Canadian TV in the US

[ghYHZ]

In places other than border communities where TV signals are available off-air......are Canadian networks carried on US cable or satellite systems?

Here in Nova Scotia and as long as I can remember, we've had all the major US networks available on Cable. First it was the network affiliates in Bangor (300 miles away) but now it's the stations in Boston. I have satellite so I also get all the Seattle stations + WGN Chicago, KTLA and Peachtree TV Atlanta.

[froggie]

How far from the border would you consider a community not to be a "border community"?

Reason I ask is because, IIRC, my future in-laws in southern Vermont can get CBC.  They're about 120 miles from the border as the crow flies.

[ghYHZ]

How far from the border would you consider a community not to be a "border community"?

Guess I mean any community within range of pulling a Canadian signal off-air....and it probably has a lot to do with the local terrain.

[ctsignguy]

When i lived in Ashtabula, OH back from 1986-88, there were two stations from Canada that were part of the basic TW cable package...one was CBC and the other was CTV, I think....during the 1987 football strike, it was nice to get my football fix watching CFL games....

[cu2010]

Time Warner Cable carries two of them up here...we get both the CBC and CTV affiliates out of Ottawa.

[KEVIN_224]

I don't know if they do today, but in 1989-90, the old Continental Cablevision in Saco and Old Orchard Beach, ME carried CKSH-TV channel 9 from Sherbrooke, Quebec.

[The Nature Boy]

The Boston cable systems apparently still get CKSH-TV.

[Ian]

Up at my school (UMaine), I remember being able to get a CBC station from Fredericton (CBAT-DT). I got to watch the Winter Olympics without dealing with NBC's coverage. 

[The High Plains Traveler]

Bemidji, MN has (or at least did 15 years ago) CBC on their local cable system. It's not a border community. Without looking for actual distance, I estimate it's about 100 miles from the border and maybe 150 miles from Winnipeg.

[mhh]

Even near the border, American cable systems often don't carry all available Canadian signals. I live halfway between Detroit and Port Huron, Michigan (or halfway between Windsor and Sarnia, Ontario, if you want to look at it that way), about 10 miles from the border. Comcast carries only CBC and Global from Canada. CTV is available via antenna, but Comcast inexplicably dropped that network years ago. CTV Two, TVOntario and CHCH are also available via antenna (CHCH is a fringe signal) but Comcast has never carried them. Radio-Canada was available via antenna until a couple of years ago when the analog transmitter was turned off and not replaced with a digital transmitter; that network, too, was never carried by Comcast.

[briantroutman]

While 100-150 miles may not qualify as a border community in the sense that Buffalo or El Paso are, it's still close enough to be in the outermost fringe of broadcast TV reception (or at least was in the analog days), it's definitely close enough for decent AM radio reception, and overall, I think there's a slightly enhanced cross-border cultural influence within that range. People living within that range are close enough that they could go across the border, do some shopping, and come back the same day–whereas for most Americans, Canada is a distant destination.

My hometown is about 150 miles from the closest point on the Canadian border, but our local cable service never carried any Canadian networks. That said, I did get a lot of Canadian influence on my childhood TV viewing from Today's Special and The Edison Twins in my youngest years to Red Green in my adolescence.

[SP Cook]

FCC rules:  A cable system does not commit a copyright violation by importing Canadian (or Mexican) TV stations as long as it is in the "border zone".  Which is defined as 100 miles from the border (which can be, of course, far more distant from the broadcast tower).  A system outside the border zone may not carry Canadian stations, with a minor exception for a few systems that were carrying such stations before the rule was made.

DBS and IPTV systems have no such rule and cannot carry Canadian stations even if right on the border.  However, this is almost certainly unconstitutional and if they wanted to push it, the FCC would have to apply the cable rule to them.  They have never pushed it.

History time:  In the BUD era, the CBC was unscrambled as was CBC Newsworld and several other channels.  Even long after US networks scrambled.   Later when DBS first started, it was unclear that Canada would be a large enough market to support a system all of its own, and the plan was to use the US DirecTV system in partnership with the Power Corporation (the ultimate crony capitalist company in the world).  US viewers would have gotten some Canadian content in return for the right of DirecTV to operate in Canada.  Canada's FCC, the CRTC, started adding all sorts of "must carry" rules for Canadian channels and DirecTV told them to pound sand and eventually it turned out that Canada could support its own system.    The CBC then launched two channels on US TV, both of which were on DirecTV.  Trio showed Canadian produced drama shows from the CBC, CTV and Global networks.  Eventually NBC bought it and turned it into a "pop culture" format, which failed and now it is the cloo mystery network.  The CBC Newsworld tried to compete with CNN and such.  As other channels launched, it fell behind and was sold to algore and became the home for his crazed theories and rants as Current, and now is the Al-Qaida channel. 

Reality:  Dishes have no way to know where they are, and even in the extreme south a Bell or Shaw Direct dish will work just fine.  You see plenty in snowbird communities in Florida and Arizona. 

[cl94]

Buffalo gets CBC, CTV, Omni, TVOntario, and independent station CKWS on cable and over the air. Some satellite packages offer them as an option due to their popularity. Even University at Buffalo's campus cable has the latter three. During the Olympics, most people watch CBC so they can see everything live.

The local PBS station, WNED, is similarly viewed in much of Ontario, including the Toronto metro area.

[JakeFromNewEngland]

When I stayed in Ticonderoga, New York for vacation, I swear the hotel TV had a French Canadian channel. Ticonderoga is probably about 100 or so miles south of the Canadian border. The show was sort of like CSI. My only guess for it being Canadian was that a few actors/actresses had heavy French Canadian accents. Maybe it was from Canada?

[jakeroot]

I get to watch CBC here in Seattle, but that's it: no CTV Vancity, Global BC, nothing. I don't think it's a very big market, but, like CL94 said, the CBC is most of my friends choice during the Olympics because of their constant live action.

My favourite CBC shows are Dragons Den, JFL (so corny but it's a quick laugh), and Lang & O'Leary Exchange (until my favourite funnyman Kevin O'Leary up and left CBC).

I like how the CBC only has news on for like 15 minutes a day. It's compact and informative, but not drawn out like American news. Though of course CBC shows less actual news than Global or CTV, which are more like the American networks.

When I was "on holiday" in Port Townsend a few months ago, I was able to receive CBC Radio. I think it was from Victoria, not Vancouver. Not sure. Never really listened to it when I lived in Vancouver (Jack FM ftw).

[on_wisconsin]

Back in the mid-late 90's my family used to be able to pick up CTV (very faintly) out of Thunder Bay from a cabin in northern Douglas County, WI.

[broadhurst04]

The only times I can see Canadian programming on TV here (North Carolina) is when the NHL Network re-transmits Hockey Night in Canada from CBC, or if one of the ESPN channels shows a CFL game from TSN (and it seems like that disappears once NFL teams start their preseason schedule).

[thenetwork]

Back in the 80s, Toledo's Buckeye Cablevision would pick up the CBC Channel 9 out of Windsor, ONT.

On the other side of the coin, I remember London ON picking up many of the TV channels out of Cleveland, OH...Just across Lake Erie, but a 4-5 hour drive on a good day.

[Duke87]

I've managed to pick up an AM radio station out of Toronto in Westchester County, NY at night.

But as for TV, no, I have never seen cable/satellite in the US carrying any Canadian channels. Which is consistent with the rule that it's only allowed within 100 miles of the border, I have never lived within that range and the few times I've had access to a TV within that range (hotel, someone else's house) I haven't thought to look.

Who needs TV anyway? This is the 21st century, I can access news websites from other countries anywhere.

[bulldog1979]

We have CBC on Charter here in the Central UP, carrying CBMT-DT from Quebec to do so. According to Wikipedia, Charter also carries that specific station in other markets in Michigan, and it is also carried in Jamaica and the Bahamas to further extend CBC internationally.