Canadian Content - Television

Television

See also: Television in Canada

To an even greater extent than on radio, Canadian television programming has been a perennially difficult proposition for the broadcast industry, particularly dramatic programming in prime-time. It is much more economical for Canadian stations to buy the Canadian rights to an American prime-time series instead of financing a new homemade production. Perhaps more importantly, given the reach of the major U.S. broadcast networks in Canada, it is virtually impossible to delay or modify a U.S. program's broadcast schedule, as regularly occurs in other foreign markets, to weed out failures or to otherwise accommodate indigenous programming.

In English Canada, presently only the public network, CBC Television, devotes the vast majority of its prime-time schedule to Canadian content, having dropped U.S. network series in the mid-1990s. The French-language networks, both public and private, also rely largely on Canadian series, relying on dubbed American movies – with a handful of dubbed series – for most of their foreign content.

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Famous quotes containing the word television:

    Laughter on American television has taken the place of the chorus in Greek tragedy.... In other countries, the business of laughing is left to the viewers. Here, their laughter is put on the screen, integrated into the show. It is the screen that is laughing and having a good time. You are simply left alone with your consternation.
    Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)

    ... there is no reason to confuse television news with journalism.
    Nora Ephron (b. 1941)

    His [O.J. Simpson’s] supporters lined the freeway to cheer him on Friday and commentators talked about his tragedy. Did those people see the photographs of the crime scene and the great blackening pools of blood seeping into the sidewalk? Did battered women watch all this on television and realize more vividly than ever before that their lives were cheap and their pain inconsequential?
    Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)