Laurence Dunbar and Christian Leblanc were commissioned by the CRTC to write a report and recommendations for on the Canadian broadcasting regulatory environment. Geist is happy, concluding:
The authors remain optimistic, however, concluding that “the solutions to this issue lie not in imposing new regulatory restrictions on Canadian companies as some stakeholders have suggested – but rather in encouraging them to stake out territory on the Internet. . .to regulate Canadians, while the rest of the world competes in an open market, would in our view be counterproductive.”
The message is clear – broadcasters must adapt by shifting from their reliance on protective regulations and inexpensive U.S. content to instead competing on the unregulated global stage with their own, original Canadian content delivered to an international audience on conventional and Internet platforms. This should dramatically alter Canadian content production from one mandated by government regulation to one mandated by market survival.
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The Canadian Association of Broadcasters, says Geist, is upset with the recommendations, worried that it will help to erode the solid foundation of Canadian culture they have built, the cherished productions that have made Canadian broadcasting the darling of international critics, shows like Corner Gas, Air Farce, Wind at My Back, Pit Poney … etc. etc. etc. The list of their achievements is indeed long, as is the pantheon, if you will, of Canadian TV culture, the dizzying pinnacles of creativity and cutural importance that CTV and Global and CBC TV have nurtured and cultivated in the past 20 years. Littlest Hobo, Beachcombers. Street Legal.
The internet is scary, and must be stopped, lest we lose all that our broadcasters have worked so hard to build.
Wait, you aren’t being sarcastic about Littlest Hobo are you?
there’s a voice, keeps on calling me
down the road, that’s where i’ll always be
and every stop i make, i make a new friend
Can’t stay for long. Just turn around,
and I’m gone again.
Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down.
Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep movin’ on.”
The cultural impact of Canadian shows on Australians is significant, but hard to quantify. It’s hard to imagine a world without You Can’t Do That on TV and Degrassi…
ha! … De Grassi *does* have a sort of glow of godliness in the minds of most canadians (certainly of my vintage), but i hadn’t thought of “You Can’t Do that on TV” for ages.
Anyway the argument isn’t that there hasn’t been any good Canadian TV in the last decade or so (newsroom, twitchcity, da vinci’s inquest to name a few) … but rather that the overwhelming majority of canadian shows are … well… not very good. and overregulating the internet will harm, not help canadian creativity.
and, looking at that list, all of them – except maybe you can’t do that – are CBC, national public broadcaster, productions.