Television of Quebec
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Quebec television is an important part of the culture of the province of Quebec in Canada. The prime-time French-language téléromans (soap operas/TV dramas) constitute one of the core cultural elements of Quebec which is shared by nearly all the citizens of the province regardless of their social status or their education. The exception may be people who watch only foreign channels, do not even own a television or who are non-francophones. The soaps are all broadcast in evening prime-time hours, on the state-run French-language federal television network as well as on the private French-language networks such as TVA.
Quebec television and its evening soap operas that did and still do so much to define the province as a distinct Francophone entity originated on the Société Radio-Canada (SRC) network funded by the Government of Canada. As a result, there are quite a few links to the media in Canada.
The existence of Quebec consumer culture and a consumer society distinct from other similar societies in North America and Europe is a corollary of this common core of TV watching. All of the prime-time soaps, including those run on the SRC network, are supported by advertising. Nearly all of this advertising is made in the province of Quebec or translated specifically for the Francophone audience from "modular" commercials planned for translation. (Modular commercials show no on-screen speaking, but rather scenes and images, so that a narrator of any language may voice-over. As such, these commercials are prevalent in English-speaking Canada as well.) In the first decade of the introduction of TV, in the 1950s, many commercials were translated to French very simply, from the English commercials run on English-language networks in Canada and the United States.
As the television advertising industry developed and production facilities were built, during the 1960s major commercial advertisers began to use local Quebec personalities and actors instead of U.S. or English-Canadian individuals. Two decades later nearly all breakfast cereals, appliances and automobiles were being advertised on the French-language networks using Quebec French texts (usually written in Montreal) and local actors and personalities. Commercials made in France cannot be reused because, for the most part, they advertise goods and services which are not available in North America, and the cultural references of Paris and its "street language" or argot do not connect with the "street language" or joual of Quebec.
