bout de papier, Vol. 3, No. 2 (1985) — Summer 1985 // Été 1985, p. 17
No, TVOntario is not just like the CBC only smaller. And it’s not just like PBS only more educational. We are a unique hybrid, regulated federally by the CRIC but provincially constituted and funded as a result of provincial jurisdiction over education.
TVOntario is well known and respected in its home province and is developing an increasingly higher profile nationally and internationally.
First, Ontario: our programs are used in up to 96 per cent of the province’s schools from elementary to university. More than 40,000 Ontario teachers use educational television. Despite today’s fragmented media markets and narrowcasting, 49 per cent of all Ontario children aged 2-11 watch TVOntario at home each week. In fact, over 2.2 million viewers at home tune in weekly.
All this is made possible through an innovative use of diverse technology. Anik C3 satellite beams our signal to over 94 per cent of the province. Fourteeen medium and high-power transmitters, more than 120 low-power transmitters and about 120 cable systems carry TVOntario’s signal.
But our horizons are expanding. We produce extensive print materials to support our educational programming and are exploring the applications of computer technology, notably Telidon. Our horizons are expanding physically as well as intellectually; TVOntario is one of the world’s leading producers and vendors of educational television programs. We have sold to such diverse countries as the U.S.A., Great Britain, Israel, Japan, India, Australia, Germany, Singapore, South Korea, Nigeria, Kenya, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
For several years now, TVOntario has been marketing programs and series to the Department of External Affairs for use by officers in Ottawa and in the field. Many officers are familiar with such series as “Fast Forward” and “Bits and Bytes”.
So, TVO products are travelling the world but the world is coming to TVO as well. For the past two years we have been playing host to groups of non-Canadian employees of Canadian embassies and consulates who are touring our country and studying modern television production and broadcast facilities and educational institutions. Also, many representatives of developing nations visit in the hope of gaining expertise or buying the right educational series for their needs. For example, we were recently visited by Ibrahim Al-Yusuf, Director General of the Arabian Gulf States Joint Program Production Institution, Kuwait.
Lately, TVOntario’s relationship with the Canadian foreign service has expanded to include the informal assistance of trade commissioners at individual legations in TVOntario’s expanding international sales operation. In the past three years our products have been sold to educators, broadcasters, businesses and government agencies in countries throughout the world.
But TVO has only taped the most visible parts of the vast international market. We are discovering that one way to explore the needs and desires of potential foreign markets is through the considerable knowledge and expertise of Canadian foreign service officers in the field.
For example, Antionette MacDonald, TVO’s sales executive for international marketing, says Z. Burianyk in Israel gave her invaluable assistance in establishing profitable Mediterranean and Middle Eastern contacts. Ms. MacDonald adds, “TVOntario has really just begun to discover how helpful the commissioners can be in the search for reliable distributors and potential customers. We hope that in the months and years to come our dealing with the Canadian foreign benefit.”
TVOntario was created in 1970 by the Ontario legislature to bring educational opportunities to the people of the province. The TVO broadcast network airs programming for all ages and interests, for use at home and in educational institutions, in English and French, 16 hours a day, seven days a week.
The network, its productions and related educational materials are funded in large part by Ontario government grants. But TVO is increasingly supplementing its revenues through corporate underwriting, Canadian and international sales, and international co-productions such as Alvin Toffler’s “The Third Wave” and “The Final Chapter” with N.H.K. in Japan.
Anyone wanting more information about TVO can contact TVOntario Marketing, P.O. Box 200, Station Q, Toronto, Ontario M4T 2T1.
View the original scanned pages →
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 3, No. 2 (1985) — Summer 1985 // Été 1985, p. 17. Read the rest of this issue →
