MDST*2020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Cravetv, Netflix, Shomi
Week 9: Canada’s Television Industry Can Con, Cable and Specialty Channels
The Economics of Canadian Content
-Major policy change by CRTC in late 1990s
-Priority programming category no longer classified drama as a separate category
-Fewer dramas end up being produced
-Drama very expensive to produce, weakest area of Canadian broadcasting
-American broadcasters ‘dump’ their programs (NCIS, Scandal) to Canadian
broadcasters at a price below their value
-Broadcasters lose money to air Canadian programs
The Reality of Canadian Content
-Airing an Hour of American Drama - Profit: $ 275,000
-Airing an Hour of Canadian Drama - Losses: -$125,000
The Policy Debate?
-Canada’s broadcasting policy has been aimed at ‘redirecting audience desires’
-Audience taste seen as part of the problem
-Elites don’t want to just indulge their own tastes, want to improve the masses
-Canadian Media Fund
-Cultural vs Economic goals
Cable Industry
-Distributes television signals to viewers
-CRTC sees Cable as a way of controlling broadcasting system
-Can be argued that it has opposite effect, allowing for more American integration
-CRTC Policy very profitable for cable industry
Commercial Substitution
-If a Canadian station airs an American program that airs at exactly the same time
on an
American station, the cable company must substitute the Canadian signal for the
American station
-Consequences: Allows Canadian broadcasters to become very profitable; Does
nothing to promote Canadian programming
-Makes Canadian broadcasters more dependent on American programming
-Canadian prime time lineups look exactly the same as American ones
Commercial Substitution
-Also called simsub
-Has a huge economic impact – approximately 250 million dollars in ad revenue
stays with Canadian television stations
-Without Simsub for Super Bowl XL1 audiences did drop by 39%
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Week 9: canada"s television industry can con, cable and specialty channels. Major policy change by crtc in late 1990s. Priority programming category no longer classified drama as a separate category. Drama very expensive to produce, weakest area of canadian broadcasting. American broadcasters dump" their programs (ncis, scandal) to canadian broadcasters at a price below their value. Broadcasters lose money to air canadian programs. Airing an hour of american drama - profit: $ 275,000. Airing an hour of canadian drama - losses: -,000. Canada"s broadcasting policy has been aimed at redirecting audience desires". Audience taste seen as part of the problem. Elites don"t want to just indulge their own tastes, want to improve the masses. Crtc sees cable as a way of controlling broadcasting system. Can be argued that it has opposite effect, allowing for more american integration. Crtc policy very profitable for cable industry.
