In Canada, rationing is not working for consumers — whether they are waiting months for health care or choosing what television shows to watch:

Ratings data from the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement released Tuesday indicate the top 10 shows in primetime last week — and 19 of the top 20 — were U.S. series. (link to article; link to recent ratings)

This despite CanCon (Canadian content) regulations imposed on broadcasters that limit their use of foreign programming. Amusingly, those regulations exist primarily to support Canadian identity — which, once the trappings are stripped away, means “anything not American.”

The head of the Canadian actors union has an all-too-predictable solution:

“… the only way in which Canadian broadcasters will actually produce Canadian material to any significant extent is if they’re obligated to do so through regulation.”

But will anyone want to watch the result? Or can that be regulated too?

Hollywood should watch out. Canada, newly invigorated from taking on the Danes over Hans Island, may storm Hollywood next, demanding location shoots of “CSI: Edmonton,” “Survivor: Yellowknife,” and an ER spinoff, “Walk-in Clinic.”

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H/t: Reason’s Hit & Run, which commented “If the Canadians were so protective of their (own) culture they wouldn’t need goofy content regulations any more than a chaste woman needs a chastity belt.”

Technorati Tags: canada, hans island, cancon, television

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 20th, 2005 at 11:22 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Funny ... to us. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.