The only region in canada who dont watch American Tv is Quebec.Quebec has there own inbred Hollywood industry.English Canada watch american tv because most canadian programs suck.How many times should I be forced to watch crap pc programs shoved down english canada.Ctrc should be disbanded Im smart enough to choose what programs and what values I believe in.
OT: Rant against the CRTC and Sports Programming
- Thread starter etr102
- Start date
jigglysquishy
Registered User
Quebec's entertainment industry is miles ahead of the rest of Canada. Even look at international film competitions, Quebecois filmmakers routinely trounce Canadian filmmakers.
We should be emulating Quebec's entertainment industry.
Okay there I agree with you.If we had real good Tv programs I would watch them over american.We have a few but I wish we had something like Quebec has.Im proud canadian but our programs are just not good enough for the masses to watch
Kyle McMahon
Registered User
- May 10, 2006
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The CRTC is a load of crap. My cable provider isn't allowed to give me access to ESPN and the FSN Networks, Comcast Sports, etc. because I might stop watching the terrible programming provided by Sportsnet. Hell, I can't even legally watch a college football game on ESPN's internet feed. Meanwhile TSN is showing poker and Sportsnet is televising a radio show.
I believe the CRTC is great for Canadians. It allows us to retain our culture while also ensures Canadians are working. Its great for the Canadian economy, just not great for the audience. But whatev, Its not an effort to support artists like Michael Buble or shows like the Trailer Park Boys. We even saw how great the CRTC was in holding out on frequencies in the event Verizon or whomever is coming in to the country and serving consumers.
People who think the CRTC does anything much at all should google, say, the number of channels on Irish cable/sat providers that are based in the UK. Would you say Irish culture suffers for getting to watch the British feed of Sky Sports?
there's only one over the air station licensed to Windsor and it's CBC. It's too close to Detroit and the VHF band was always full. They didn't get CTV until cable became a thing.
there's only one over the air station licensed to Windsor and it's CBC. It's too close to Detroit and the VHF band was always full. They didn't get CTV until cable became a thing.
UK/Ireland
Germany/Austria/Switzerland
France/Belgium
Netherlands/Belgium
Latin America
The Sinosphere
none of these have the sort of cultural protectionism Canada does
Not 100% accurate (We also had TVOntario, Channel 32 before the cable days). Sometime in the late 80s/early 90s, CHWI was granted a broadcast license. This channel went through various ownerships but eventually became the Windsor CTV2 affiliate.
However I do appreciate your post though because it helps demonstrate my point how anyone who grew up in Windsor in the 80s and beforehand grew up on Detroit TV (and thus Detroit Sports). Forcing Canadian content down our throat is a relatively recent phenomenon, at least in the Windsor area. I suppose this is what annoys me. On Cable TV in Windsor, we still get all the Detroit local channels, but we are missing the most important local channel at all, FSN Detroit.
I understand what the 'spirit' of the policy is, but the bottom line is, we shouldn't be forced to watch inferior programming. If the ratings of Canadian channels suffered, then maybe they should broadcast better programming.
There is plenty of great Canadian programming out there. Corner Gas for example is one of my favorite shows of all time. Give me that over Big Bang Theory or any crappy American sitcom any day. My point is, you don't have to FORCE me to watch Canadian programming if the content is actually good.
To be perfectly honest, I don't think FSN Detroit would even be a threat to TSN's ratings. 70% of FSN's programming is crap anyway. It's pretty much all filler programming (reruns of World Series Of Poker, Strong Man contests, EATING contest, etc). We have enough of that crap on our own channels. It's the other 30% (ie local sports coverage) that everyone on this side of the border craves.
This whole thread is about baseball. The OP was complaining about not being able to see Tigers games on FSN-Detroit, not Red Wings.
If that's true today, it wasn't always that way. There used to be a big deal about having grey market satellite decoders to view football/soccer matches (eg. 3 pm kick off games that are not allowed to be shown in the UK).
It's been a while since I was in New Zealand but when I was there you couldn't get Australian channels on TV, just domestic and satellite services. Don't know if that's changed.
The way people are whinging, you'd think we were force fed re-runs of The Littlest Hobo or Danger Bay 24 hours a day. There's a huge amount of American TV available in Canada. No one is holding a gun to MLB or the NHL's head and forcing them to take money from Canadian networks in exchange for exclusive broadcasting rights.
jigglysquishy
Registered User
Ireland/UK is a terrible example. The Irish language has effectively been eradicated (except for a small contingent on the west coast and in schools), and the country still overwhelms itself with British culture. Even at that, the Irish dialects and English dialects are different enough to be noticeable.
Austria doesn't have protection, but it's two largest channels by viewership are Austrian. Over 50% of its viewership is Austrian based television. Austrian and German German have distinct dialects.
German speaking Switzerland is dominated by Swiss TV.
Belgium does rely more heavily on foreign broadcast, but it crushes Canada for local viewership.
You're right about Latin America.
Chinese is difficult. Several of the local dialects are effectively ignored by Beijing so everyone is forced to watch the standard Mandarin (or Cantonese) broadcasts. Taiwan has no protection, but I wouldn't be surprised if people avoid Chinese TV for political reasons.
Canada is a unique entity compared to Europe. The German and French languages differ dialectically enough that the other country's accent sounds foreign. Whereas a Minnesota accent is indistinguishable from a Saskatchewan accent. In addition, the American culture machine dwarves any other country's and Canadians will choose American content over Canadian content for no other reason than it's American. Many of these European countries willingly choose their own country's content.
Canada cannot compete with the States unless restrictions are put in place.
Because it's better. OP cannot watch his favorite teams. Should cheer for the 4 hour away Toronto teams instead?
Jack Bauer
Registered User
Jack Bauer
Registered User
Nope. Just do what everyone else does and buy the channels that give you what you want.
The CRTC isn't preventing anyone in Canada from watching any sporting event in North America if you buy the proper packages of channels.
Jack Bauer
Registered User
Because he's not willing to pay for the Sports/MLB Package that has the game broadcast.
Watching online illegally is a choice you make but chances are 99.99% of what you're watching illegally is because you don't want to pay for it, not because it's the only way to see it.
This is irrelevant... even a culturally protectionist Irish state obsessed who spends billions annually trying to keep the myth of Irish as a living language alive doesn't have any concern over what might happen if their children dare be exposed to the horrors of British commercial television. British TV has existed in Ireland since the outset (along with British newspapers, magazines, retail outlets, etc.) and yet I'd say Irish culture is doing ok.
That sounds like a problem with Canadians... the rest of the Anglosphere don't restrict American content being imported, either, and though people sometimes complain about Americanisms creeping into the language, they still watch their own entertainment products.
There is no reason countries like Australia or any of those small European states named have thriving domestic TV industries while Canada outsources theirs to the US.
Except for the fact that Canada is literally next door to the US, which is the epicentre of entertainment.
Protecting your culture is a "problem with Canadians"? Many other countries and states worry about this problem, why is it such a crime that Canada actually does something to restrict it?
DoyleG
Reality sucks, Princesses!
Of course, you don't have a bunch of paranoiacs that have leeched into Canadian culture (ie. Sarah Polley and Margaret Atwood).
Australia succeeds because they make their market and export one, as much as the Europeans.
Kyle McMahon
Registered User
- May 10, 2006
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I've never really bought this. If a show is decent and worth watching, nobody gives a damn where it was produced. And nobody is going to watch a show they don't find appealing just because it's Canadian. There is plenty of absolutely dreadful programming on TV already, from all nationalities. I can't imagine popular Canadian-made shows would get immediately cancelled in favour of some American show that nobody would watch. It makes no sense that that would occur, but this always seems to be the argument.
Its about stacking the deck. If there's a mandatory industry, then we'll be guaranteed to be able to compete with hollywood for the Canadian audience. With enough content, the trial and error to finding success is more likely. Once a production company gets a little bit of success, they can grow, thereby encouraging Canadian arts. Writers, actors, crew members, designers, etc. would have to move to Cali or India to find work otherwise if Canada had to compete with these markets without assistance.
Likewise with the music industry. If companies have to find Canadian artists to put on the air, it creates a market. Companies don't want to belly-up so they have to find enjoyable arts. Some even goes as fsr to create them.
This allows us to be exposed to less "constitutional" ideas that's not Canadian, historical events and whatever. Plus there's the economics of exporting content rather than importing it. So a few baseball and NFL fans have to suffer for the good of the CFL and Rugby? Good thing policy takes into account the needs of the majority.
Rocko604
Sports will break your heart.
Yes, they are. I cannot watch any college football game that airs on Fox Sports 1 if TSN or Sportnet is not airing it as well, since the CRTC will not allow my cable provider to carry it.
Because many of us don't care about that and what to watch what we pay for. The CRTC is wrong for these restrictions.
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I would also like to understand why you and some other Hamiltonians want the NFL blocked from coming to Canada but want a Hamilton NHL team. Both leagues are based in NYC. The CRTC restricts don't really affect the CFL otherwise.
Or why even have a CBC when none of their shows besides HNIC are top 10 in ratings in this country.
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But Kyle is right. Example. Our best and brightest artist still go to the US. Ryan Gosling for example. And the majority does not like Rugby either, so that's really unfair.
Personally I think "NHL regions" should be considered 100-200km radius of the city, if you not in that range of a city they should allow all games to be aired in your market
