Blockbusters and Trade Wars by Peter S. Grant

Author:Peter S. Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOC022000
ISBN: 9781926706795
Publisher: Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.
Published: 2009-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

11

NATIONAL OWNERSHIP

ONE OF THE best-known brands in Canada appears on the nation’s oldest private television chain. Red, blue and green banners ripple in an invisible wind. A booming baritone announces: “C.T.V. — Canadian television.” The emphasis on the middle word is pronounced. But so is the disconnect.

The CTV network does present some well-known Canadian television programs. On Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM, for example, Degrassi: The Next Generation lights up the screen. And CTV’s national newscast, presented every night at 11 PM, is the highest-rated news program in the country. But most of the prime-time hours on CTV, like those on the other private English-language TV stations across Canada, are devoted to programs from another country. CTV’s colourful flowing banners are frequently mixed with the images of U.S. stars from series like The West Wing or Law & Order. And most of CTV’s audience is for those imported programs.

So, Canadian television? The claim begs a little explanation. What CTV is, of course, is a Canadian-owned television network.

But ownership, national identity and significance to the diversity of culture do not always line up neatly in place. It is possible, as was discussed in Chapter 7, to draw conflicting conclusions from the citizenship of a particular work’s creators, the ownership of its production company, the source of financing behind it, the story line or imagery, even the locus of filming or recording.

The citizenship of the corporations that serve as delivery channels, intermediaries, “green lights” or bottlenecks between creators and consumers of cultural goods is often no easier to determine with certainty. Even less their loyalty.

Yet of all the public-policy devices intended to secure national culture against foreign domination, none is more nearly universal than controls, limits or the outright prohibition of “foreign” ownership of important national media, especially broadcasting.

Most countries in the world insist that their free-to-air radio and TV stations be owned and controlled by their own citizens. This is true for many nations in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. In South America, the list includes countries like Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. Australia and South Africa both do it. So do Mexico and Canada, the North American Free Trade Agreement signed between them notwithstanding.

Even that champion of bare-knuckle free enterprise, the United States, restricts conventional broadcasting to its own nationals. “Originally,” one observer has noted, “the U.S. government feared that foreign ownership of radio broadcast stations would lead to the dissemination of subversive propaganda, the conveyance of sensitive military information to foreign enemies and the possible interference with the government’s military transmissions.”

“Today,” argues another observer, the U.S. national ownership policy “represents an anachronistic attempt to limit free speech in America based on xenophobic fears of foreign ideas and influence.”

The United States does not restrict the ownership of satellite-delivered pay- or specialty-subscription television programming services. In the American view, those are not “broadcasting” services. But many other countries — Canada among them — disagree, and they require such services to obtain a broadcasting licence and abide by foreign-investment limits.

Many nations limit foreign investment in other cultural sectors.

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