Canadian content
From Free net encyclopedia
Canadian content (cancon or can-con) refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters (including cable TV networks) must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from Canada. It also refers to that content itself, and, more generally, to cultural and creative content that is Canadian in nature.
Some other countries employ similar systems. For example, Australian broadcasters are required to broadcast a certain percentage of Australasian content alongside international content.
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Radio
For music, the requirements are referred to as the MAPL system. Following an extensive public hearing process organized by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the MAPL system was established as a way to define and identify Canadian content in pieces of music for the purposes of increasing exposure of Canadian music on Canadian radio through content regulations governing a percentage (25%) of airplay that is to be devoted to Canadian music. The percentage was increased to 30 per cent in the 1980s, and to 35 per cent in the 1990s.
However, certain stations — especially those playing formats where there may be a limited number of Canadian recordings suitable for airplay, such as classical, jazz or "oldies" — may be allowed by the CRTC to meet Canadian content targets as low as 20 per cent. Stations in Windsor, Ontario are also allowed to meet lower Canadian content targets due to Windsor's proximity to the Metro Detroit media market in the United States.
Conversely, the campus radio station of Toronto's Humber College, CKHC, voluntarily adopted a 100 per cent Canadian content policy in 2005. CKNS in Haldimand also offers a predominantly Canadian music format, although to offer some flexibility its owners applied for 60 per cent Canadian content, rather than 100 per cent, as their condition of license.
Before the MAPL system was established in 1971 Canadian music was regarded with indifference on Canadian radio. This was a major hurdle for Canadian musicians since they could not gain attention in their home country without having a hit single in the United States first. Even after MAPL was implemented, in the early 1970s some radio stations were criticized for restricting their Canadian content to off-peak listening hours, in program blocks mockingly known as the "beaver hour". While this practice gradually faded from prominence, it can still be noticed on occasion.
On satellite radio services, Canadian content regulation is applied in aggregate over the whole subscription package. The licensed satellite radio broadcasters, Sirius Canada and XM Radio Canada, are not required to adjust the programming on the international broadcast services they offer, but must offer a minimum number of Canadian-produced channels with at least 85 per cent Canadian content on those services.
The name of 1980s Canadian music group Kon Kan is derived from "Can-con".
How the MAPL system works
To qualify as Canadian content a musical selection must generally fulfil at least two of the following conditions:
- M (music) — the music is composed entirely by a Canadian.
- A (artist) — the music is, or the lyrics are, performed principally by a Canadian.
- P (production) — the musical selection consists of a live performance that is:
- recorded wholly in Canada, or
- performed wholly in Canada and broadcast live in Canada.
- L (lyrics) — the lyrics are written entirely by a Canadian.
There are four special cases where a musical selection may qualify as Canadian content:
- The musical selection was recorded before January 1972 and meets one of the above conditions.
- It is an instrumental performance of a musical composition written or composed by a Canadian.
- It is a performance of a musical composition that a Canadian has composed for instruments only.
- The musical selection was performed live or recorded after September 1, 1991 and, in addition to meeting the criterion for either artist or production, a Canadian who has collaborated with a non-Canadian receives at least half of the credit for both music and lyrics.
This last criterion was added in 1991, to accommodate Bryan Adams' album Waking Up the Neighbours. Adams had collaborated with British record producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, and as a result, the album did not qualify as Canadian content under the existing rules. After extensive controversy in the summer of that year, the CRTC changed the rules to allow for such collaborations. Other Canadian artists with long-time international careers, like Anne Murray, Celine Dion, and Shania Twain, have used recording studios in Canada specifically to maintain Cancon status.
Controversy
A major motivation is the fear that without a regulatory system, independent Canadian popular culture would be swallowed up by that of the neighbouring United States. However, it remains controversial at times — some Canadians believe that Cancon represents an unreasonable and undemocratic intrustion into the right of consumers to make their own entertainment choices, and claim that the policy is too often used to prop up weak or untalented artists. (See also cultural cringe.)
Conversely, some musicians and critics also charge that radio stations tend to fulfill their Canadian content quotas by playing predominantly "safe" choices — i.e. well-established artists such as Céline Dion, The Tragically Hip or Bryan Adams — to the exclusion of emerging artists. In fact, artists who are not already established stars are still sometimes forced to build an audience outside of Canada before Canadian radio will play them — the very situation the Canadian content rules were originally designed to remedy. (The Arcade Fire, for example, received almost no commercial radio airplay in Canada until months after the band had already been widely anointed as rising stars in the American music media.)
In 2005, the website Indie Pool launched a campaign to have the CRTC review and modify the current Canadian content rules to put greater emphasis on supporting new and emerging artists. The group's petition has been signed by approximately 5,000 Canadian artists and music fans to date, but has not been widely supported by Canadian media or acknowledged by the CRTC.
In 2006, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, in a submission to the CRTC, proposed a reduction in Canadian content regulation to 25 per cent, arguing that conventional radio was facing increased competition from alternative music sources such as Internet radio, satellite radio and iPods. In the same submission, the CAB also proposed stricter new guidelines on the licensing of new radio stations. In another submission, however, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting argued that the Canadian broadcasting industry is in a healthy position and did not need to have the Canadian content rules relaxed.
The MAPL logo
| Image:MAPL logo.JPG |
Every radio station in Canada must meet Canadian content quotas, therefore, the MAPL logo on album packaging and on the compact disc itself increases the chance that the music will receive airplay in Canada. The MAPL logo is a circle divided into four parts, one part for each of the four "MAPL" categories. The categories in which the music qualifies are black with a white initial M, A, P or L. The categories for which the music does not qualify are in white, with a black letter.
Non-music radio
As in the United States in the 1980s, the trend for AM stations in Canada in the 1990s was to apply for an FM broadcasting license or move away from music in favour of talk radio formats. The total amount of Canadian-produced content declined as broadcasters could license syndicated radio programs produced in the U.S., while the Cancon regulations were conceived to apply to music only, and not to spoken-word programming. This became particularly controversial in 1998 when stations in Toronto and Montreal (ironically on FM), started airing the Howard Stern talk show from New York City during prime daytime hours.
Television
A significant discussion of Canadian content aired on, and the various Canadian content regulations for, television services in Canada can be found under Television in Canada.
The television show SCTV created the 2-minute long "Great White North" sketch with the characters Bob and Doug McKenzie to both fufill and make fun of the Canadian content rules, as the sketch was loaded with Canadian stereotypes. It became the most popular segment of the show and the characters, played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, would be featured in comedy albums, film and commercials.
External links
- MAPL system (CRTC)
- Let's Fix Cancon, 2005 site advocating changes to the system (Indie Pool)