Since about 30% of the Canadian population - those who resided close enough to the Canada-US border - had access to over-the-air broadcast signals from networks based in both Canada and the United States, they could choose to watch American programs on either a Canadian or an American network [REF].
When cable television began to proliferate across Canada in the early-1970s, viewers far from the Canada-US border began to obtain access to American television services that were once unobtainable.