listening hours, in program blocks mockingly known as "beaver hour
Beaver hour
The beaver hour, or beaver bin, is a satirical nickname for a programming philosophy used by some Canadian radio stations, which was prominent especially, but not exclusively, in the 1970s....
s". This practise is now prevented by CRTC regulations that stipulate that CanCon percentages must be met between 6 am and 6 pm, rather than allowing a station to save all their Canadian content for off-peak hours.
On satellite radio
Satellite radio
Satellite radio is an analogue or digital radio signal that is relayed through one or more satellites and thus can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations...
services, Canadian content regulation is applied in aggregate over the whole subscription package. The licensed satellite radio broadcasters, Sirius Canada
Sirius Canada
Sirius Canada is a Canadian company, a partnership between Slaight Communications, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Sirius Satellite Radio, which was one of three services licensed by the CRTC on June 16, 2005 to introduce satellite radio service to Canada.On November 24, 2010, following...
and XM Radio Canada
XM Radio Canada
XM Radio Canada was the operating name of Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. , a Canadian communications and media company, which was incorporated in 2002 to broadcast satellite radio in Canada...
, are not required to adjust the programming on the international broadcast services they offer, but must offer a minimum number of Canadian-produced channels with at least 85 per cent Canadian content on those services.
How the MAPL system works
To qualify as Canadian content a musical selection must generally fulfil at least two of the following conditions:- M (music) — the music is composed entirely by a Canadian.
- A (artist) — the music is, or the lyrics are, performed principally by a Canadian.
- P (performance) — the musical selection consists of a performance that is:
- recorded wholly in Canada, or
- performed wholly in Canada and broadcast live in Canada.
- L (lyrics) — the lyrics are written entirely by a Canadian.
There are four special cases where a musical selection may qualify as Canadian content:
- The musical selection was recorded before January 1972 and meets one, rather than two, of the above conditions.
- It is an instrumental performance of a musical composition written or composed by a Canadian.
- It is a performance of a musical composition that a Canadian has composed for instruments only.
- The musical selection was performed live or recorded after September 1, 1991, and, in addition to meeting the criterion for either artist or production, a Canadian who has collaborated with a non-Canadian receives at least half of the credit for both music and lyrics.
This last criterion was added in 1991, to accommodate Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...
' album Waking Up the Neighbours
Waking Up the Neighbours
Waking Up the Neighbours is an album by Canadian singer/songwriter Bryan Adams released in 1991 and his sixth studio album. The album was recorded at Battery Studios in England, and at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, mixed at Mayfair Studios in England, and mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk...
. Adams had collaborated with British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
record producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, and as a result, neither the album nor the worldwide smash hit single "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You
(Everything I Do) I Do It for You
" I Do It for You" is a power ballad performed by Bryan Adams and co-written with Michael Kamen and Robert John "Mutt" Lange, featured on the soundtrack album from the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and on Adams' album Waking Up the Neighbours...
" qualified as Canadian content under the existing rules. After extensive controversy in the summer of that year, the CRTC changed the rules to allow for such collaborations. Other Canadian artists with long-time international careers, like Anne Murray
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
, Celine Dion
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...
, Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne
Avril Ramona Lavigne is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She was born in Belleville, Ontario, but spent most of her youth in the small town of Napanee. By the age of 15, she had appeared on stage with Shania Twain; by 16, she had signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records worth more...
and Shania Twain
Shania Twain
Shania Twain, OC is a Canadian country pop singer-songwriter. Her album The Woman in Me , brought her fame and her 1997 album Come On Over, became the best-selling album of all time by a female musician in any genre, and the best-selling country album of all time. It has sold over 40 million...
, have used recording studios in Canada specifically to maintain Cancon status.
What constitutes a Canadian under the MAPL system
The CRTC states that for the purposes of the MAPL system, a Canadian can be defined by one of the following:- Canadian citizen
- permanent resident as defined by the Immigration Act, 1976
- person whose ordinary place of residence was Canada for the six months immediately preceding their contribution to a musical composition, performance or concert
- licensee, i.e. a person licensed to operate a radio station
The MAPL logo
Every radio station in Canada must meet Canadian content quotas, therefore, the MAPL logo, created by Stan Klees, on album packaging and on the compact disc itself increases the chance that the music will receive airplay in Canada. The MAPL logo is a circle divided into four parts, one part for each of the four "MAPL" categories. The categories in which the music qualifies are black with a white initial M, A, P or L. The categories for which the music does not qualify are in white, with a black letter.
Controversy
One of the controversies with Canadian content specifically with the music industry has to do with the artists that receive air play under the cancon title. The debate often occurs over whether the artist receiving the air play needs the cancon heading to receive play, or if the heading could be used on another artist often seen as yet to be established and seen as in need of the heading to receive any play at all. Various artists that have received success abroad before success at home are often cited as examples of the cancon heading being poorly used at home. It still however remains unclear as to exactly why some artists achieve success abroad before success in Canada, and therefor fuels the controversy over Canadian content regulations for many individuals on both sides of the debate.In 2005, the website Indie Pool launched a campaign to have the CRTC review and modify the current Canadian content rules to put greater stress on supporting new and emerging artists. The group's petition is signed by approximately 5,000 Canadian artists and music fans to date, but is not widely supported by Canadian media or acknowledged by the CRTC.
In 2006, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters
Canadian Association of Broadcasters
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters was the national voice of Canada's private broadcasters, representing the vast majority of Canadian programming services, including private radio and television stations, specialty, pay and pay-per-view services....
, in a submission to the CRTC, proposed a lessening of Canadian content regulating to 25 percent, arguing that conventional radio faced more competition from alternative music sources such as Internet radio
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...
, satellite radio
Satellite radio
Satellite radio is an analogue or digital radio signal that is relayed through one or more satellites and thus can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations...
and iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
s, and, in the same submission, proposed stricter new guidelines on the licensing of new radio stations. In another submission, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting is a Canadian public interest group.The group monitors developments in the Canadian television and radio broadcasting industries, and organizes action campaigns when broadcasters engage in activities which are deemed contrary to the public interest.FRIENDS is...
argued the Canadian broadcasting industry is in a healthy position and did not need to have the Canadian content rules relaxed.
Talk radio and American syndicated programming
Unlike music radio, the rules on talk radio are more ambiguous. The vast majority of Canadian talk radio stations operate with local talk for most of the daylight hours, with the exception of two nationally syndicated Canadian talk show hosts: news/talk personality Charles AdlerCharles Adler (broadcaster)
Charles Adler is a Hungarian-born Canadian broadcaster who, when he was a child, was smuggled in a backpack out of Hungary by his father during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. Charles grew up in Montreal, where he started his broadcast career while attending McGill University...
and sports talk host Bob McCown
Bob McCown
Robert "Bob" McCown is a Canadian sports talk show personality and the host of a late afternoon/early evening radio talk show called Prime Time Sports. The program is broadcast from the Toronto-based studio of the Fan 590 and is syndicated nationally in Canada...
.
Syndicated programming from the United States invariably airs after 7:00 p.m. local time in virtually all markets, and usually features non-political programs such as Joy Browne
Joy Browne
Joy Browne also named Dr. Joy, is an American radio psychologist.-Early life:Browne was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and educated at Rice University in Houston, TX.-Career:...
, The Jim Rome Show
The Jim Rome Show
The Jim Rome Show is a sports radio talk show hosted by Jim Rome. It airs live for three hours each weekday from 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. The show is produced in Los Angeles, California, syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, and can be heard on more than 200 affiliate radio stations in the U.S...
and Coast to Coast AM
Coast to Coast AM
Coast to Coast AM is a North American late-night syndicated radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was created by Art Bell and is distributed by Premiere Radio Networks. The program currently...
. Due to their limited relevance to Canadian audiences, more political American shows such as The Rush Limbaugh Show
The Rush Limbaugh Show
The Rush Limbaugh Show is an American talk radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh on Premiere Radio Networks...
are rarely picked up by Canadian radio stations, although the now defunct CFBN aired Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, actor, sports commentator, and television and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references...
and the Glenn Beck Program
Glenn Beck Program
The Glenn Beck Program is an American talk radio show hosted by commentator Glenn Beck on Premiere Radio Networks. Since its inception as a nationally syndicated show in 2002, the program has become one of the highest rated radio programs...
on tape delay in the evenings for a few months, from April through November 2007, when CFBN stopped broadcasting over the air, and The Phil Hendrie Show
The Phil Hendrie Show
The Phil Hendrie Show is a comedy talk radio program. The show is syndicated throughout North America on Talk Radio Network. It is known for outrageous guests, the majority of whom are fictional and voiced live by the host, Phil Hendrie...
aired for many years on CKTB, even during the period when it focused on political content. Miller also aired on CHAM
Cham
Cham may refer to:*Cham Albanians, also spelled as Çam, a people originating in northern Greece of Albanian descent*Cham , a people living in Vietnam and Cambodia**Cham language, the language of the Cham people...
for two years from 2008 to 2010. No rule prevents programs such as Limbaugh or Beck from being aired on Canadian radio stations; such programs are simply not carried because their focus on American politics limits their appeal to Canadian radio audiences, especially given the high rights fees Limbaugh charges his affiliates.
As in the United States in the 1980s, the trend for AM stations in Canada in the 1990s was to apply for an FM broadcasting license or move away from music in favour of talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
formats. (Since the late 2000s, AM radio in North America has been declining as stations have shut down and moved to FM.) The total amount of Canadian-produced content declined as broadcasters could license syndicated radio programs produced in the U.S., while the Cancon regulations were conceived to apply to music only, and not to spoken-word programming. This became particularly controversial in 1998 when stations in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
(ironically on FM), started airing The Howard Stern Show from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
during prime daytime hours. Stern was forced off the air not because of Canadian content, but because the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is an independent, non-governmental organization created by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to administer standards established by its members, Canada's private broadcasters....
reprimanded the stations broadcasting Stern numerous times for Stern's comments, which prompted the two stations to drop him in short order. Stern would later move exclusively to satellite radio.
American shows that combine talk and music, such as Delilah
Delilah Rene
Delilah Rene Luke , almost always known mononymously as Delilah, is an American radio personality, author, and songwriter, best known as the host of a nationally syndicated nightly U.S...
and John Tesh
John Tesh
John Frank Tesh is an American pianist and composer of pop music, as well as a radio host and television presenter. His 10-year-old 'Intelligence for Your Life Radio Show' reaches 14.2 Million listeners/week, and is syndicated by Teshmedia on 400 stations in US, Canada, and the UK...
, will usually have special playlists for airing in Canada to assist in meeting Canadian content requirements. Because of the different requirements, American syndicated oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
programs are widely popular in Canada, such as American Gold
American Gold
The Classic Countdown is a syndicated weekly, four-hour, hit-packed, oldies countdown program which was written, produced and hosted by Radio Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Dick Bartley...
, Wolfman Jack
Wolfman Jack
Robert Weston Smith, known commonly as Wolfman Jack was a gravelly voiced US disc jockey who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s.-Early career:...
, and M. G. Kelly's American Hit List. These shows usually do not substitute Canadian songs, due in part to a fairly large library of Canadian musicians already in rotation in the format (such as The Guess Who
The Guess Who
The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Initially gaining recognition in Canada, they also found international success from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with numerous hit singles, including "American Woman", "These Eyes" and "Share the Land"...
, Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...
, Paul Anka
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"...
, Terry Jacks
Terry Jacks
Terrence Ross "Terry" Jacks is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer and environmentalist.-Early life:...
or R. Dean Taylor
R. Dean Taylor
R. Dean Taylor is a Canadian singer, most famous as a recording artist, songwriter and record producer for Motown Records company during the 1960s and 1970s...
). In other formats, an American syndicated program will sometimes be counterbalanced with an all-Canadian program; for instance, CKMX will broadcast Country Countdown USA
Country Countdown USA
CMT Country Countdown USA is a nationally syndicated weekly country music top-30 chart countdown program hosted by Lon Helton.-Debut:The show premiered in April 1992. The program began as the brainchild of Westwood One Chairman Norman J. Pattiz who assigned the project to his programming VP, Gary...
and America's Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
Weekend, counterbalancing that with the Canadian syndicated programs Country Gold with Will Brown, Canadian Country Countdown and Hugh McLennan's Spirit of the West, the last of which is also carried by several U.S. stations. American syndicated series are usually played in "off peak" and weekend hours.
Television
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
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
, 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.
Programming
Early Canadian programming was often produced merely to fill content requirements, and featured exceedingly low budgets, rushed production schedules, poor writing and little in the way of production values and as a result did not attract much of an audience. One Canadian series, The Trouble with TracyThe Trouble with Tracy
The Trouble with Tracy was a Canadian television series produced by CTV for the 1970–1971 television season, with intended distribution by the U.S.-based National General Pictures. It is considered by some to be one of the worst situation comedies ever produced.The show was produced as a daily...
, is sometimes claimed as one of the worst television shows ever produced. However, even given these limitations, some productions managed to rise above the mediocre - both SCTV
Second City Television
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...
(originally on Global
Global Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
) and Smith & Smith
Smith & Smith
Smith & Smith is a Canadian sketch comedy series, which aired from 1979 to 1985 on Hamilton, Ontario's CHCH-TV, and through syndication on other Canadian television stations...
(CHCH
CHCH-TV
CHCH-DT, channel 11, is a television station originating in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, with transmitters located throughout Ontario. CHCH currently operates as an independent station, having previously served as a CBC Television affiliate, and more recently as the flagship station of the...
) grew from local low-budget productions with a limited audience to large production companies with a North American audience.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, distinctly Canadian drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
series such as CBC's Street Legal
Street Legal (TV series)
Street Legal is a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1987 to 1994.-Synopsis:A spinoff from the 1985 television movie Shellgame, Street Legal focused on the professional and private lives of the partners in a small Toronto, Ontario law firm, Barr, Robinovitch and Tchobanian...
or CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
's E.N.G.
E.N.G.
E.N.G. is a Canadian television drama, following the staff of a fictional Toronto television news station . The show aired on CTV from 1988 to 1994...
consistently drew hundreds of thousands of viewers each week. In the latter part of the 1990s and the early 2000s, Global
Global Television Network
Global Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
's Traders
Traders (TV series)
Traders is a Canadian television drama series, which was broadcast on Global Television Network from 1995 to 2000.-Overview:Although Global had locked up most of NBC's "Must See Thursday" situation comedies for their Thursday night broadcasts, they lost the rights to broadcast the medical drama ER...
and the CBC drama Da Vinci's Inquest
Da Vinci's Inquest
Da Vinci's Inquest is a Canadian dramatic television series that aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2005. Seven seasons of thirteen episodes each were filmed for a total of ninety-one episodes....
completed long runs, buoyed by critical approval if not overwhelming viewer success. As for CTV, after short-lived runs of planned "flagship" drama series such as The City, The Associates
The Associates (Canadian TV series)
The Associates is a Canadian television drama series that aired on CTV in 2001 and 2002. The show features five junior associate lawyers at a Toronto law firm, played by Demore Barnes, Shaun Benson, Tamara Hickey, Gabriel Hogan and Jennie Raymond. R.H. Thomson also stars as the firm's senior partner...
and The Eleventh Hour, the network has recently found ratings success with the reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
series Canadian Idol
Canadian Idol
Canadian Idol is a Canadian reality television competition show which aired on CTV, based on the British show Pop Idol. The show was a competition to find the most talented young singer in Canada, and was hosted by Ben Mulroney. Jon Dore was the "roving reporter" for the first three seasons...
and with the sitcom Corner Gas
Corner Gas
Corner Gas is a Canadian television sitcom created by Brent Butt. The series ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009. Re-runs still air on CTV and The Comedy Network in Canada; it formerly aired on WGN America in the United States....
, the latter now syndicated to the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The CBC dramedy This is Wonderland
This Is Wonderland
This Is Wonderland was a Canadian television series which aired on CBC Television. The series is a legal drama with comedic elements, or a comedy-drama. It was created by playwright George F...
was a moderate success with a loyal fan base, but was nonetheless cancelled in 2006 after three seasons.
Specialty channel
Specialty channel
A specialty channel can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted television market at a specific demographic....
s also naturally produce Canadian content, some of which, most notably Showcase
Showcase Television
Showcase is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Shaw Media. Showcase is a predominantly fiction-based service centred around scripted television series and films....
's mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
series Trailer Park Boys
Trailer Park Boys
Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian comedy mockumentary television series created and directed by Mike Clattenburg that focuses on the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, some of whom are ex-convicts, living in the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The...
, have been able to generate a strong mass appeal.
Despite these indigenous successes, Canadian networks have frequently fulfilled Cancon requirements by airing series filmed in Canada but intended primarily for the lucrative United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
market. Recent examples include CTV's Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye
Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye
Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye is a Canadian-American television series that premiered in the United States in 2002 and Canada in 2003. The show ended in May 2005 due to PAX's decision to halt the production of original programming. It was one of the two highest rated shows on PAX. In September 2009, Gospel...
, Mysterious Ways and Twice in a Lifetime
Twice in a Lifetime (TV series)
Twice in a Lifetime is a Canadian mystery/drama series that originally aired from 1999 to 2001. Created by Steve Sohmer, the series aired on CTV in Canada and PAX in the United States.-Synopsis:...
, Global's Zoe Busiek: Wild Card, and Citytv
Citytv
Citytv is a Canadian English language television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications under its Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. division...
's Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
. International co-productions such as Jozi-H
Jozi-H
Jozi-H is a one-hour hospital drama series set in Johannesburg, South Africa, set in the Johannesburg General Hospital. It is a Canada-South Africa co-production. It first aired in Canada on CBC Television on 13 October 2006, and in South Africa on SABC3 in 2007.Producers are Morula Pictures and...
, The Tudors
The Tudors
The Tudors is a Canadian produced historical fiction television series filmed in Ireland, created by Michael Hirst and produced for the American premium cable television channel Showtime...
, Charlie Jade
Charlie Jade
Charlie Jade is a science fiction television program filmed mainly in Cape Town, South Africa. It stars Jeffrey Pierce in the title role, as a detective from a parallel universe who finds himself trapped in our universe. This is a Canadian and South African co-production filmed in conjunction with...
and the current revival of Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
are also common. Another increasingly common practice in recent years has been for the networks, instead of investing in new Canadian drama programming, to rebroadcast series that previously aired on Canadian cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
networks, such as ReGenesis
ReGenesis
ReGenesis is a Canadian television program produced by The Movie Network and Movie Central in conjunction with Shaftesbury Films. The series, which ran for four seasons, revolves around the scientists of NorBAC , a fictional organization with a lab based in Toronto...
, Terminal City
Terminal City (TV series)
Terminal City was a Canadian mini-series about a woman diagnosed with breast cancer while running a failing reality tv show turning it into a hit as her life and body begin to change.- Cast :* Maria del Mar ... as Katie...
or Durham County
Durham County (TV series)
Durham County is a one-hour Canadian dramatic television series produced by Back Alley Film Productions Ltd. and Muse Entertainment Enterprises...
.
As well, Canadian commercial television networks increasingly schedule a large percentage of their Canadian productions to air in the summer
Summer
Summer is the warmest of the four temperate seasons, between spring and autumn. At the summer solstice, the days are longest and the nights are shortest, with day-length decreasing as the season progresses after the solstice...
season; although traditionally a season of low viewership, this practice has actually been beneficial for Canadian television productions, as a widespread viewer preference for new programming over off-season repeats has resulted in these series improving their ratings in Canada, as well as increasing their chances of gaining a lucrative sale to one of the big four American networks, a revenue stream which is generally unavailable during the fall and winter television seasons.
The Red Green Show
The Red Green Show
The Red Green Show is a Canadian television comedy that aired on various channels in Canada, with its ultimate home at CBC Television, and on Public Broadcasting Service stations in the United States, from 1991 until the series finale April 7, 2006 on CBC...
was also a success, being imported into the United States via PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
. That show's cast often did pledge drive
Pledge drive
A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term "pledge" originates from the promise a contributor makes to send in funding at regular intervals for a certain amount of time...
specials and received strong viewer support on PBS stations in the northern part of the United States, such as Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
The television show SCTV
Second City Television
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...
created the two-minute long "Great White North" sketch
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
with the characters Bob and Doug McKenzie
Bob and Doug McKenzie
Bob and Doug McKenzie are a pair of fictional Canadian brothers who hosted "Great White North", a sketch which was introduced on SCTV for the show's third season when it moved to CBC Television in 1980. Bob is played by Rick Moranis and Doug is played by Dave Thomas...
to both fulfill and make fun of the Canadian content rules, as the sketch was loaded with Canadian stereotypes. It became the most popular segment of the show and the characters, played by Rick Moranis
Rick Moranis
Frederick Allan "Rick" Moranis is a Canadian comedian, actor, musician, and a magician. Moranis came to prominence in the late 1970s on the sketch comedy show Second City Television, and later appeared in several Hollywood films including Strange Brew; Ghostbusters; Spaceballs; Little Shop of...
and Dave Thomas
Dave Thomas (actor)
David "Dave" Thomas is a Canadian comedian and actor. He was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, but moved to Durham, North Carolina where his father, John E. Thomas, attended Duke University and earned a PhD in Philosophy. Thomas attended George Watts and Moorehead elementary schools...
, would be featured in comedy albums, commercials and a feature film (Strange Brew
Strange Brew
The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew is a 1983 Canadian comedy film starring the popular SCTV characters Bob and Doug McKenzie, played by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, who also served as co-directors. Max von Sydow co-stars....
).
A few Canadian television series, including Due South
Due South
Due South is a Canadian crime drama series with elements of comedy. The series was created by Paul Haggis, produced by Alliance Communications, and stars Paul Gross, David Marciano, and latterly Callum Keith Rennie...
, The Listener
The Listener (TV series)
The Listener is a Canadian science fiction drama set in Toronto about a young paramedic named Toby Logan with the ability to listen to people's minds. The series premiered on Fox International Channels beginning with the Arabic-speaking area of northern Africa and south-western Asia on March 1, 2009...
and Flashpoint
Flashpoint (TV series)
Flashpoint is a Canadian police drama television series that debuted on July 11, 2008, on CTV in Canada and ran on CBS in the United States for its first three and a half seasons. In 2011, Ion Television began airing new episodes of the series in the United States...
, have also been picked up by American networks and aired in prime time, although the majority of Canadian TV series which have aired in the United States have done so either in syndication or on cable networks. SCTV aired in a late night slot on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
in the early 1980s. CBS aired a late-night block of crime dramas in the late 1980s which included a number of Canadian series, including Night Heat
Night Heat
Night Heat is a Canadian police drama series, which aired on CTV from 1985 to 1991. The show also aired on CBS in the United States from 1987 to 1993 and was the first Canadian-produced drama series to air on an American network...
, Hot Shots
Hot Shots (TV series)
Hot Shots was a short-lived Canadian television drama series, which aired on CBS in the United States in 1986, and CTV in Canada in 1987.The series, produced by CTV for the CBS Late Night block of crime drama series, starred Dorothy Parke and Booth Savage as Amanda Reed and Jake West, crime...
, Adderly
Adderly
Adderly is a Canadian television drama series, first aired in 1986.-Cast:* Winston Rekert as V.H. Adderly* Jonathan Welsh as Melville Greenspan* Dixie Seatle as Mona Ellerby* Ken Pogue as Major Jonathan B. Clack-Plot:...
and Diamonds
Diamonds (TV series)
Diamonds is a Canadian television series, which aired from 1987 to 1989. The show starred Nicholas Campbell as Mike Devitt and Peggy Smithhart as Christina Towne, a divorced couple who continued to work together as private investigators...
, and later aired The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1988 to 1994 on CBC in Canada, and 1989 to 1995 on CBS and HBO in the United States...
in a late-night slot as well.
Regulations
For broadcast stations, the CRTC presently requires that 60% yearly, and at least 50% of prime-time programming, 6:00pm to midnight, be of Canadian origin. However, historically, much of these requirements have been fulfilled by low-cost news, current affairs and talk programs in off-peak hours. It is usually not difficult to fill the daytime schedule with a sufficient amount of Cancon, often through reruns, while two-thirds of the latter requirement can be filled simply by airing an hour of news every night at 6PM and again at 11PM. As described above, often the remaining domestic content has consisted of low-cost science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
or drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
programming primarily intended for sale to the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and elsewhere, and has aired on nights or in time-slots where it is unlikely to attract a large audience, freeing up other time-slots for American network programming. It is also a fairly common occurrence for stations to sign off during the overnight graveyard slot
Graveyard slot
A graveyard slot is a time period in which a television audience is very small compared to other times of the day, and therefore broadcast programming is considered far less important. Graveyard slots are usually in the early morning hours of each day, when most people are asleep...
s to reduce their Cancon liability.
Over the years the CRTC has tried a number of strategies intended to increase the success of Canadian programming, including expenditure requirements and time credits (i.e. a single hour of Cancon counts for more than an hour) for productions with specific requirements. Its most recent policy, issued in 1999, requires stations owned by the largest private groups, including CTV/A, Global, Citytv/OMNI
OMNI Television
Omni Television, corporately styled as OMNI Television, is a Canadian television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications. It consists of the company's conventional television stations in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta which are licensed as multicultural stations...
, and TVA
TVA (TV network)
TVA is a privately owned French language television network in Canada. The network is currently owned by Groupe TVA Inc. , a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media...
/Sun TV
CKXT-TV
CKXT-DT was a broadcast television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and serving much of southern and eastern Ontario, owned by Quebecor Media through its Groupe TVA unit. At the time of the station's closure on November 1, 2011, the station was serving as an over-the-air simulcast of...
, to air an average of eight hours per week (between 7 and 11 p.m.) of priority programming, including the following categories:
- drama (for CRTC purposes "drama" includes scripted comedies)
- variety
- documentaries
- entertainment newsmagazines
Drama programs which meet specific requirements, including the number of Canadians in key production roles, can count for additional time credits for this purpose but not for the purposes of the overall 60%/50% requirements.
These current regulations have been criticised by actors' and directors' groups, among others, for not adequately favouring dramas. Indeed, reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
series began to grow in popularity soon after the policy was announced, driving Canadian broadcasters to produce more of these programs as opposed to higher-cost dramas. (For instance, the audition episodes of Canadian Idol
Canadian Idol
Canadian Idol is a Canadian reality television competition show which aired on CTV, based on the British show Pop Idol. The show was a competition to find the most talented young singer in Canada, and was hosted by Ben Mulroney. Jon Dore was the "roving reporter" for the first three seasons...
could qualify as "documentaries", and the performance / results episodes as "variety".) As well, entertainment newsmagazines now regularly air during the "priority" period on CTV (eTalk Daily), Global (ET Canada), E! (E! News Weekend), and Sun TV (Inside Jam!), largely due to their priority standing.
The CRTC later modified its policies slightly by increasing the incentives for airing new drama programs. Broadcasters could receive additional minutes of advertising above the 12 minutes per hour generally permitted, which could be aired anywhere in the schedule, in exchange for increasing the number of Canadian dramas aired and meeting certain other drama-related targets. However, these are not mandatory targets. Moreover, in 2007 the commission effectively negated these incentives by announcing the gradual removal of all limits on TV advertising. Several cultural lobby groups and performing-arts labour unions have called on the CRTC to compel the major networks to air a minimum number of hours of Canadian drama, or spend an arbitrary percentage of revenues on producing such drama programs.
Requirements for specialty channels and premium television services — channels available only on cable and satellite — often differ greatly from those of broadcast stations. Most long-established specialty channels are expected to devote at least 50% of airtime to Cancon, while category 2 digital channels and most premium services have much lower restrictions. However, specialty channels are allowed to take part in the advertising incentives.
Movies
Some have suggested that Canadian content minimums be enacted for movie theatres as well, though none have resulted.External links
- MAPL system (CRTC)
- (.asf streaming audio) CBC Archives Sam SnidermanSam SnidermanSam Sniderman, is a Canadian entrepreneur best known as the founder of Sam the Record Man, the Canadian record store chain...
(Sam the record manSam the Record ManSam the Record Man was a Canadian record store chain that, at one time, was Canada's largest music recording retailer. In 1982, their ads proclaimed they had "140 locations, coast to coast"....
) talks about his support for CANCON in 1971