Canadian Television Industry] Anonymous
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Osgoode Hall Law Journal Article 8 Volume 8, Number 1 (August 1970) Comment: [Canadian Television Industry] Anonymous Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj Commentary Citation Information Anonymous. "Comment: [Canadian Television Industry]." Osgoode Hall Law Journal 8.1 (1970) : 171-182. http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol8/iss1/8 This Commentary is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Osgoode Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Osgoode Hall Law Journal by an authorized editor of Osgoode Digital Commons. COMMENT The following note represents random comments and observations on the television industry. The fact that these observations are those of two Canadians, Murray Chercover* and to a somewhat lesser extent, Charles Templeton**, makes them of interest to the Canadian reader. The authors did want it be noted that the lack of syntax and fragmental character is due to the transcriptionalorigin. With increased leisure time available in the future, television program- ming will change in a variety of ways. Audiences will be fragmented, resulting in a dilution of the quality of program service that a network can provide. The goal of the Broadcasting Act, to preserve and strengthen our Canadian identity, should not be defaulted by simply turning our views over to nations which, because of their large markets, can produce relatively cheap programs. Quantitative measurement of Canadian content and ownership controls will not achieve the goal. An alternative may be the development of a qualitative measurement. The changes predicted by Messrs. Chercover and Templeton (an increase in actuality, documentary, and escape programming along with the emergence of CATV local programming) are likely to have enormous effects on the CTV network itself as well as television programming in general. As policy makers for the private CTV network (made up at present of twelve English affiliates in Canadian major cities) the authors have a unique experience and responsibility in seeking out programming and the revenues necessary to sustain it. The problems facing the CTV network in the next few years are particularly critical and challenging, and relate in a variety of ways to the subjects discussed in the earlier articles. 1. In regard to the CTV's immediate programming plans, particularly in the context of the Canadian content regulations recently announced by the Canadian Radio-Television Commission, see the CTV renewal hearing reported in CRTC Transcript of Hearing, Ottawa, April 14-15, 1970, and the contemporaneous individual renewal applications by the 12 CTV affiliates. 2. The CTV network is unique in that it is owned by its affiliates rather than the reverse. This arrangement stems from a reorganization in 1966, reported in BBG Transcript of Hearing, Ottawa, Feb. 23, 1966, approved by the Board of Broadcast Governors in CTV Network, [1966] BBG Decisions (Mar. 4), subject to a one station-one vote rule that prohibited the ownershio by one person of more than one CTV affiliate. [See also Calgary - CFCN-TV, [1966] BBG Decisions (May 9); BBG Transcript of Hearing, Ottawa, April 26-27, 1966, pp. 405-434.1 After applying the CTV ownership rule in a number of situations where it found it convenient for other reasons to do so [see, e.g. Vancouver - CHAN-TV, [1968] CRTC Decisions 38 (June 13); Moose Jaw - CHA4B-TV, CHRE-TV, [1968] CRTC Decisions 37 (May 30) and [1969] CRTC Decisions 253 (July 18)] *President, CTV Television Network *Formerly Director of News and Public Affairs, CTV Network and presently Consultant to the network. OSGOODE HALL LAW JOURNAL [V€OL. 8, NO. I the CRTC announced a reconsideration of the policy in 1969, and after a hearing on the question [CRTC Transcript of Hearing, Vancouver, October 14, 1969, pp. 2-33] decided to abandon it as a strict rule and adjudicate future share transfers on a case by case basis. [CTV Ownership Policy, [1969] CRTC Decisions 402 (Dec. 23)]. The first such adjudication involves the Bushnell Communications bid to add the Montreal CTV affiliate (CFCF-TV) to its present Ottawa station (CJOH-TV), following the foreign ownership divestment required by Order-in-Council P.C. 1969- 2229, November 24, 1969. This share transfer is to be considered by the Commission at its hearings commencing on June 16, 1970, and the result will colour CTV ownership policy for some time to come. 3. The intensification of interest by the public in documentary and actuality programming has been evident for some time on the CTV network, with impressive ratings received for programs like the National Geographic specials and the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. With the recent promulgation of greatly intensified Canadian content regulations, the present emphasis by CTV on international co-productions in this area should greatly increase, particularly if the CRTC takes a long-term and practical approach to co-production approvals. The reaction and perform- ance of the CTV network is obviously at the heart of the quality vs. quantity controversy raised by the Canadian content quota, since the net- work constitutes the only means for distributing additional Canadian programming to the marginal centres least able to afford it. 4. The impact of cable television on conventional television is highlighted by the authors in terms of (a) the development of an alternative and local-oriented role for CATV, (b) the increasing fragmentation of audiences and the conflict between the vastly increased demands for programming material and the advertising revenue needed to sustain it, and (c) the loss of channel number identification and the degradation in signal for locally-carried Canadian signals. These and other issues have also been discussed in Canada before the Special Senate Committee on the Mass Media, before the CRTC in the hearings on microwave policy and before the Commons Broadcasting Committee. See previous commentaries for specific references. PETER GRANT. Of the major technologies, television is the youngest; it may also be the most consequential. For good or ill - and there are as many different judg- ments on that as there are individuals - it directly touches more lives more significantly than any single invention man has devised. Even now in its infancy - and commercial television is only 27 years old - it has become one of the most dominant factors of contemporary Western life. Its effects have not yet begun to be measured and even those who work at the heart of it have no definite understanding of its ramifications within society. More, they cannot predict with any precision what television will be like a mere decade or two down the road. Even now technological changes are at work within the industry which will alter the form almost beyond recognition, and a variety of factors are at work which will also alter the content. The technological changes will be enormous. Governments and business enterprises are now occupied with the problems and possibilities of instan- 1970] Access to the Mass Media taneous, world-wide, simultaneous direct-to-home transmission by satellite. We know of the imminent prospects of laser beams and of the subminiaturiza- tion which will affect field equipment. We realistically envisage dramatic changes in home reception and presentation equipment. Screen sizes will both expand and contract, automated recording and playback equipment in the home will provide a library capacity and constant availability. World-wide, universal color standards and three dimensional reception are inevitable. Cable television will become virtually a utility; improving picture reception, pro- liferating the number of available channels, intensifying local programming and providing a multi-channel grid capable of providing extra-television services. It must also be recognized that the burgeoning television era is coincident with the age of automation. The industrial revolution replaced the need for man's muscle; the cybernetic revolution will, in large part, replace man's brain. Automation makes possible more and better production with less man- power and fewer working hours, and all of this leads to more leisure. An increase in leisure time means more time to watch television and this will affect programming (and, as we shall see, revenue) in a variety of ways. First, actuality programming will increase enormously. Cameras will go wherever man can go. They have already gone to the moon. With no need for cables, supplementary lighting or mobile units - they will go into court- rooms, judicial enquiries, houses of parliaments, and right into the heart of of wars, sports events, riots, etc. The world will become a neighborhood even if it does not become a brotherhood, with instantaneous transmission from any part of the globe. Any event, anywhere in the world will impinge upon our lives. Our awareness of the world will be instantaneous and virtually total. Our knowledge of others will increase and the word 'exotic' will lose its essential meaning. Second, there will be a great leap forward in educational television, not only in instructional programming (television treatment of curriculum material) but in enrichment programming. With much of the creativity and satisfaction normally derived from work gone, the average man will need to replace it or have his spirit suffer stultification or boredom. There is little doubt but that he will develop an intensified interest in the arts, and programming will move to meet this need with more drama, music and new approaches to literature. So swift is the acceleration of change in our society that retraining will be a normal part of life. The proliferation of information will require the individual to update his knowledge regularly, and the ideal medium with which to accomplish this is educational television. Third, there will be an increase in "escape" programming. With the intensification of the pace of life in Western civilization since roughly the turn of the century, men and women have increasingly used entertainment OSGOODE HALL LAW JOURNAL [VOL.