Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is the national public broadcaster of Canada, established to promote a distinct Canadian culture and identity amid the influence of American media. Founded in the early to mid-1930s, the CBC aimed to unify the nation and support Canadian content in response to the challenges posed by regionalism and the proximity to a larger U.S. population. The rise of television in the post-World War II era introduced new challenges, as many Canadians were exposed to U.S. broadcasts, leading to concerns about the preservation of national culture.
In response to these challenges, the Massey Commission in 1951 recommended the development of a Canadian television network, which began broadcasting in 1952, quickly expanding its reach. Despite efforts to promote Canadian programming, the CBC faced ongoing competition from American productions. Subsequent reports, including those from the Fowler Commission, urged the implementation of content regulations to enhance Canadian content on air. The Broadcasting Act of 1958 established regulatory bodies to oversee broadcasting standards and promote Canadian culture. Despite its significant contributions to Canadian media, the CBC has encountered difficulties in fully countering the dominance of U.S. programming, particularly outside Quebec.
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Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Identification Canada’s publicly owned broadcasting system for radio and television
Date Began television broadcasting on September 6, 1952
As a result of rising concerns about cultural sovereignty in the post-World War II period, Canada expanded the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to include a nationally owned television network.
Canadian nationalists striving to promote an independent, distinct national culture faced several major obstacles throughout the twentieth century. These difficulties involved regionalism, the lack of a single cultural identity, and a shared three-thousand-mile border with a colossal world superpower containing ten times more inhabitants. The advent of radio broadcasting in the post-World War I period led to the rapid penetration of U.S. popular culture since the great bulk of Canada’s population resided within 150 miles of the U.S.-Canadian boundary line. A national network, known as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), took shape during the early to mid-1930’s, and CBC programming became closely associated with Canadian nationalism and culture. In its effort to promote Canadian culture, unify the nation, and displace American programming, the CBC waged an uphill battle. Moreover, by 1946, television was beginning to attract some Canadian viewers, who purchased sets and were able to receive broadcasts transmitted from nearby cities in the United States.
Concern over the status of national culture led to the appointment of a Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences, also known as the Massey Commission. The commission’s 1951 report recommended that Parliament develop a Canadian television network through the CBC with transmitters in a number of large cities. CBC television would be supplemented by private CBC affiliates. The project was launched in early September of 1952 as broadcasting started from Montreal and Toronto and reached 30 percent of the nation’s inhabitants. Within two years, rapid expansion of the network made national television available in French and English to 66 percent of Canadians.
In 1957, another Royal Commission, the Fowler Commission, charged with doing a follow-up study after the initial trial period, issued its report. This commission found that television had appropriated all the old formats developed for radio and forced its shift over to transmitting news and recorded music, most of which originated in the United States. On CBC television, American productions were as prominent as those from Canada. To counteract this trend and promote more Canadian content, the commission advocated subsidies, protectionism, and a regulatory change. A single system of public and private radio and television networks was to be created and regulated by an agency representing the public interest and responsible to Parliament. Shortly thereafter, the Diefenbaker government carried out these recommendations in the Broadcasting Act of 1958, which created the Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG). In 1959, the BBG introduced content regulations, a type of quota system, to take effect in 1961.
Impact
The Massey Commission’s recommendations on broadcasting reflected a conservative and elitist view of the Western cultural tradition that favored “high culture” and, particularly, Canadian culture over American “mass” popular culture. Although CBC radio and television produced a number of high-quality, home-grown, English-language programs, stemming the penetration and popularity of programming from the United States proved to be a daunting task in successive decades. Only in French-speaking Quebec province have locally produced programs consistently flourished.
Bibliography
Bothwell, Robert, Ian Drummond, and John English. Canada Since 1945: Power, Politics, and Provincialism. Rev. ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989. Covers political, economic, and cultural developments during the post-World War II decades. Chapters 12 and 18 deal with popular culture and discuss the CBC.
Peers, Frank W. The Public Eye: Television and the Politics of Canadian Broadcasting, 1952-1968. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979. Traces the development of the broadcasting system in Canada from the inception of television in 1952 to passage of the Broadcasting Act of 1968.