TIMELINE

1960s

Cable TV comes to Canada!

Cable companies are locally owned and there are over 200 in Canada; community production happens enthusiastically

The National Film Board’s (NFB) “Challenge for Change” program begins: teaches community members how to shoot and edit their films in order to create problem solving, action oriented media to help them articulate and address issues such as poverty

The Canadian Radio & Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) worries about influx of American content on cable, wants to ensure Canadians have access to Canadian content; uses the NFB program as an example and asks cable providers to provide one channel and one production studio per community to create local content by community members

The CRTC recommends operators invest 10% of their gross revenues into their community station(s). At the time, this is the cable industry’s only contribution to Canadian content

Alarms are first raised that perhaps cable company ownership of Community TV stations might result in skewed content that serves cable companies; no action is taken by CRTC

1970s

1980s

Over 300 community TV stations exist across Canada
Most communities with 10,000 residents or more enjoy the services of a local cable community station, in addition to many smaller communities

Large cities like Toronto, Montreal, & Vancouver have as many as 12 neighbourhood offices

Alarms are first raised that cable company ownership of community TV might result in skewed content that serves cable companies; no action is taken by the CRTC

1990s

Cable systems are consolidated into a few large ownership groups; what was once more than 200 providers become 5 companies: Videotron, Shaw, Rogers, Eastlink, & Cogeco

1991

CRTC reduces cable company investment in community channel from 10% to 5% of annual gross revenues

The CRTC 1997-25 policy makes the community channel for cable companies optional; most cable companies keep their stations as a way to keep control of the revenue, but the lack of regulatory protection encourages cable operators to decrease their use as a platform for citizen expression

1997

The CRTC 1997-25 policy makes the community station channel for cable companies optional; most cable companies keep their stations as a way to keep control of the 5% revenue, but the lack of regulatory protection allows for cable operators to be more flexible with the stations and decrease their use as a platform for citizen expression

2008

Canadian Association for Community Television Users & Stations (CACTUS) forms! Made up of citizens and former community TV stations employees concerned by widespread closures of community TV stations and shifts from community to corporate content

CRTC community TV policy reviews occur; CACTUS advocates that the cable industry has become ill-positioned to steward the community TV sector

2010-2016

2021

Federal election is called, Bill C-10 is dead

The liberals propose Bill C-10 which outlines revisions to the Broadcasting Act; these revisions largely ignore the needs of community media and prioritize large cable companies

CACTUS advocates for revisions to the C-10 that clarify the role of Community Media

Today

The single ‘community TV’ channel in Canada is just one channel among several hundred in most markets, if it exists at all; A small number of Canadians who subscribe to cable can access a community channel on cable