Forum Discussion
Canadian film channel
We signed up for Optik TV last year. It's been a long time since we've had cable (nearly 20 years), and.. things have really changed. The single-show channels are really a trip. I don't know if everybody gets the same, but we have Three's Company, Walking Dead, Price is Right channels.
It seems setting up a "channel" is easy now, because these things don't require broadcast channels, nor hosts, or most likely even any office space. Somebody programs these things from a desk and advertising it inserted from some package deal that Telus sells.
If it's so easy to do this, why do we not have a Canadian film channel, playing new and old films 24/7? There is a lot of really great stuff out there, but it's hard to find. Some is available on Crave, some doesn't seem to be available on any channels or streaming at all.
Where is Last Night? When can I see Blue Heron? Mile End Kicks?
With the apparent ease of setting up channels, the lack of support for Cancon is mind boggling.
6 Replies
The Writers Guild of Canada also recently did a survey and found that while 90% believe Canadian content is important, they have trouble finding it, or don't know that it's Canadian. Such an easy thing for Telus to help fix!
https://www.wgc.ca/whats-new/news/canadian-caricatures-and-cliches-uncovered-survey
- Nighthawk
Community Power User
You seem to be misunderstanding Telus's role. They are a service provider, not a broadcaster. The CRTC is who controls Cancon, and it's requirements are specific to certain classes of channels. Broadcasters that fall under those certain categories need a certain portion of what they air as Cancon. Specialty channels are often exempt from Cancon requirements. Think: HBO, Movie Channels, etc. Broadcasters are the ones that have to get broadcast rights for the shows they air in Canada on their channels.
Most of those show specific streaming "channels" that you see are related to one of the specialty channels. For example the game show specific ones are from the Game Show Network. Most of these streaming channels appear to be streams from Tubi (owned by Fox) or PlutoTV (owned by Paramount). Between the two of those, they control a long list of channels and content and only some of it is in the guide. That includes all of the examples you provided. (Three's Company, Walking Dead, Price is Right) The streaming channels are exempt from Cancon rules. PlutoTV at least does have a few Canadian specific content options but not the main channels as they wouldn't have broadcast rights to them. The only advantage to having those channels in the guide is that users don't need to get either of those two streaming apps to view the shows and it gives people more content options than the existing actual channels. The show specific streaming channels are also only available on the newer TelusTV+ hardware. Not the older Optik TV boxes.
TELUS_Support thanks for that extremely AI response.
If you've got them on the Hollywood Suite, then it seems you've got the rights already. What I'm asking is that you create a channel to collect those things to make it easy for people to discover Canadian films they might have missed.
TELUS_SupportOfficial Support Team
Great post! Twenty years in TV is a massive jump from how things used to be to now. You described what's known as FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV), and you're 100% right about the mechanics. Those channels you mentioned don't need a traditional broadcast studio. They're essentially cloud-based playlists spinning single-IP themed content 24/7. The content already exists in a massive library owned by major distributors.
As FuzzyLogic mentioned, finding content such as Last Night or Blue Heron, etc. isn't as simple as programming a playlist. Canadian independent cinema is often a fragmented web of distribution rights. One company may own the theatrical rights, another the streaming rights, and so on. One thing you CAN do is check out our TELUS Originals which is an On Demand service on channel 8. We've got a ton of locally reflective, West Coast, and Indigenous-led docs and films. A portion of every Optik subscription goes directly into funding these filmmakers, keeping the grassroots community alive.
Barring that, you could also check out the channel Hollywood Suite, which is also a great bet for older Canadian cinema, as they regularly dedicate blocks of time to historical Canadian film!
FuzzyLogic I'm sure that they do, but they must have a process in place for their 80s/90s/2000s movie channels etc. It would be collecting up Canadian movies and showing them in one place.
- FuzzyLogic
Easier said then done as rights need to be acquired before any show can be broadcast.
