The influx of Canadian television programs in the 1970’s had a great influence in what we watch today. From watching American television shows like “I Love Lucy” in the 1950’s to watching Canadian programs such as “Degrassi”, that still run today.Canada Before Canadian Content In today’s society it is not uncommon to see many of your peers, coworkers, or family members watching Canadian based tv shows and movies.
However, back in the early twentieth century there were no Canadian films to watch. In 1952 commercial television broadcasting began in Canada. Over the next couple of years, the culture of the United States would tend to influence Canada; there were many American books, magazines, films, and radio content. Fortunately, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation still aired Canadian news and public affairs programmes. Only until 1965 is when Walter Gordon, a member of the Toronto Business Establishment, took measures to limit foreign ownership of newspapers, magazines, radio, and television.
Between the time since people first started buying televisions to mid-1960’s most films aired were written and produced in the United States. The programmes that were Canadian however, were more serious and intellectual than American programmes. Many Canadians prefered shows from the U.
S. than Canada, this resulted in Canadian programs being neglected. Canadian networks were not allowed to broadcast American programmes until 1953. Since this was the way, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) tried to copy popular American content so they would be able to broadcast what the viewers want.
The results were quite lamentable. Although, when the CBC were not trying to imitate the productions the products were often superior. Canadians were particularly good at creating news programmes, music shows, documentaries, sports programmes, and dramas. How Canadian Content Came to Be Since the 1950’s Canadian television programming has grown a great deal. This grown was aroused by the creation of the Canadian Film Development Corporation (now known as Telefilm Canada) in 1967; and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commision (CRTC) in 1968. In 1967, CFDC obtained $10 million from the Government of Canada to assist in the Canadian feature film industry.
This was the beginning of the new era of favourable Canadian programmes. The original Canadian broadcasting policy goes back into the 1920s, when the birth of radio broadcasting began. Due to the interference of American radio signals, the federal government set up the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting. It had a mixed ownership between private and public until 1932 when the public broadcaster was established; due to the parliament passing the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Act. It was not until 1985 that the CBC could take out any American programming.
