What to do with the CBC?
There is much worth saving, but it needs a massive overhaul. Here's what to do.
According to the National Post, the Canadian government is struggling to define what Canada’s public broadcaster should do for a living. There’s lots of talk about returning the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to “its original mandate.” But, the CBC was launched in 1936. Much has changed since then and forcing “the corpse” to return to its roots as a terrestrial radio service reaching Canada’s remotest frontiers doesn’t make a lot of sense.
In the spirit of good citizenship and public service, therefore, let me answer the question and save Justin Trudeau’s minions the trouble.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation should do two things moving forward: it should produce news and Canadian entertainment.
Producing News. Canadians need trusted, credible sources of news now as much as ever. But, they’re lacking. The news business in Canada is suffering from the same existential blight afflicting news organizations world-wide.
Discovering, unearthing, reporting, editing and producing quality journalism is expensive and few private sector news outlets have the money to do it well. Their lifeblood was advertising and nobody has yet figured out how to maintain a quality news organization without it. Nobody, that is, except the CBC which has never relied on advertising because it’s funded primarily by taxpayers.
The 21st Century CBC should become Canada’s national, publicly-funded news agency. It should employ professional journalists in every city, town and berg across Canada. It should have Canadian news bureaux in major foreign capitals and trouble spots around the world. It should report the goings-on in every town council, provincial legislature and parliament. It should shine a very public light on every government consideration, decision and action. All of its reporting should be fact-based journalism and it should all be available free to every news broadcaster and publisher in Canada.
The taxpayer already pays the CBC to cover news in Canada and international news for a Canadian audience. Today, any Tom, Dick or Harriet can publish the news once it exists. Let private sector news collators publish news tailored to the needs of their unique audiences – and profit from it. Let every Canadian access CBC news reports directly online.
Creating Canadian Entertainment. Everyone with a streaming TV service has watched and enjoyed original British programming produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Few in Canada or the USA watch the actual BBC. Yet, the BBC has managed to produce compelling entertainment content that people around the world pay to consume – and through that content, people around the world today understand what it means to be British. This, in an era without a British Empire.
The 21st Century CBC should invest some of its $1.4 Billion annual stipend in producing Canadian content – and by content, I largely mean entertainment not documentaries. Let the National Film Board own the documentary space.
Entertainment is culture and culture is how we learn about one another around the world. Compelling Canadian entertainment could entertain Canadians across the country – and inform citizens of the world hungry for high-quality, must-watch entertainment about what Canada is and who Canadians are. Imagine people in Europe and Latin America settling down to watch the latest blockbuster Canadian drama or comedy on their local Netflix. Canada has the talent. Let the CBC produce their content and sell it to the world.
The taxpayer already pays the CBC to produce Canadian entertainment. There are already more and better options than the CBC for Canadians across the country and around the world to consume entertainment. Let private sector broadcasters and streaming services licence CBC content and deliver it to their audiences.
Figuring out what the 21st Century CBC should do is the simple part.
The harder part of any strategic plan is never figuring out what to do – it’s always figuring out what not to do.
What a 21st Century CBC should not do: Broadcasting. Opinion. Professional Sports.
Stop Broadcasting. Canadians in our far flung Arctic hamlets and research stations, on our remotest islands, in our smallest indigenous villages and on our darkest urban streets have (or should have) ready, affordable access to high-speed broadband Internet. Through these fibre pipes, citizens can access content from anywhere on the globe. We no longer need the CBC to build towers and broadcast content into our homes.
The 21st Century CBC should not broadcast. The CBC should focus on producing news and entertainment and let modern, private sector broadcasters, publishers and streaming services deliver that content to anybody, anywhere for a fee.
End Opinion Commentary. Opinion and commentary are cheap to produce. That’s why they’re the lifeblood of private sector “news” organizations. Nobody can afford to maintain a team of professional journalists in every town and city around the world to report on news as-it-happens and dig up stories that are not issued by press release. Nobody, that is, except the taxpayer-funded CBC.
Because it is tax-funded, there will always be a perception of potential bias in CBC reporting. This is exacerbated when the CBC offers opinion-based commentary. Opinions are cheap. Private broadcasters and publishers can afford to produce a depth of opinion commentary to attract and build their audiences. But, to maintain its credibility as a trusted source of news, the CBC should stop offering opinions. Let the private sector do that.
The 21st Century CBC should not offer opinions. CBC News should focus on reporting news – in the form of fact-based journalism free of opinion. That’s expensive to produce and few private sector publishers and broadcasters can afford to do so on a purely advertising-funded model. The CBC’s $1.4 Billion stipend gives it the resources it needs to be Canada’s national news agency. It should collaborate or merge with the Canadian Press to produce quality, fact-based journalism free for broadcasters and publishers to deliver.
By focusing on fact-based journalism, the CBC can protect itself from government influence and cutbacks. Opposition political parties will protect a credible news source that regularly opens the government’s kimono and exposes its underbelly for all to see. That’s a public service. And, it makes the Opposition’s job easier. While government may like to stifle this type of reportage, opposition politicians will do everything they can to ensure it thrives. It’s in their best interest to do so. Until they become government, that is. But, at that point, the former government will be the CBC’s new strongest advocate.
Stop covering professional sports. These are already well-covered by private sector organizations who compete for the rights to do so. The CBC does not need to spend a penny of its $1.4 Billion taxpayer-funded subsidy to bid-up the cost of sports coverage.
The 21st Century CBC should not cover professional sports. Or, for that matter, the Olympics. The CBC should confine its journalistic efforts to fact-based news. That’s a large enough mandate to keep it busy. When it comes to sports, the CBC should cover only those sports that are not fully covered by private sector broadcasters. Let the private sector fund their networks and news operations on the backs of advertisers who want to be associated with high profile sports.
A modern CBC should enhance, not destroy, access to journalism.
The CBC’s $1.4 Billion taxpayer-funded subsidy gives it enormous advantages private sector broadcasters and publishers will never enjoy. It should focus that advantage on what the private sector cannot afford to do: producing quality, credible, fact-based news from reporters on-the-ground virtually everywhere – and producing compelling Canadian content for Canadians to enjoy and the world to pay for.
More information about the CBC
Current Mission: CBC/Radio-Canada celebrates Canadian culture and supports democratic life through a wide range of content that informs, enlightens and entertains.
“The Broadcasting Act states that CBC programming should:
Be predominantly and distinctively Canadian;
Reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions;
Actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression;
Be in English and in French, reflecting the different needs and circumstances of each official language community, including the particular needs and circumstances of English and French linguistic minorities;
Strive to be of equivalent quality in English and in French;
Contribute to a shared national consciousness and identity;
Be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose; and
Reflect the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada.”
Revenue and Expenses
2019–20 Non- Subsidy Revenue: $504 MM +2.9% YOY (digital ads/subscribers, content sales)
2018–19 Non-Subsidy Revenue: $490 MM
2019–20 Subsidy Revenue: $1,209 MM -0.4% YOY
2018–19 Subsidy Revenue: $1,214 MM
2019–20 Expenses: $1,763 MM +0.5% YOY
2018–19 Expenses: $1,754 MM
Would you support a CBC that focused on producing fact-based news and Canadian entertainment for others to distribute?
I like this. Well said.
I can't stand what the CBC has become today - it has decided it is the saviour of the black and indigenous peoples communities by rewriting history and filtering its news through a "woke", politically correct" filter, easily discernible by the headline bias, let alone reading the articles or listening to its broadcasts. Even its "entertainment" - I'll take Murdoch Mysteries as one example. A black, female police coroner in 1900 Toronto? Seriously? Toronto then was a racist, mysognystic city, as they all were then. Multi-racial marriages? I'm not saying these were/are wrong, but they didn't happen then. This conscious bias carries over into the news, where almost every story is filtered through these lenses. This results in biased, inaccurate and incomplete stories that serve no one, including the black, indigenous/people of colour/LGBTQ2S++ communities. This is because it doesn't portray things AS THEY ARE, but rather as the CBC wishes they were. In this regard, it is hard therefore to escape the conclusion they have become merely a mouthpiece for the Liberal Party of Canada/Justin Trudeau. This has taken them completely away from their mandate and their roots and made them a poor contributor to a just and equitable Canada. Only honest reporting, not advocacy, can make things acceptable and right. That is how they should be funded, directed and mandated. Anything else is not worth it.