GATINEAU – The CRTC will announce its decision on the renewal of the broadcasting licences for the CBC at 11 a.m. Tuesday morning.
The most contentious issue of the hearing, held back in November, was the CBC’s request for permission to sell advertising on Radio 2. Struggling with cuts to its funding in the past 24 months, the Corp wants to be able to earn more cash by selling advertising into the indie/classical/eclectic music station – and it also promised not to change the nature of the service in order to pursue higher ratings and increased ad dollars.
Many Canadian private broadcasters objected strenuously to the proposal. “I still have a fundamental problem with the fact they want to suck and blow. Basically they're getting already tax revenues that are being utilized to run the Corporation, now they want to add advertising to the mix. Wouldn't we in the private sector love to have the same deal,” said MZ Media CEO George Grant during the November hearing. “We just think that they should not be getting it from two areas. Either become a broadcaster and don't take the government revenue or continue taking the government revenue and don't run commercials.”
Besides the plea to let the CBC earn more money, CEO Hubert Lacroix also appealed to the Commission to take a look around at the broadcasting field these days, with all that now entails, and grant it more flexibility in how it manages itself and programming choices it makes. “We have evolved into an integrated multi-platform broadcaster,” Lacroix said back in November. “That is why we have proposed a simplified approach which would impose a package of significant, high-level commitments in key areas, and eliminate the plethora of obligations and soft commitments which typified the approach of the 1990s.
The CBC also had to defend itself against some accusations from a number of interveners, including from Quebecor, which insisted that the Corp ignores Access to Information requests that it should honour. As well, groups of creatives fretted that increased flexibility granted to the CBC will mean fewer hours of Cancon and fewer shows made by independent producers.
We’ll have a report on the decision as soon as we can after the CRTC releases it to its web site at 11 a.m.
– Greg O’Brien
