Television-Broadcasting Policy and Changing Media Technology - Research Paper Example

? Is Television-Broadcasting Policy Affected By Changing Media Technology? Is Television-Broadcasting Policy Affected By Changing Media Technology? Introduction Television broadcast regulations tend to be relative to changes in the media technology field. From researchers’ perspective, technological advancements led to the significant growth and development of this section of media. In fact, it is arguable that change in television broadcast goes hand in hand with the change in technology. The Canadian Association of broadcasters in 1944 established television stations across the country after the invention of advanced television technologies. In 1952, the first cable television network started in Ontario due to the development of improved television broadcasting and supply technologies like the cable television, the first domestic communications satellite (1972), Direct-to-home satellite (1995), Community antenna television (1961)and the over the air television (2000). In addition, there was the inception of mobile television transmissions that allowed for portable television viewing through portable devices. Arguably, the changing media technology has affected television-broadcasting policies in Canada. Various policies formulated by the Canadian government influence the change in media technologies propelling the country in to international media standards. As such, this support the argument that television-broadcasting policy has affected by changing media technology. The policies formulated Essentially, policy formulation drew influence from technological advancements in the broadcasting and regulated structures for the licensing of both the private and the public institutions of communication dissemination. On the contrary, the Canadian government formulated a policy regarding the ownership of broadcasting houses in Canada (Armstrong, 2010). The Act of 1964 also insinuated that the broadcasting stations within the country had to have effective ownership by Canadian nationals in order to safeguard the social, cultural, political, and economic attributes of Canada. The modification of broadcasting continued because of evolution in the technology industry that kept on constantly emerging. This evolution is still visible in the current times years after the first innovations in to the sector emerged. Remarkably, television broadcast has witnessed the PVR that allows for time shifting of television programming. It also allows for sending and reception of television programming over the internet, which makes television transmission easy. In this regard, viewers from across any continent are able to access a wider international range of programming with relative ease. On the contrary, the Canadian government wishes to introduce Canadian programming that expresses their cultural and national identity through the emerged new technological forms. Essentially, this essay will delve on the whether the changing media has influenced television broadcasting policies. This will be in relation to Canadian television broadcasting with critical research in the past, present and estimated future. Influence by the American broadcast The rise in popularity of the reception of American broadcast stations contributed majorly in the development of television broadcast in Canada. In this regard, three main factors led to the memorable improvement on the television technology in Canada. For one, was the threat by the penetration of American media was a major influence on the stabilization of the Canadian television industry. This posed a great threat to them hence making the nation to accept the need to advance technologically. Secondly, there was a language divide where a fraction of the Canadians spoke French or the third language. Subsequently, the Canadians had to improve in the media industry in order to target the different speaking populations and servicing their individual needs. Lastly, there was the government response to the above factors in which the government imposed certain policies that sough to protect the interest of the existing television medias. Industrialization in America and in other civilized countries also challenged Canada to propel its media towards the developed sides. This was because the Canadian republic did not want to lag behind while other countries were moving towards a technologically advanced future. The Canadians largely depended on the American country for most of its supplies even in the technology field. In essence, the over reliance on American intelligence and on the stock markets greatly affected the country during the great depression of the United States. Consequently, the Canadian legislature capitalized on the state being an independent state in all fields. In addition, the Canadian leadership sought to maintain their cultural history and identity that was slowly fading because of the American influence. Therefore, the main threat was the replacement of cultural norms existing in Canada with the foreign ones from America. With this in mind, the government involvement was imminent at this point. The government of the time intensified the Canadanization of its media for the benefits of its natives. Ideally, the government replaced the American media structures with localized Canadian broadcasting systems. By 1954, the sale of television sets was close to a million among households across the Canadian republic. In contrast, the television sets were expensive, but this did not deter the Canadians from acquiring these revolutionary gadgets. However, the government was successful in saving the economic situations of financially ailing privately owned television and radio stations, but was unable to create a distinct difference between the then popular American and the Canadian cultures. Similarly, it allowed the Quebec region to continue with their French broadcasting stations, which was in contrast the Canadian culture. This proved its laxity ion the execution of its policies and frameworks. On the contrary, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters was the significant player that ensured that the economic status of broadcasting stations across its region had improved for the better of the larger economy. In this regard, the Canadian economic growth took center stage sidelining the need to embrace cultural identity. The rise of public broadcasting in Canada In the early 1920s, the ownership of radio and television stations in Canada was private, which made them struggle financially to sustain themselves. They had inadequate funds, and the constant strain to meet the high cost of operations gave rise to regulatory flaws. For this reason, the Mackenzie regime set up a commission to look in to the challenges of broadcasting in Canada. This royal commission had Sir John Aird as its head in the year 1928. Eventually, the commission reported ion its findings to the government where it advised the Canadian government to put an end to private ownership of broadcasting (Dewing, 2011). Sequentially, the ownership was to change hands to government structures in order to provide adequate funding to these institutions. In contrast, it was a counter approach to curb the increased penetration of American radio and television in to Canada. However, then Aird reporting faced the door with the fall of liberalization in the 1930s with the decision squarely lying in the hands of the conservatives (Erk, 2008). Two years later the government through the House of Commons passed the Radio Broadcasting act in to law. This act saw the establishment of the Commission of Canadian Radio broadcasting as the main state broadcaster to control other Canadian radio stations. Currently, Canada has forty-nine analog-programmed television stations with twenty-eight out of the total broadcasting in English, fourteen of them in French, two of them being bilingual and five in the third language of Canada. In addition, Canada has eighteen digitally operational television stations with fifteen of them broadcasting in English and he rest doing broadcasting in French. The three started operations in the 2004 and have been operational ever since. Moreover, in the analogue and first category services had regulations on a one per genre structure against the other analog and category two special services. On the contrary, category two specialties did not have any access to rights or protection by genre with the improvement in technology, the inception of [payable television viewing was imminent. The television programming in this form saw its commissioning in 2006 through the Canadian Broadcasting Commissions watchful guidance. In addition, the commission licensed twenty-four digitally transmitted category two payable television programming (CTRC, 2006). The payable television vision has enabled the revenue collection from advertisements and other services to go up hence making it a profitable venture. The subscriber revenue in 2000 was relatively high to a maximum of sixty-three percent, and the rest of the revenue was from advertising. However, there was a decline in subscriber revenues in 2005 to fifty-seven percent of the total collection, while those from advertising constituted the rest of the percentage. The English speaking broadcast stations experienced a forty-four percent average service rendered while those in French had thirty-six average revenue collections in the same year from advertising. In addition, the payable television subscription revenues rose by seventy-eight percent in a span of five years because of increased television viewing. In summary, all these figures denoted the increased need to access quality viewing by the audience. Essentially, with every twist in technological development, the viewership experienced a tremendous increase. Revenue accumulation According to Canada’s Communication Foundation, adverts and commercials started in radio stations as away of generating extra revenue for broadcasting media houses. It was a way for theses broadcasting Medias to stay in business. Ideally, previous regulations required no airing of commercials between six in the evening and eleven at night. With these regulations in place, local stations immediately devise ways in which they could cash on the increasing audiences. This gave a rise in the number of advertising agencies in Canada due to the availability of a prospective market in sight. The advertising agencies acted as intermediaries between their clients and the media stations (Sterling, 2012). The media houses had sales representatives as their representatives in the transaction of these advertising deals. These deals were mainly in large cities, which were the central location for advertising firms. Subsequently, creation of bureaus became rampant to assist in the coordination of sales and intensify the publicity of their respective media houses. In essence, the growth rate in the up take of television-linked services was high since it was an increase from the percentage of sixty covering the entire nation. It became the preferred media of choice especially in the evenings, which are relaxing hours. The radio became a source of entertainment for those in the car, offices, and some times at home. Censorship With the technological advancement s and the rapid growth in the programming of television viewing, the Canadian government through its responsible arm sought to regulate media content. This is the media world terms as censorship. In this regard, the CRBC drew up list of regulations that all the broadcasting stations in Canada had to adhere. These rules saw their adoption in to formal law in 1933, which required that the regulatory body revise the content intended for public viewing. The CRBC also had the task of issuing practicing licenses only to those broadcasting stations that were able to adhere to the set rule and regulations of operation. According Vipond (1994), any broadcasting station had to ensure that any printed, speech, advertising content, or program was not abusive or defamatory to any individual or institution. Another regulation was that the Commission had the right to reserve or prohibit a broadcasting station from continuing with the recording of transcriptions through the going through the content. These two regulations were both ninety and ninety- one suggested responsibility. They both applied to privately and publicly owned establishments to ensure that aired content was acceptable to the views. Moreover, the commission was also able to filter written information before it got to the public domain. However, critics viewed this as a breach on free media because of the free media aspects. This meant that the commission and operators of the media stations could accuse others of any unacceptable media content that the public may feel as uncomfortable. Over the years, regulation number ninety saw its revision as many argued that the terms abusive and defamatory were broad terms. In effect, the regulation invoked the use of detailed terms like treasonous, libelous, and obscene instead of the initial term abusive. Private broadcast stations managers and the commissioners used these words as the basis for other deeper offenses, which media houses could face. On the contrary, speeches by politicians intended for public viewing did not undergo any form of prior viewing (Wetherel et al, 2004). This was in contrast with the regulations of the land in which any information viewed as likely to be inflammatory checking was mandatory especially on politically related matters. Ideally, transformed and modern Medias also favored media coverage of certain politicians rather than others (Vipond, 1994). For instance, in 1935 during Canada’s federal elections, the Communist party acquired airtime for their candidate on the Commission’s owned Toronto station and on other networks across the country. However, the Commissioned claimed that what it did was right as long as the candidate presented the content to which was to go on air prior to the screening of the program. Ironically, the only notable alterations made were on adjectives and not on what would have been disturbing to the audience. Other candidates felt sidelined in that their rival Buck was leading the pack of those intending to participate in the elections. In addition, the media propelled him in to greater popularity unlike the rest of the politicians. In this regard, the media in Canada portrayed its unfair presentation of political factors among matters of immense sensitivity to the Canadian public. The television as formulator of public opinion Then media in Canada immensely influenced the public view of many aspects that came to the viewing of their audiences. The opinion of many was that the American networks had taken root in Canada hence making it impossible Canadian broadcasting stations to take root in their own country. The CRBC was successful in ensuring that the license fees payable by any foreign broadcaster followed a proper channel of in order to promote nationwide coverage by all stations. Remarkably, the commission made efforts to offer educational, informative, and special events coverage for the nationally encompassed audience. This saw the commencement of locally produced news broad casts created by both the commission and privately owned media stations. To the Canadian public, the commission had performed to its best regarding the learning and entertainment expectations. The commission managed to restore the drowning cultural attributes of the nation. It emerged as the pillar and the relative source of the positive portrayal of the Canadian culture. The American networks were a hurdle top the Canadian networks although they presented a wider array of television viewing. In this regard, the television brought the Canadian public to a better level since they were able to bring quality programming made locally. Ideally, the public started appreciating the cultural diversities that existed among the Canadian the society since the televisions portrayed the information easily. Conclusion Generally, television-broadcasting policies in Canada changed the dynamic ways of media technologies. The policies led to an improvement in the quality of viewing and the lifestyle of the people of Canada. This was through the inception of payable television viewing that allowed for the filtering on the channels that an individual wished to watch. Ideally, television as a transformed media form made sure that the media content to the public was acceptable through the Commission established to regulate the media. On the contrary, the American media penetration influenced the development of the Canadian media, because were it not for its favorable reception Canada would not have seen the need to develop its own media. This would have continued limiting the Canadian media in to its inability to compete on a global scale with other industrialized nations. References Allen, R. (2004). The Television Studies Reader. London: Routledge. Armstrong, R. (2010). Broadcasting policy in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. (2006)The Future Environment Facing the Canadian Broadcasting System: A report prepared pursuant to section 15 of the Broadcasting Act Dewing, M. (2011). Canadian Broadcasting Policy. Parliament of Canada. Retrieved on 6 November 2012 from: http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublications/2011-39-e.html Erk, J. (2008). Explaining Federalism: State and Congruence in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany and Switzerland. London: Routledge. Jame Sturgeon. (2012). Ottawa Citizen. Canadian TV content must reach beyond borders, platforms: Peladeau. Retrieved on 6 November 2012 from: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/fp/Canadian+content+must+reach+beyond+borders+platforms+Peladeau/7362504/story.html Mary Vipond. (1994). The Beginnings of Public Broadcasting in Canada: The CRBC, 1932-1936.Canadian Journal of Communication. Retrieved on 6 November 2012 from: http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/806/712 Wetherell D. G., Cavanaugh D., Anne, C., Payne M. (2006). Alberta Formed- Alberta Transformed. Toronto: University of Alberta. Read More