TORONTO – The majority of Canadians feel that Canadian Content rules should be relaxed, according to a new Ipsos Reid poll.
In ‘The Canadian-Content Conundrum’ survey, 53% of the 1,024 adults polled said that they closely agreed with the sentiment that ‘we should stop worrying about and imposing Canadian content rules on the TV industry because we know what our identity is and we should just care about and value creating good entertainment that anyone will tune into, and if it happens to be Canadian in content and/or production, all the better’. This was particularly true amongst those living in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (69%), Ontario (62%) and British Columbia (55%).
The other 47% of Canadians said they ‘value and care about having more Canadian content made and broadcast because it fosters our national culture and it is critical to promoting our unique identity as a people’. Those who are significantly more likely than others to value and want more Canadian content include university-educated Canadians (68%), and those living in Atlantic Canada (62%), Quebec (62%).
Canadian television stations are required to broadcast a certain proportion of Canadian Content (60% overall) in order to acquire and maintain their license to operate.
When asked to consider various television stations that are available across the country – such as CBC, CTV, BNN, CP24, local cable stations, etc. – and the Canadian content that is accessible to Canadians on TV through all of these channels, two in three (64%) respondents believe that the amount of Canadian content is fairly balanced, while three in ten (28%) think there is not enough Canadian content. Just one in ten (8%) believe there is too much Cancon available.
The Ipsos Reid poll was conducted on behalf of the Canadian Journalism Foundation from April 1 – 5, 2010.
