61st Anniversary of the first U.S. to Canada television show transmission

Jan 20, 2014 | News

By Kelly Khizakia

Television shows like Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and American Horror Story are all American-based series that can be easily watched all over the world, including Canada, but over 60 years ago universal television access wasn’t always as easy as it is today.

On January 20, 1953, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) obtained an American show that was re-broadcasted in Canada with the use of a 66-mile microwave radio-relay system between Buffalo, New York and Toronto.

The first ever show re-broadcasted was Studio One, a Columbia Broadcast System (CBS) original anthology series airing at 10 p.m. Studio one started off as a 60-minute radio show on CBS and moved to television becoming a Emmy nominated t.v. show.

This paved the way for more American shows to come to Canadian screens and vice versa.

This timeline shows the evolution of American television coming to Canada via CBC, and some monumental CBC television moments.