Distinctly Canadian broadcasting.

Broadcasters in Canada have always faced stiff competition from south of the border and now face challenges from economic integration, technological change, and the relative threat of public funding. Learning from and, in some cases, working with U.S. broadcasters is important for Canadian broadcasters hoping to promote a vibrant and distinct Canadian broadcasting and production environment. With dialogue and entrepreneurial daring, Canadian broadcasters need to develop coherent policies and a proactive approach to ensure their future in "a sea of international choice." Address to the Insight Conference, Toronto, September 27.

I would like to thank the chair and the Insight Conference organizers for the timely opportunity that our gathering represents for us all. And since NANBA is not an advocacy body, per se, I must stress these are my own views and reflections.

And I would also like to make a confession. I am now an official collaborator with the dreaded enemy. Yet, in the last six months of dealing with American and Mexican broadcasters, not one has attacked our Broadcasting Act, the CBC, Telefilm Canada, TV Ontario, the OFDC [Ontario Film Development Corporation], or the National Film Board.

In fact, within the NANBA board those same Mexican and American broadcasters have been willing to heed and often accommodate the interests and economies of Canadian private and public broadcasters, and of the Canadian telecommunications industry. For example:

* by considering such notions as open access to all North American satellite facilities for fixed and occasional broadcaster use; or

* by demonstrating an openness on North American compatibility of voluntary violence standards; or

* by proposing co-ventures in programming and non-programming areas.

Moreover, not one American broadcaster has approached me about removing Canadian-ness from our screens.

What has struck me most in my first six months at NANBA - as someone who lobbied hard over two decades for keen legislation and regulation to secure and promote a vibrant and distinct Canadian broadcasting and production environment - is that we Canadians may yet have something to learn from our North American colleagues.

1) It is evident that the U.S. political bureaucracy has a coordinated strategy in the field of broadcasting.

2) Their regulatory instruments have determined that one can no longer dictate broad consumer preferences or fine-tune viewer …