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I stand by my assertion that Canadian TV of that era featured more Canadian content than it does currently. I'm neither old enough or from the right country to comment too much on this issue, but most of my Canadian friends talk on endlessly about shows like The Beachcombers or The Littlest Hobo from that era while many of them watch maybe one Canadian produced series at most on a regular basis today. I admitted in my initial post that the 60% number was fictional and generous... perhaps 40% is more realistic.
Wasn't the main factor in Global's rise airing a schedule almost entirely made up of American programming (with an assist from simsubbing)? That would imply that CTV wasn't doing that before Global came along.
Speaking of HNIC catching on south of the border... we used to watch a crapload of CBC when I was a kid in Detroit. I was raised on Fred Penner and Mr. Dressup, we always favored CBC's Olympic coverage and sometimes we'd just watch whatever was on (Degrassi High had a big following in it's era here)
I'd say it's about the same. While it is true that Global made its success on American imports, CTV was massively American as well when I was growing up in the 1970s. Even the CBC competed with CTV for American imports at one time, although they pretty much did away with American series in prime time - sometime in the late 80s if I recall.
There are probably more Canadian shows available for people to watch than ever before now, thanks to the advent of all of the specialty channels, with the Canadian ones subject to Canadian content requirements. Of course, there is also more competition (most notably from the States) than ever in the multi-channel universe, but if you are looking for it, there is tons of homegrown Canadian stuff out there if people care to watch it.
It's occurred to me that in this conversation we've acted as though Canada's pop culture was universally and totally in harmony with the US... I'd like to point out that it's not, and that the British connection can still be seen even the worlds of sports and entertainment.
Canada has a long history of importing British TV series, and while they've always paled in comparison to the number of American and even Canadian shows, some have managed to gain a relatively high profile. CBC merits special mention here, to this day they air a large amount of British produced programming (a lot of it co-produced by CBC itself), including airing Coronation Street on a nightly basis. Canada currently has two cable networks largely devoted to airing British programming (BBC Canada and VisionTV), while BBC World News is widely available on cable and satellite platforms.
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Yes, there is British TV in Canada, but I think you are overstating it a bit. Americans also import tons of British TV concepts and then adapt them for the U.S. audience - and these American versions are what Canadians watch (think of The Office), not the British ones. Most Canadians are probably not even aware that much of this stuff was copied off of UK shows.
Another interesting point is that much of the British TV that was watched and is watched by Canadians is viewed on PBS... from the States! If you live in Canada, many UK shows are/were only available on PBS, and no Canadian stations carry them.
As for the CBC, yes it was founded on the British BBC model (as was ABC in Australia). Hence the acronym. And it does show more British stuff than any general mainstream network. But its programming is very predominantly Canadian, with small portions of the schedule devoted to syndicated U.S. shows (Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune) and movies, and a smattering of British stuff like Coronation Street. But CBC shows far less British stuff than, say, ABC does in Australia.
And BTW, there is BBC Canada as there is BBC America. Vision TV is not really specialized in British programming. It is more a "spirituality" type of network. Some of the stuff they show may be British, but it is far from "largely devoted" to it.
In sports, even though cricket is very much a niche sport in Canada, it's still a lot more popular than it is in the US. The national team is actually very successful considering, and it makes regular appearances in major tournaments. Rugby is similar, with Canada appearing in every World Cup to date. An argument can be made that Canada has been historically more open to soccer than the US, too, though I'd say that this has changed over time.
The point being, even in areas of clear American dominance within Canadian culture there is still a lot more British influence than people are willing to give credit. Canada is about as British as can be considering it's location and independence.
So Canada's culture is 0.01% British whereas the U.S.'s is 0.001% British? Sort of like taking the least warm city in Hawaii and saying it has a bitterly cold climate...
Yes, there is British TV in Canada, but I think you are overstating it a bit. Americans also import tons of British TV concepts and then adapt them for the U.S. audience - and these American versions are what Canadians watch (think of The Office), not the British ones. Most Canadians are probably not even aware that much of this stuff was copied off of UK shows.
Americans import very little British TV, actually. What's not on PBS is either on BBC America, on a premium cable channel or just sort of straggling about somewhere (generally the latter are super cheap reality shows used as filler on marginal cable networks).The availability if British TV in Canada is much greater (though from what I can tell, the US seems to have minor advantages in terms of how quickly the Beeb decides to ship things over).
But further, I made sure to qualify everything I said. Obviously British TV is dwarfed by the amount of American and Canadian programming. But it exists in larger amounts than discussion was giving credit for.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
Another interesting point is that much of the British TV that was watched and is watched by Canadians is viewed on PBS... from the States! If you live in Canada, many UK shows are/were only available on PBS, and no Canadian stations carry them.
I can't believe that's true in 2011, it's certainly not Stateside. I'm not sure there are any Anglophiles on the planet who'd rather watch 20 year old reruns of As Time Goes By than just watching an online stream of Channel 4 or something. Some of the shows PBS is most famous for airing from the UK aired contemporaneously with their original airings on Canadian TV, though perhaps not popularly.
As for the CBC, yes it was founded on the British BBC model (as was ABC in Australia). Hence the acronym. And it does show more British stuff than any general mainstream network. But its programming is very predominantly Canadian, with small portions of the schedule devoted to syndicated U.S. shows (Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune) and movies, and a smattering of British stuff like Coronation Street. But CBC shows far less British stuff than, say, ABC does in Australia.
Yes, CBC airs mostly Canadian content. But it does air a fair amount of British programming (as well as doing a number of co-productions with the BBC and RTE). When a show like Camelot (an RTE-CBC co-production intended primarily for British distribution) is a major part of their fall schedule, it seems fair for me to say there's still some sense of Britishness being maintained by CBC. Plus, it would appear that the amount of British and Irish produced imports on CBC has actually spiked in recent years after being almost exclusively Canadian since they dropped most of their US programming.
I didn't intend to compare it to the ABC (which, incidentally, is increasingly importing American shows to compete with the rest of Aussie TV), but you are obviously correct in your assessment that it wouldn't compare. But we've already gone over the differences between Australia and Canada in this thread... my post was simply pointing out that Canada isn't as un-British as we've all been acting, not that it's SO BRITISH YOU GUYS.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
And BTW, there is BBC Canada as there is BBC America. Vision TV is not really specialized in British programming. It is more a "spirituality" type of network. Some of the stuff they show may be British, but it is far from "largely devoted" to it.
VisionTV appears to have switched focus in the past two years from being mostly religious to mostly, well, syndicated programming aimed at Baby Boomers. British shows form a large portion of their Entertainment programming. When I was last visiting friends in Canada, Vision (or Zoomer) was using Union Jacks in their idents.
But I confess that the sentence was poorly written and I had condensed a couple of sentences into one. I know Vision is not "largely devoted" to British programming.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
So Canada's culture is 0.01% British whereas the U.S.'s is 0.001% British? Sort of like taking the least warm city in Hawaii and saying it has a bitterly cold climate...
I'd say it's like looking at a typhoon in Hawaii and saying "see, it's not perfect weather there every day". It's a fairly rare occurrence, but the fact that it happens should be acknowledged.
Also, I noticed earlier that TSN's website is focusing a relatively large amount of coverage on the Canadian national team in the Rugby World Cup. Just an interesting little thing.
Mmmm. IMO Britain is much more dynamic, enclosed, interesting, as diverse, more historical, so different in terms of countryside, just unique, as America, Canada is diverse but is completely bland ( not the Scottish/British rooted places) to me Canadian is a blank space, as is their flag, it does come over as a sneering country ( about the US, and obviously England), though the people seem educated
Mmmm. IMO Britain is much more dynamic, enclosed, interesting, as diverse, more historical, so different in terms of countryside, just unique, as America, Canada is diverse but is completely bland ( not the Scottish/British rooted places) to me Canadian is a blank space, as is their flag, it does come over as a sneering country ( about the US, and obviously England), though the people seem educated
You mean dynamic as in more vibrant and better nightlife?
Mmmm. IMO Britain is much more dynamic, enclosed, interesting, as diverse, more historical, so different in terms of countryside, just unique, as America, Canada is diverse but is completely bland ( not the Scottish/British rooted places) to me Canadian is a blank space, as is their flag, it does come over as a sneering country ( about the US, and obviously England), though the people seem educated
Canada is diverse but is completely bland ( not the Scottish/British rooted places) to me Canadian is a blank space,
What are you saying here? That Canada is bland except for places that have a history of Scottish-British settlement? If so, that's actually the majority of the country!
More British/European than you realize until you move to the USA & you say Boxing Day, have tea three or four times a day, looking for your Peek Freans, Cadbury, Quality Street, Wine Gums, Coronation Street, have to get your Birds custard from the 'international' section, etc.
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