Canada moms, TV Question

[maestramommy]

Is your TV programming regulated by the govt?

I am asking because I did get a chance to watch TV at night while we were staying in a London hotel. I was watching Flashpoint, a cop drama on Bravo. Something interesting I noticed was that even though it was pretty late at night (between 9pm-midnight) the commercials were super tame. I saw ads for laundry detergent, home appliances from HD, and ads for Political Animals and Suits that were squeaky clean. In addition, every single time the commercial break ended, I'd see an advisory that "this program contains mature/violent material,"

Now admittedly I rarely stay in hotels stateside but when I do I watch a LOT of TV, and the experience is quite different. It's been on my mind ever since watching that documentary MissRepresentation, which talks a lot about how deregulation has changed commercials at all hours of the day.

Another funny thing was that I was watching BBC coverage of the Olympics, and they had tourism commercials on South Africa, and even TAIWAN! of all places. never have I seen a tourism commercial for Taiwan. It was pretty mindblowing. A friend told me BBC had superior coverage for the Olympics, but you can't get it here. Is that true? Or maybe it was Canadian coverage that was superior, but you couldn't access their channels here. Is THAT true? Kinda funny, when they are geographically so close.

[AnnieW625]

I always see that "this program contains mature/violent material" on TNT when I am watching Southland (violent cop show with bad language) and it is usually at the half hour break of the show. On the flip side it is rare that I would see the same warning when I am watching Castle on ABC. Mad Men on AMC this past season (episode 3, I think) put "this program contains mature, and a disturbing scene" at the beginning of the show, and again right before the scene that was disturbing took place.

I usually fast forward through commercials these days due to my DVR, but in prime time besides show or movie ads I don't find many commercials that shocking or deviant besides maybe an occaisional Carls Jr. (not sure if Hardee's uses the same ads) ad. Most of the time it is car ads, soda ads, and previews. I think the advertisers save some of the racy and or more creative stuff for the big ticket events like the Super Bowl, Oscars, Emmys, etc. .

[maestramommy]

I always see that "this program contains mature/violent material" on TNT when I am watching Southland (violent cop show with bad language) and it is usually at the half hour break of the show. .

I can see that advisory at the beginning of the show, or even at the half hour break. But after every commercial break? There were a lot of them too, every 10 minutes, roughly speaking. Also, a lot of times commercials are for other shows, and they usually feature the sexy or violent/angry scenes. I tend to watch a lot of L&O, CSI and other similar shows.

[mikeys_mom]

Yes, TV programming is regulated by the gov't.

The CRTC is charged with ensuring regulations are followed and implementing policies when necessary.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/home-accueil.htm

I don't know about the specific regulations about the program advisory notices, but I'm assuming that it's a requirement. I don't watch much TV but I guess I'm so used to seeing the advisory notices after the commercial breaks that I don't even think about it.

I know most of the big issues that we hear about in the media are usually with regards to ensuring that there is an adequate balance of Canadian content on TV.

As for the olympics, I don't know how BBC coverage is but Canadian coverage rocks!! Canadians love the olympics and we get pretty much 24 hour coverage with amazing hosts and commentators. It doesn't matter what the time difference is, they will always air events live and then recap later during prime time. I remember in previous years staying up all night watching stuff live.

I don't know a lot about commercials but I'm pretty sure those are regulated as well. For example, we never get the "big" US superbowl ads here, just the Canadian ones.

[maestramommy]

mikey'smom, i just read the notice about loud TV commercials, and it cracked me up! The TV suddenly getting louder during commercials has always been a pet peeve of mine.

BTW, on the morning we were checking out, the kids were watching this very sweet show about a little girl and what looked like her stuffed animal friends. There was an adult female "host" but I think the show was animated. Very cute! I've not seen it before. Very along the lines of Ni-Hau kai-lan, with sort of EQ learning.

[Momit]

We used to live in a state that bordered Canada and watched CBC's Olympic coverage all the time. We liked it better because they showed more events live, they covered events for a longer time instead of jumping all over, and didn't skew so much to sports where the US was doing well or show only the US athletes and then move on to something else. And the commentators were more balanced in their commentary. It's been a while, but that's what I remember. That, and lots of curling during the Winter Olympics! :)

[MontrealMum]

What Mikey's Mom said :)

Also, Canadian channels have to comply with Canadian content laws. I'm not quite sure what the percentage is, but all Canadian channels have to play a certain % of shows that originated in Canada. This can sometimes be interesting. This also affects commercials. Although we get, for example, Law & Order on NBC (via cable) and Law & Order on CTV (or is it Global?) playing at the same time, the ads on both of those channels will be Canadian ads. Not American ones. The American feed on an American show is superseded as it comes into Canada and the ads are replaced by Canadian ones. The feeds usually aren't exactly the same so we either get a double beginning to a show, or a double ending, as the feeds change on the hour.

[maestramommy]

What Mikey's Mom said :)

Also, Canadian channels have to comply with Canadian content laws. I'm not quite sure what the percentage is, but all Canadian channels have to play a certain % of shows that originated in Canada. This can sometimes be interesting. This also affects commercials. Although we get, for example, Law & Order on NBC (via cable) and Law & Order on CTV (or is it Global?) playing at the same time, the ads on both of those channels will be Canadian ads. Not American ones. The American feed on an American show is superseded as it comes into Canada and the ads are replaced by Canadian ones. The feeds usually aren't exactly the same so we either get a double beginning to a show, or a double ending, as the feeds change on the hour.

I did notice quite a few Canadian based commercial products;) There was also an interview with a young actor on "Suits" who is a Toronto native that kept playing during the breaks. I guess "Suits" is set in Manhattan but actually filmed in Toronto. When he said, "after living in the states for over 10 years, it's so different to be back in a place where everyone is friendly and polite and gracious." OUCH! But I had to laugh because obviously this would only play in Canada!

[mom2binsd]

I did notice that radio has different guidelines too, while driving through Toronto the "Lazy Song" came on..and they bleeped out the line "put my hand down the front of my pants" ...."have some really great sex"...loved it as the rest of the song is fun to sing to and I usually just mute it when the kids are with me.

I do think that CTV's coverage of the Olympics was pretty good, but one night they were not showing the women's gymnastics from earlier on and NBC was. Interesting to note, the NBC commentator for gymnastics Elfie Schlagel..is our one famous gymnast (our meaning Canadian).

I had also forgotten how many French channels were on TV in Canada....funny when you think that there are very few Spanish language channels in the US and yet the percentage who speak Spanish is much higher than the number of Francophones in Canada.

[maestramommy]

I had also forgotten how many French channels were on TV in Canada....funny when you think that there are very few Spanish language channels in the US and yet the percentage who speak Spanish is much higher than the number of Francophones in Canada.

That's really funny because on our digital converter box, we can get only ABC, and a bunch of Spanish and Korean channels.

[MontrealMum]

I had also forgotten how many French channels were on TV in Canada....funny when you think that there are very few Spanish language channels in the US and yet the percentage who speak Spanish is much higher than the number of Francophones in Canada.

IDK about that. Francophones in Canada are just under 25% of the total population and make up the majority of the largest province. Spanish speakers in the US make up a much smaller % of the population. Also, there's the whole officially bilingual thing to take into account as well. I'm sure there's some legislation behind how many French channels there are because of that. Though I'd dearly love to swap a few in our cable package ;)

[mom2binsd]

It seems crazy to me that the Spanish speaking population isn't higher than the French speaking population in Canada...do you think that's because many of the Spanish speakers are undocumented in the US??? Is the population of Quebec that big Molly? It seems like it's numbers are always declining??? yes and don't get me started on the bilingual thing...read about some "mystery" shopper who tried to buy a stamp in French at a small Ontario cottage town and the clerk didn't speak French and was reported as not in compliance!

[MontrealMum]

Well, I think that most people think of French speakers and French Canada based on Montreal. Which is pretty diverse and has a high % of English speakers (Anglophones) as well as a high % of people that speak both languages.

Basically, the breakdown in Quebec is 82% francophone, 8% angolphone, and 9% allophone. As Canada's 2nd most populous province this significantly affects the overall language numbers. And keep in mind that NB is bilingual (the only province that is) and there are French communities in ON and MB, to to a lesser extent PEI and NS. So you've got a lot of French speakers and a much smaller overall population of English speakers than in the US. Canada is large geographically, but small population-wise (I know you know that, just putting that there for others).

I don't know how or even if undocumented workers/illegal immigrants are accounted for in the US census but my feeling is that since the number of English speakers overall is so much greater than it is in Canada because the US population is so huge comparatively, that they just get absorbed more in the stats.

And trust me, I don't want to talk about language laws and official bilingualism. Argh!!! I love where I live but it's quirky as heck.