Communications, Radio and Television

There are some 480 privately owned radio stations and 110 television stations across the country. Virtually every Canadian (99 percent of homes) has access to both a radio and a television set. The publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) provides radio and television broadcasts in English and French throughout Canada; 99 percent of Canadians have access to CBC services. In 1996 the CBC began to broadcast its two major radio stations on the Internet. At the peak of its operations in the mid-1980s, the CBC network included 65 radio stations (AM, FM, and shortwave) and 30 television stations, including a station serving indigenous peoples in Canada’s north. However, the government announced a reduction of C$350 million (from C$1.5 billion) in the CBC budget, and parts of this extensive system are being dismantled. About 35 percent of the staff has been laid off, and many smaller regional stations have been consolidated with larger ones. Cable television systems serve just over 75 percent of Canadian households, providing a range of Canadian and American stations. Pay television services were introduced in 1984 and have been expanding.