Email this article Canadian Television Policy and the Board of Broadcast Governors, 1958-1968
Canadian Television Policy and the Board of Broadcast Governors is an unusual publication for several reasons: (1) 11 of its 15 chapters constitute a personal record by Andrew Stewart, the chairman of the Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG) during its 10-year tenure and the materials therein have hitherto not been available to the public in a similar compact format; (2) the period of the Board's existence was a watershed decade for Canadian broadcasting when pioneering directions for the future of broadcasting were established, and the central issues that characterized those new directions are discussed in this publication; and (3) the volume has been designed by Hull (co-author and de facto editor) as a case study to test "some of the hypotheses which have been developed about the workings of regulatory agencies in the Canadian context" (p. x).
The BBG came about as a need for the government of the day in the 1950s to identify fresh directions for broadcasting--for TV in particular. From its birth in 1936, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had been functioning both as a broadcaster as well as a regulator for the industry overall. Pressures from the private sector of the industry were such that the government could no longer ignore the demands for an independent regulatory agency that would replace the public-ownership philosophy exemplified by the CBC. A Royal Commission was struck and its Report in 1957 recommended the introduction of a new broadcasting Act that would, in turn, establish such an independent body. Such occurred, and the new body was named the Board of Broadcast Governors, mandated to regulate in the national interest rather than in the interest of any pressure group. Prime Minister John Diefenbaker then named Dr. Andrew Stewart, President of the University of Alberta, to chair the new body.
Problems that faced the BBG were many, but, as this volume aptly shows, the Board did not hesitate to take action to fulfill its mandate--to support the national interest in the face of what was a rapidly developing new broadcasting technology. Within a few years, second TV stations were licensed in major Canadian communities--in competition with the CBC; a second major television network (CTV) was given approval; and, taking its cue from the new broadcasting Act, wherein was specified that broadcasting was to be essentially "Canadian in content and character," the Board introduced the controversial Canadian content quota regulation for television stations and networks.
Throughout the book, the two authors refer frequently to the Board's operating context, and these references take on particular significance today when three different studies in Canada have been attempting to define for the CBC and Canadian society what should be the mandate and future for the CBC. The BBG context was this: while the CBC was prepared to be co-operative, it was neither prepared to concede its major and central role in the industry, nor to acknowledge that the Board was empowered to regulate the CBC in terms of the Corporation's mandate and its extension of services in the country. The matter came to a head in 1962 when the Board intervened in a dispute between the two networks concerning the rights to telecast the Grey Cup game of that year. The matter was not resolved to everyone's satisfaction, but the consequence of the confrontation between the CBC and the BBG made it clear that the broadcasting Act in existence did not clearly affirm the Board's regulatory powers over the CBC. A further Royal Commission and a subsequent 1968 Act were needed to establish the full authority of an independent broadcast agency--the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The Stewart-Hull book is engaging reading as it details the regulatory agency's problems that related to the CBC; and it is particularly effective since the basic narrative is offered by the person--Andrew Stewart--who was central to this and to the other issues that comprise the main body of the book.
Since the Board was faced with such a multiplicity of matters, and because the Board's enactments often were of a pioneering nature, the question should be raised whether the BBG is a suitable body to be studied as a test case of regulatory effectiveness. As Hull points out, while there is an accumulating body of knowledge concerning the study of regulatory agencies in Canada, many of these works are "at odds with each other--even on such basic matters as definition" (p. x). Despite this, however, Hull readily acknowledges that the Board successfully managed to function as a regulatory body that sustained the public interest in a manner that was important to the nation. Further, the co-author points out, the BBG, despite difficulties, and often without the guidance of the political authority, did establish a firm basis for the "evolution of Canadian television and the policies underpinning it" (p. 290).
In an Epilogue to the volume, Dr. Stewart demonstrates how, despite the travails he suffered as an innovative administrator, his well-known sense of humour sustained him. At times of frustration, he points out, he would amuse himself with limericks. For example, to secure the co-operation of the diverse broadcasting sectors, he had established a consultative committee that he termed a "Troika"--comprising of the chair of the CBC, the chair of the Canadian Association of [private] Broadcasters (the CAB), and himself. It was an effective administrative strategy and gained the Board Chairman the respect of both sectors, despite the fact that his difficulties with the two collegial groups were never completely resolved. The concluding comment in Canadian Television Policy and the Board of Broadcast Governors is by Dr. Stewart, and he indicates that the following "perhaps sums up the whole BBG experience:
The Troika is surely a queer, three horses, no lead and no rear. A stud CAB, and a mare CBC, But the BBG's gelded I fear.
While Andrew Stewart did not live to see his memoirs in print in the fashion of Canadian Television Policy and the Board of Broadcast Governors (he passed away in 1990), this particularly worthy volume is dedicated to his memory by William Hull.
