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Media of Canada

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Canada has a well-developed media sector, but cultural output—particularly in English Canada—is often overshadowed by imports from the United States. Media are primarily for-profit corporations based on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues, although a public network, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation operates radio and TV networks in both English and French, and some provincial governments offer their own public broadcast services as well.

See also: Communications in Canada.

Television broadcasting

See main article at Television in Canada.

The Canadian television broadcasting industry is split between public and private ownership. Canada currently has 128 originating television stations, which broadcast on 1,456 transmitters across the country, on both the VHF and UHF bands.

In addition to the public Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which operates both English and French television networks, there are four major private TV networks. CTV and Global broadcast in English, and are available throughout the country. TVA and TQS broadcast in French and are available over the air only in Quebec (and some communities in Ontario and New Brunswick which are near the Quebec border), although TVA is available across Canada on cable. Radio-Canada (the French division of the CBC), TVA and TQS function in the particular cultural context of Quebec television. Most network stations are owned and operated by the networks themselves, although all networks except Global have some affiliates with different ownership.

In addition, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, a service devoted mainly to programming from the First Nations, is considered a network by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

There are, as well, a number of smaller broadcast systems, which are treated as independent local stations which air some common programming:

Several provinces maintain provincial public broadcasting networks in addition to the CBC:

Unlike in the United States, where a statewide public network is usually the state's primary PBS member station, the provincially-owned public systems in Canada are not CBC affiliates, but distinct networks which offer an entirely different programming schedule.

Only CBC/Radio-Canada, TVA and APTN are officially considered networks by the CRTC. CTV, Global and TQS are legally considered "television services" even though they operate as networks for all practical purposes.

As well, there are multilingual community stations in Toronto (CFMT and CJMT), Montreal (CJNT), and Vancouver (CHNM); and religious stations in Lethbridge, Alberta (CJIL), Burlington, Ontario (CITS), and Surrey, British Columbia (CHNU).

One station, Newfoundland and Labrador's NTV, does not fit the pattern, as it airs primarily Global entertainment programming, but airs the CTV network's newscasts.

TV station callsigns in Canada are usually made up of four letters, although two stations have three call letters (CKX in Brandon, Manitoba and CKY in Winnipeg, Manitoba) and some (primarily CBC-owned Radio-Canada stations) have five. The first call letter is always C, and callsigns of privately-owned television stations start with the two-letter combinations of CF, CH, CI, CJ, or CK. The combinations CG, CY, CZ and several combinations beginning with V and X are also assigned to Canada, but to date no Canadian television station has ever been licensed to take a call sign within those ranges.

CBC-owned stations use call letters beginning with the combination CB (through a special agreement with the government of Chile); private affiliates of the CBC use the same combinations as other private stations.

While Canadian TV stations are technically required to identify themselves over the air by their call letters, the rule is rarely enforced by the CRTC. As a result, many TV stations never use their call letters for any purpose other than official CRTC business, and are instead identified by a brand such as CTV Northern Ontario, OMNI.1 or Global BC.

There is no clear rule for the call letters of repeater stations—some repeaters are labelled by the call-letters of the originating station, followed by a number, while others have their own distinct call letters. Low-power repeater transmitters (LPRTs) have their own unique callsign format, which consists of the letters CH followed by four numbers.

Canada also has a large number of cable channels. For a more extensive list of Canadian TV broadcast outlets, see List of Canadian television channels.

Although all broadcast networks in Canada are required to produce and air some Canadian content, only the English and French networks of the CBC run almost entirely Canadian-produced schedules. (The English network does run a few imported British series, such as Coronation Street, Doctor Who and Emmerdale, and afternoon strip reruns of one American series, The Simpsons.) Both CTV and Global have at times faced criticism over their level of commitment to producing and airing Canadian programming. Both networks often find it easier to purchase rights to hit American series than to invest in Canadian productions, which are often prohibitively costly for the comparatively small size of the Canadian market. The French-language networks traditionally have had less difficulty meeting their Canadian content obligations, as the language difference makes Quebec audiences much more readily receptive to home-grown programming than to dubbed American imports.

Digital television is an emerging technology in Canada. Although some TV stations have begun broadcasting digital signals in addition to their regular VHF or UHF broadcasts, this is not yet as widespread as in the United States. Although most markets have digital channel assignments already in place, to date digital broadcasts have only launched in the largest metropolitan areas. Digital television sets are available in Canadian stores, but are not widely owned by consumers at this time.

See also: List of Canadian television series.

Cable television

Cable television is a very common method of television programming delivery in Canada. Many Canadian cities have cable penetration rates of 90 per cent or more of television households.

There are currently 739 licensed cable distributors in Canada. This significant decline from over 2000 just a few years ago is attributable both to major cable companies acquiring smaller distributors and to a recent change in CRTC rules by which independent cable operators with fewer than 2,000 subscribers are no longer required to operate under full CRTC licenses. (However, the CRTC does retain some regulatory authority over these operators. This is an exemption granted by the CRTC to previously licensed companies that continue to meet certain conditions, and does not mean that anybody can simply set up their own small cable company without CRTC approval.)

Major Canadian cable companies include Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco, Videotron, Persona and EastLink. Most Canadian cities are served by only one cable company per market; in the few cities that are served by more than one cable company, each company is restricted to a specific geographical division within the market. For instance, in Hamilton, Ontario, Cogeco Cable, Mountain Cablevision and Source Cable are all licensed operators, but each has a monopoly in a specific area of the city.

However, two major companies offer direct broadcast satellite delivery as an alternative to cable: ExpressVu, which is a division of BCE Inc., and StarChoice, which is a division of Shaw Cable. Grey market DBS dishes can also be obtained from American services such as DirecTV and Dish Network, but as these are not licensed Canadian providers, stores that sell those packages—and users who buy them—are at risk of criminal charges.

In some remote communities in the Territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), cable delivery is prohibitively costly, so similar services are offered through low-power repeater transmissions, which are received as if they were conventional over-the-air broadcasters. These transmitter licenses are held, however, by a corporate interest or a non-profit group in the community, not by the licensee of the originating signal as with most repeater transmitters.

A basic cable package in Canada traditionally includes:

  • the major Canadian commercial networks (CTV and Global),
  • the English and French CBC networks, including Newsworld and RDI (the French-language Newsworld equivalent),
  • the provincial educational broadcast undertaking (if one is available, as not all provinces have one),
  • a community channel (locally-produced public affairs and information programming and community events listings),
  • APTN, a network devoted to Aboriginal programming,
  • TVA, one of the two private French-language broadcasters in Quebec1,
  • local or regional independent stations such as Citytv, A-Channel and CH,
  • CPAC, which broadcasts parliamentary sessions and committee meetings, along with some political public affairs programming,
  • a similar channel broadcasting the proceedings of the provincial legislature,
  • American network affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and Fox2,
  • a mixture of Canadian and American special interest channels such as TSN, MuchMusic, CNN, CTV Newsnet and Showcase3.

A further set of Canadian and American special interest channels are offered as extended cable packages, which are available for additional fees. In the past, cable companies have engaged in the controversial practice of negative option billing, in which a subscriber is automatically given and billed for the new services unless he or she specifically declines them, but this is now illegal.

As well, a package of pay TV channels is also available for further fees, including movie networks such as The Movie Network and Super Écran and American superstations such as WSBK, WPIX, WGN and KTLA (which are often WB or UPN affiliates.) These services, however, require a descrambler box.

Cable companies now offer digital cable packages in most Canadian cities, including a number of channels which have been licensed exclusively for digital package distribution. Digital cable also typically includes a range of audio broadcast services such as Galaxie and MaxTrax. Digital cable, however, is provided only if a customer chooses to subscribe to that package.

Although this is sometimes controversial, Canadian cable companies are required by the CRTC to practice simultaneous substitution when a Canadian channel and a non-Canadian channel (which is usually American) are airing the same program at the same time. Programming on an American service may also be blocked if it has significant bearing on a Canadian legal matter (one episode of Law and Order, inspired by the trials of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, was blocked in Canada) or if it interferes with a Canadian channel's broadcast rights.

Many cable companies also offer high speed cable Internet service.

Notes

  1. The other French language broadcaster in Quebec, TQS, does not have mandatory national carriage rights, although some cable companies in Ontario and New Brunswick offer the network on a discretionary basis, and the network does have mandatory carriage in Quebec.
  2. Under CRTC rules, American networks are offered on a "4 + 1" basis, meaning that a cable company may offer any four American commercial networks and PBS on basic cable; other American networks can only be offered on a pay tier. In most cities, this means that UPN and The WB are not available on basic cable, due to lower demand for those networks. However, cable providers in border cities have been allowed to offer all American networks on basic cable that are available over the air in that market, even if that means more than four commercial networks are provided. American network affiliates are usually provided from the nearest available American market. However, signals distributed by Cancom (particularly affiliates from Detroit and Rochester) are frequently substituted where cost or technical limitations prevent use of a closer signal.
  3. Under CRTC rules, cable companies cannot offer a new American service if a comparable Canadian service already exists. However, if a Canadian equivalent begins operations after an American service has already been added to cable packages, the cable company is not required to discontinue the American service. (For example, Canadian cable companies cannot offer MTV, as the station was not yet available in Canada when MuchMusic began broadcasting in 1984. However, cable companies can offer CNN, as they were already offering that service when CBC Newsworld first aired in 1989.) This rule recently created some controversy in Canada, due to The Nashville Network's recent rebranding as Spike TV, which overlapped with the pre-existing mandate of the Canadian channel Men TV. However, the CRTC ultimately ruled that Spike TV would be allowed to stay on the cable dial.

Radio broadcasting

Canada is served by almost 2000 radio stations, on both the AM and FM bands.

As with television stations, radio callsigns in Canada are made up of four letters beginning with the two-letter combinations of CF, CH, CI, CJ, or CK, although a few stations use three-letter callsigns. In addition to private stations CKX and CKY, some CBC stations have three-letter callsigns, generally in major cities where the stations first aired in the 1930s. Newer CBC stations have normal four-letter callsigns, however. As with CBC television, CBC radio uses callsigns beginning with CB, through a special arrangement with the government of Chile. A few exceptions, such as CKSB in Winnipeg and CJBC in Toronto, exist where the CBC acquired an existing station with a historically significant callsign.

The combinations CG, CY, CZ and several combinations beginning with V and X are also assigned to Canada. Only four Canadian radio stations, all in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, have taken call signs in those ranges. Three of these stations, VOAR, VOWR and VOCM, began broadcasting before Newfoundland was a Canadian province, and retained their VO call letters when Newfoundland joined Canadian Confederation in 1949. The other station, VOCM-FM, adopted the callsign in 1981 because of its ownership association with VOCM. With the exception of VOCM-FM, radio stations licensed in Newfoundland after 1949 use the same CF-CK range as other Canadian stations.

The future of VO callsigns in Canada is unknown. It would not be at all unusual for the CRTC to simplify all callsigns used in Canada as part of the ongoing modernization and simplification of domestic telecom regulations.

There is no clear rule for the call letters of repeater stations—some repeaters are labelled by the call-letters of the originating station, followed by a number, while others have their own distinct call letters. Low-power repeater transmitters (LPRTs) have their own unique callsign format, which consists of the letters VE or VF followed by four numbers.

Major commercial radio broadcast groups in Canada include Rogers Communications, Corus Entertainment, Standard Broadcasting, CHUM Limited and Newcap Broadcasting. However, many smaller broadcasters operate radio stations as well. Most genres of music are represented on the Canadian commercial radio spectrum, including pop, rock, hip hop, country, jazz and classical. News, sports, talk radio and religious stations are also available in many cities. In addition, many Canadian universities and colleges have licensed campus radio stations, and some communities also have community radio stations licensed to non-profit groups or co-operatives.

As well, the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation operates four national radio networks, two each in English and French. The English Radio One and the French Première Chaîne provide news and information programming to most communities in Canada, regardless of size, on either the AM or FM band. The English Radio Two and French Espace Musique provide arts and culture programming, including classical music and opera, and are always on FM, generally serving larger communities only.

Music-based commercial radio stations in Canada are mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to reserve at least 35 per cent of their playlists for Canadian content, although exemptions are granted in some border cities (e.g. Windsor, Ontario) where the competition from American stations threatens the survival of Canadian broadcasters, and for stations whose formats may not have enough Canadian recordings available to meet the 35 per cent target (e.g. classical, jazz or pop standards).

In recent years, a notable trend in Canadian radio has been the gradual abandonment of the AM band, with many AM stations applying for and receiving authorization from the CRTC to convert to the FM band. In some Canadian cities, in fact, the AM band is now either nearly or entirely vacant. Because Canada is more sparsely populated than the United States, the limitations of AM broadcasting (particularly at night, when the AM dial is often overwhelmed by distant signals) have a much more pronounced effect on Canadian broadcasters. AM radio stations have the additional protection that cable companies which offer cable FM services are required by the CRTC to distribute all locally-available AM stations through conversion to a cable FM signal, but cable FM only accounts for a small percentage of radio listeners in Canada.

Digital audio broadcasting, or DAB, is an emerging technology in Canada. Although there are currently 73 licensed digital audio broadcasters in Canada, not many consumers yet own digital radios, and the existing digital audio broadcast signals duplicate AM or FM broadcasts. No Canadian radio broadcaster currently offers an exclusively DAB signal.

On November 1, 2004, the CRTC began hearing applications for satellite radio services. Three applications were filed: one by XM Radio Canada, one by Sirius Canada, and one by the partnership of CHUM and Astral Media. These services, which were approved by the CRTC on June 16, 2005, will be Canada's first official satellite radio services, although a small grey market already exists for American satellite radio receivers.

Newspapers

Almost all Canadian cities are served by at least one daily newspaper, along with community and neighbourhood weeklies. In large cities which have more than one daily newspaper, usually at least one daily is a tabloid format. Bilingual cities like Montreal and Ottawa have important papers in both French and English.

Canada currently has two major national newspapers, the Globe and Mail and the National Post. The newspaper with the highest circulation is, however, the Toronto Star.

Canadian newspapers are mostly owned by large chains. The largest of these is the CanWest News Service chain, owned by CanWest. Quebecor owns many tabloid newspapers through its Sun Media subsidiary, including Le Journal de Montréal and the Toronto Sun.

At various times there have been concerns about concentration of newspaper ownership, most recently when Conrad Black's Hollinger acquired the Southam newspapers in the late 1990s. When Hollinger sold its Canadian properties, however, many of their smaller-market newspapers were in fact purchased by a variety of new ownership groups such as Osprey Media, increasing the diversity of newspaper ownership for the first time in many years.

The 1980s and 1990s have seen the emergence of city-based alternative weekly newspapers, geared toward a younger audience with coverage of the arts and alternative news. In recent years, many of these weeklies have also been acquired or driven out of business by conglomerates like CanWest, Quebecor and Irving. Smaller newspapers like The Dominion, publishing primarily online but in a newspaper format, have attempted to fill gaps in Canada's journalistic coverage while avoiding the vulnerabilities of the previous generation of alternative media.

Motion pictures

See main article at Cinema of Canada.

Most of Canada's film (and television) industry produces output geared towards mainstream North American audiences, with Alliance Atlantis and Lions Gate Films in particular enjoying significant successes in recent years. Toronto and Vancouver are major production centres, with Vancouver being the second largest film and television production centre in North America (after Los Angeles). The Toronto International Film Festival is considered one of the most important events in North American film, showcasing both Canadian talent and Hollywood films.

Alliance Atlantis has become by far the largest and most successful Canadian film studio, both as a film and television production house (the company's television properties include Due South, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and C.S.I.), and as the major Canadian distributor of independent American and international films. Lions Gate Entertainment has also become a major player in recent years.

Canada also produces films of a characteristically "Canadian" nature, and of all Canadian cultural industries, this segment of the film industry has the hardest time escaping the shadow of its (North) American counterpart. Between the marketing budgets of mainstream films, and the largely American-controlled film distribution networks, it has been nearly impossible for most distinctively Canadian films to break through to a wide audience. In many Canadian cities, in fact, moviegoers don't even have the option of seeing such films, as there aren't any theatres showing them. As a result, a Canadian film is usually considered a runaway hit if it makes as little as $1 million at the box office.

French Canadian films, on the other hand, are often more successful—as with French-language television, the language difference makes Quebec audiences much more receptive to Canadian-produced film. In most years, the top-grossing Canadian film is a French-language film from Quebec.

As a result of the economic challenges involved in Canadian film production, film funding is often provided by government bodies such as Telefilm Canada, and CBC television is often a Canadian film's most lucrative potential market. However, there is an established network of film festivals which also provide important marketing and audience opportunities for Canadian films. In addition to Toronto's film festival, the smaller Vancouver International Film Festival features films from around the world, and festivals in Montreal, Quebec and Greater Sudbury, Ontario—among other cities—are also important opportunities for Canadian filmmakers to gain exposure among more populist film audiences.

One particular film production house, the National Film Board of Canada, has become internationally famous for its animation and documentary production.

Book and magazine publishing

Canada's most famous book publisher is McClelland and Stewart, which made its name in the 1970s as the leading publisher of Canadian literature. Canada also has many smaller publishing houses, including Coach House Press, House of Anansi, Key Porter Books and Douglas & McIntyre. Numerous American and British publishers, including Random House, Hearst Corporation, Condé Nast Publications, HarperCollins and Penguin Books, also have Canadian divisions.

Magazines published in Canada include:

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