June 8 1990
TVO Eyes the Big Picture
Gerald Utting, Toronto Star
Ostry has launched a campaign to win Parliament's approval for the establishment of a national educational TV network that would provide "alternative" programming to the existing national networks.
A House of Commons committee has been studying the idea of a new "alternative" network as part of proposed amendments to the Broadcasting Act. Ostry told the committee in March that TVOntario (better known as TVO), a $100 million-a-year Ontario government corporation that is 20 years old this year, has the expertise and resources to take the lead in forming such a network in collaboration with Canada's other educational TV organizations, including Radio Quebec.
"Canada must have an educational TV network to play a major role in the great challenge in education we are facing," Ostry told The Star. "We must educate our people more highly if we are to compete with other leading industrial nations.
"Private broadcasters are already moving into the educational field, into broadcasting for schools. The choice is really whether it will be public or private interests that dominate the field."
But TVO is girding for battle not just for school audiences. Broad upgrading of Canada's labor force is seen as a necessity, Ostry says, with a major role to be played by public educational resources.
Most adults probably think of TVO's Channel 19 as the source of classic movies on Saturday nights. But what Ostry sees as the flagship of a national educational network goes far beyond that.
In fact, TVO has been two services for the last three years: the English service and the French service. It is viewed at least once a week by 2 million Ontarians, according to the network's research.
It produces programs that are sold internationally in English and French, and about one third of its output is for use in classrooms. TVO officials emphasize that, although the network has a cultural role, its main drive is educational.
Its programs are prepared with the curricula of Ontario's education ministry in mind, even though the network comes under the authority of the provincial ministry of culture and communications.
Canadians are traditionally modest. Ostry believes they should not be modest about their capabilities in educational TV.
"TVOntario is the largest foreign distributor of educational TV in the United States," Ostry says. "Our programming is broadcast and used in all 50 states and in 78 other countries.
"We are one of the rare public service success stories, rarer still in the broadcasting business."
Recently Ostry was in Europe, where he cemented a relationship with the top German TV service, ZDF. Just a few weeks before, the head of Japan's national broadcasting service, NHK, signed a deal to co-produce programs with TVO.
Since NHK is the world's largest public broadcaster, outside of the Soviet Union, and operates four channels, you might ask what could be in it for the Japanese?
The answer is that TVO has co-produced several successful programs in the past with NHK's powerful educational channel. One hit series was aired in Canada under the title, Magic Planet. NHK provided the footage, but TVO re-edited the series for Western viewers, and provided English- and French-language sound.
This, of course, was of great value to NHK, for although the series was magnificent, it had been restricted to Japanese audiences. The deal with TVO gave NHK access to a TV producer in English and French whose standards matched their own.
TVO believes its intimate links with teaching in Ontario classrooms are a vital source of expertise. The network has trained 5,200 volunteer teachers to use their materials in school.
Donald Duprey, director of English programming, told The Star: "Remember, we have never pretended we can replace the classroom, but we can enhance the teacher's role."
And, of course, what history or English teacher could do what TVO will do this fall, when it brings to the screen eight Shakespeare dramas set during the Wars of the Roses? This magnificent series was produced in Britain, with financial backing from NHK, TVO and U.S. stations.
Duprey cites this as an example of truly educational TV that also has great cultural and entertainment value.
As another example of what international co-operation can bring, he cited a telecast due in October on the environment, which will link TVO by satellite with stations in Britain, Germany, Japan, Australia and possibly Thailand and Malaysia. The participating stations will present documentaries and studio audiences will discuss global pollution.
Ostry told the MPs the legislation they were considering would help shape "the extent to which we are perceived by ourselves and others around the world as a sovereign culture. Why? Because it guides television - the socially most useful technology for disseminating language, information, education and culture in a democracy".
The increasing concentration of media power by global corporations made it "imperative for Canada to frame legislation that guides and fosters a strong indigenous culture, and for telecommunications legislation to have cultural objectives," said Ostry.
The role of educational TV, he says, is not to provide advertising and light entertainment. It is to equip people so they can make better sense of the bombardment of messages in the other media and offer skills with which to improve themselves.
"We seek to enable our viewers to strengthen their knowledge and skills throughout their lifetime . . . to offer programs that challenge people to come to terms with the overwhelming social changes of the 1990s.
"Economic, technological and social changes are placing unprecedented demands on the educational system. One significant solution is television-based learning. Increasingly, Canadians will come to rely on it for a host of opportunities, including thoughtful public-affairs interpretation, the demystification of science and technology, labor force retraining and skills development."
Ostry maintained that it might cost $150 million a year, but when considered as part of national spending of $30 billion a year on education, this is not a large amount.
Technically, setting up the network would not be a great problem. TVO already leases a satellite for its northern Ontario services that could cover from Manitoba to Newfoundland. Use of another Canadian satellite would give national coverage.
The new broadcasting act, he said, would guide the "cultural expression of Canadians" and "establish children as a distinct and important audience served by the broadcasting system".
The TVO proposal insists that Canadian cable systems must give priority to a Canadian educational network over a foreign network. It notes the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has already authorized a U.S. service called The Learning Channel to be carried by Canadian cable systems.
TVO officials cite a variety of statistics to support their contention that Canada is in an education crisis, and that a national educational network is needed to help bolster new programs being developed both in schools and for retraining adult workers.
Statistics Canada figures showed that in 1986, only 44 per cent of jobs in Canada required a post-secondary education. But by the year 2000, StatsCan projected, almost two thirds of all jobs will require post-secondary schooling.
The Economic Council of Canada estimated an increase in the use of robotics of 265 per cent between 1985 and 1990, and a 260 per cent increase in automated inspection and quality control in Canadian plants.
The trend is not one for Canadians to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for foreign owners, for the number of low-skilled jobs is declining sharply in relative terms.
Clearly, the high wages and opportunities will demand skills, and major branches of industry have already defined shortage of skilled labor as one of the major barriers to rapid growth.
Ostry hopes TVO's planned venture can help knock down those barriers.