GATINEAU — Canadians will have an additional week to submit their opinions on CBC/Radio-Canada’s programming as the CRTC announced Tuesday it is extending the consultation period that is part of the public broadcaster’s licence renewal process.
The Commission says it wants to hear from Canadians across the country to ensure the content produced and distributed by the public broadcaster reflects the diversity of Canada’s population, while meeting its needs in both official languages.
The deadline extension comes after the Commission posted online Tuesday a recently completed study by Cullen International which examined public broadcasters in other jurisdictions around the world. The overall objective of the study was to provide an overview of the evolution of public service broadcasters (also referred to as public service media in the study), their governance and measurement frameworks to help identify an approach that could be tailored to the Canadian situation, says the CRTC-commissioned report (which is more than 50,000 words long).
The comprehensive study looked at the main public service broadcasters in nine countries, including Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the U.K.
In its news release today, the Commission says: “Given changes in the models for production and distribution of content, the Commission is inviting Canadians to review how CBC/Radio-Canada content is made available to them on various platforms. They will also have an opportunity to share their opinion on how content relates to the following themes: reflection, production, accessibility and discoverability, and contribution to democratic life in Canada.”
In its updated Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2019-379-1, the Commission says Canadians now have until February 20, 2020 to submit their comments. The new deadline for CBC/Radio-Canada to submit its replies is March 6, 2020.
CBC/Radio-Canada’s current radio and television licences will expire on August 31, 2020. As part of its review, the CRTC will hold a public hearing beginning on May 25, 2020.
The deadline extension for the public consultation period of CBC/Radio-Canada’s licence renewal process also comes a week after the Ministry of Canadian Heritage confirmed to Cartt.ca that it is commissioning new research on the CBC. The contracted research is expected to “assess the social, cultural and economic impacts of CBC/Radio-Canada on the Canadian media and production sectors, and on Canadian audiences more generally,” according to a Heritage spokesperson.
