National content and local political consequences: Evidence from public and private television

We examine the impact of public versus private television content on political engagement and accountability during the initial rollout of Canada’s television network in the early 1950s. A policy prohibiting market competition restricted districts to receiving either public or private programming, but never both. While both station types aired the public broadcaster’s national service, private stations bundled this content with local news. We find that exposure to the public broadcaster reduced voter turnout by 2.1 percentage points relative to districts without television, while engagement in private television districts remained indistinguishable from pre-television levels. This lack of engagement weakened re-election incentives and increased the incumbency advantage. Consequently, incumbents in public districts spoke less about their constituencies in parliament and demonstrated greater party loyalty in roll-call votes—results consistent with a significant reduction in political accountability.