AP R I L 2 0 1 0 V I D E O • A G E 14 Getting through the 296 pages of the book Broadcasting Policy in Canada (2010, University of Toronto Press) wasn’t easy, and this reviewer must admit to having skipped a few lines here and there. It is obvious that the 15 chapters that author Robert Armstrong put together for the University of Toronto Press was more a labor of love than riches, because it’s hard to imagine that the paperback will rise to The New York Times’ bestseller list. In the book, sold at C$20, Armstrong is introduced as the president of Communications Media in Montreal. Google couldn’t shed light on his company, but VideoAge was able to find out that he’s a former part-time teacher in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University in Montreal and, by calling the publishing company, we learned that he’s a former Telefilm Canada executive who now consults from home. The preface explains that the book “examines government policies related to broadcasting in Canada and the strategy in place to safeguard and strengthen the Canadian broadcasting system.” It also points out that “broadcasting is the only regulated cultural medium in Canada.” The book is current to July 2009, and thus no recent developments (like the Shaw-CanWest deal) are anticipated in it. The eight-page glossary offers a quick reference point, especially when one has to remember the difference between “category one” and “category two” services. It points out that those categories will disappear as of August 31, 2011 and be replaced with Category A and B, indicating TV services with access and without access rights, respectively. Throughout the book, readers also discover that, in the 2007-2008 TV season, the total volume of Canadian independent television production was over C$2 billion, in a chart that was divided by category. Indeed, the 30 charts and nine tables that illustrate the book are very helpful to understand Canada’s TV sector, especially the “Summary of Canadian Content and Expenditure Requirements” chart. Topics covered in the book include “Canadian Content Requirements,” “Financing Canadian Content,” and “Copyright, Broadcasting and the Internet.” In a chapter titled “CanadianOwnership and Competition Policy,” Armstrong gives a voice to the laissez-faire Chicago economics school doctrine that “barriers to entry may produce concentrated industries and ‘imperfect’ competition.” As a former Telefilm executive, Armstrong is rather critical of Telefilm Canada: “[…] Telefilm has become a secondary player in television insofar as Telefilm no longer exercises significant policy or decision-making powers in the broadcasting sector.” Inhis“Conclusion”chapter,Armstrong reiterates that, “Given the challenge provided by unregulated new media to the regulated broadcasting environment [….] the CRTC [Canada’s TV authority] should reduce or eliminate its regulation of the Canadian broadcasting system in favor of little or no supervision.” In the book’s final paragraph, he states that, “new media are slowly strangling the goose that lays the golden eggs. Unless a solution to this structural problem is developed, the continued availability of high-quality Canadian [contents], which are so essential to Canadian identity, appears to be highly problematic.” Also problematic is figuring out to whom this book is directed. At first sight, it cannot be Canadian TV executives, since it’s not a TV trade book (not one TV executive is quoted or mentioned in the book). It also cannot be directed at academia, because it’s not boring enough. The only remaining target audience could be non-Canadian TV experts in need of a quick reference tool. DS Canada’s TV is Not Complex. The Way It is Portrayed Is B o o k R e v i e w
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI4OTA5