Canadians continuing to watch Canadian programs, according to new CRTC report

Canada’s broadcast industry has received a passing grade from the CRTC in its first annual Policy Monitoring Report. The report notes the average viewing of Canadian drama and comedy programming in prime time has risen from 2.3 million hours a week on private conventional stations between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. in 1994 to four million in 1999. Nearly 38,000 hours of Canadian drama is broadcast each year. CRTC chair Françoise Bertrand reported that the number of hours of children’s programming, in both English and French, had increased significantly, with about 1,000 hours being produced yearly. According to CRTC executive director of broadcasting Jean-Pierre Blais, who presented the television findings of the report at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ convention in Calgary earlier this month, overall tuning to English-Canadian programs, in relation to all English-language programs received in Canada, has remained in the 31 per cent to 32 per cent range. "It would be nice to see an increase in this area," he said, "(But) given the high levels of audience fragmentation that has occurred over the past decade, the maintenance of the 32 per cent range could be viewed as an achievement." Broadcasters, however, failed to make the grade for their carriage of Canadian music, dance and variety programming, which has seen a drop in the number of on-air hours. When it comes to specialty services, the average weekly viewing rate for programs rose from 30 million hours in 1994 to 85 million in 1999. Over the entire broadcast day, tuning into Canadian programs on specialties was in the 44 per cent range. Despite "making credible moves to meet future challenges," Bertrand said, "From our perspective, our mutual (the CRTC’s and broadcasters’) responsibilities do not end here. Our collective efforts should be seen as a ‘voyage in progress’." This is the first time the CRTC has released a policy monitoring report, which focuses on the performance of radio, television, broadcasting distribution and new media. The commission plans to make the monitoring report an annual affair, which will help it determine if the objectives and intent of its policies are being met. Total BDU Revenue ($000s)Distribution type1996199719981999Class 12,293,5912,370,3842,592,1622,875,841Class 2133,126142,571151,560149,736Class 3248,525262,498270,525276,484MDS2081,4144,52511,314DTHN/AN/A38,570154,270STV1,9111,6831,6261,574Total2,677,3612,778,5503,058,9683,469,219Class 1 basic/non-basicBasic1,575,8921,625,3491,653,3121,681,605Non-basic717,699745,035938,8501,194,236Source: Broadcast Policy Monitoring Report, CRTC, November 2000

Canadians continuing to watch Canadian programs, according to new CRTC report

News | 11/23/2000 5:00 am EST

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