TORONTO – Three in four Canadians view domestic media companies as too important for cultural and security reasons to allow them to be controlled by foreign interests, according to a online survey commissioned by Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.
In the survey of 2,022 adult Canadians conducted from November 4 to 10, 2011, 77% respondents said they believed that Canadian media was “too important for culture and national security” to be foreign owned, according to the Friends release. However, 23% said they believed Canadian media owners should be able to sell to foreigners to be competitive. The survey was designed and administered by political scientists Peter Loewen, assistant professor at the University of Toronto and Daniel Rubenson, associate professor at Ryerson University. Fieldwork for the poll was done by Vision Critical on the Angus Reid Forum National Panel.
When asked how Canadian content would be impacted if foreign companies gained permission to acquire control of Canadian broadcasting and cable companies, 65% of respondents reported believing Canadian content on radio and TV would decrease. While 18% said it would remain the same, 5% believe Canadian content would increase, and 12% said they didn’t know.
The poll’s release comes amid reports that the federal government will soon unveil plans to alter the policies surrounding the levels of foreign investment allowed in Canadian telecom. "For practical and patriotic reasons, Canadians think selling off our media and telecommunications sector to the highest foreign bidder is a bad idea," says Ian Morrison, Friends' spokesperson, in the press release.
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting maintains that “converged nature of the telecommunications and broadcasting industries, with telephone companies owning broadcasters and cable companies offering phone service, makes it impossible to open one sector to foreign ownership and not the other, because they are direct competitors.”
"The Harper government cannot gut foreign ownership laws for telecom companies without their direct competitors in the cable industry demanding equal treatment. Like cascading dominos, the private broadcasters – which are now all owned by cable or phone companies – would follow suit and soon, several generations of hard work to maintain our cultural sovereignty through Canadian ownership and control of broadcasting would go down the drain," continued Morrison’s statement.
When questioned regarding the future of government funding for the CBC, 46% of respondents indicated they would tell their MP to increase funding, while 23% said it should remain the same.
"Among all broadcasters, the CBC is by far the largest source of Canadian programming on television with a prime time TV schedule that is 75% Canadian. Substantial cuts to CBC's budget will mean fewer Canadian stories on TV," claimed Morrison.
