ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) (02/11/84)
uokvax!emjej (James Jones) asks about: Some time ago (back in high school) I recall reading that Canadian broadcast facilities were restricted from playing American records (whatever that means--do Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Guess Who, Ann Murray, etc. count?) save during some ridiculous hours of the night. I also recall reading in an issue of the late *Electronics Illustrated* reports of Canadian jamming of American TV stations near the border. There are in fact a number of anti-American (or pro-Canadian if you prefer) rules here in Canada, but it isn't quite *that* bad. First and foremost are the Canadian Content rules. Radio and TV stations must play certain percentages of Canadian-produced material. I haven't read any articles on it lately but the magic numbers are around 60%. Furthermore, these rules apply separately to various time periods; a station is not allowed to play 100% Canadian material "during some ridiculous hours of the night" so that they can play mostly American the rest of the time. That's what you were thinking of. Also, we have one government-owned TV network, the CBC (called Radio-Canada in French), which competes with various sized private networks. In radio the CBC is the only network. (There are many private radio stations and a few TV.) Well, the CBC sometimes tries to set an example, and it has adopted Canadian Content rules that are stricter than everybody else's, something like 80%. This may not have been entirely voluntary but the CBC surely has influence with the CRTC (our version of FCC). Or it may have been voluntary, I forget. Incidentally, the CBC reaches parts of Canada that don't have the population to support fully commercial TV, which is an advantage of having a government- owned network. On the other hand it also monopolizes markets that can support just one station. So what is Canadian Content? This changes from time to time, but basically you get points for using Canadian performers, Canadian crews, Canadian locations, Canadian producers, etc., and you have to meet some formula. There have been cases of people finding loopholes and the rules changing. Then there are the rules regulating cable TV. A cable system is required to originate one "community access" channel itself, and to give top precedence to that channel and local stations, next precedence to out-of-town Canadian stations that are not on the same network as local stations, and all other stations come last. This precedence basically means that, in your home, you get the stations on easier-to-receive channels. For instance in Toronto the local stations are on 5, 9, 19, 25, 47, and 57. Since non-converter-type cable channels are on VHF, there is a fair amount of interference on 5 and 9. So the 11 best channels are 2-4, 6-8, and 10-13. On these we receive the 6 local channels (including one in French and one multilingual channel), the community access channel, 3 out-of-town Canadian channels, and 1 US channel from Buffalo. On the "impaired channels", 5 and 9, we receive 2 more US channels from Buffalo. Finally there are the channels which most people require a converter to receive. Most cable systems carry 7 of these: the same 2 channels we receive on 5 and 9 (but clearly), the 2 remaining Buffalo channels, and 3 out-of-town Canadian channels that are on the same networks as Toronto local channels (but don't carry the network programming all the time). And then there are pay channels -- only Canadian ones are allowed, but the content is mostly American-made movies. Another cable rule is that stations with higher precedence are allowed to order the cable system to substitute their channel for other channels showing the same show at the same time. For instance the CBC always showed M*A*S*H at the same time as CBS, so if I tuned my set to CBS from Buffalo at that time, I received CBC anyway. What difference? The commercials. Not only would CBC be more likely to advertise products I could buy, but Canadian stations are allowed to carry more commercials in prime time than US stations do (note, *not* more than US stations are *allowed to*, just more than they *do in prime time*. Check the difference between prime time and, say, the so-called "CBS Late Movie".) -- so we get 1-2 minutes cut out of each show. If this bothers you, you don't get cable -- but if you live in an apartment, you can't put up an antenna, can you? About 80% of Canadians have cable, and this was true before pay TV arrived here. Since the networks started taking advantage of this rule, we have lost what used to be one of the nice things about living near the border -- we used to get 2 (or more) chances in a week to catch a popular American show. Oh well, getting 6* different networks in English and 1 in French plus 5* independent stations and those 3 out-of-town-same-network stations, I guess I can't complain too much. (*This count is arguable -- I have called Global and TVOntario independent stations since they each have only one set of production facilities, but some call them networks since they have several transmitters each to cover a wide area.) The final rule I will mention is the one about advertising. Advertising on TV is a deductible business expense, right? Well, not if you are a Canadian business advertising on an American station. This law was passed a few years ago and the Buffalo stations saw their revenue drop. There was talk of retaliation but I don't think anything actually happened. Jamming? Certainly not. Not legally, anyway, and I've never heard of such an incident. Either you are thinking of the channel substitution on cable, or this was a very isolated incident.
ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) (02/11/84)
Sorry, I forgot to sign my "long response". For those of you running antique news that doesn't give you my name from the message header, I am: Mark Brader Toronto, Canada