GATINEAU – Monday morning started with the presentation from a new Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB). When their intervention was filed in February 2020, the CAB was a shadow of itself, with skeleton staff and scope yet a year later the newly appointed president, Kevin Desjardins made his first presentation in front of the CRTC.
It should be noted that the main private broadcasters had intervened but had not indicated that they wanted to appear except for Québecor, which will appear Tuesday.
The presentation gave way to the usual boasting:” According to CRTC Data, while the CBC’s share of “contributions to content” is at 18%, the private element provides an incredible 82% of system contributions to Canadian content, worth $2.74 billion dollars,” Desjardins (above) said at the outset.
“In the crucial area of news programming, private local TV stations outspent CBC/Radio-Canada conventional TV stations three to one—$374 million to CBC/Radio-Canada’s $122 million,” he added.
A recurring theme we will be hearing from the privates (especially from Quebecor on Tuesday, given this missive here) is the complementary concept whereas the CBC should be complementary instead of competitive with the private sector – and also not sell advertising. Parliamentary appropriation should not be used to compete with the private broadcasters, especially now as advertising money is melting for everyone (save the digital giants).
“The crux of our concern with the proposals put forward by CBC/Radio-Canada through this process is a growing emphasis on the public broadcaster being market-driven rather than mandate-driven.”
“With $150 million a year in increased parliamentary appropriation and advertising representing a smaller portion of CBC/ Radio-Canada’s revenues than ever, this proceeding presents the perfect opportunity for the Commission to set out a timeline and process for establishing an ad-free CBC/ Radio-Canada. At minimum, CBC/ Radio-Canada should be prohibited from selling local TV and online advertising in markets where local private radio and TV stations are present,” Desjardins added.
And, despite a focus on complementarity and putting a stop to advertising, the Commission’s questions seemed more focused on programming exhibition and baselines.
When the time came for Friends of Canadian Broadcastings to advance its position, it offered a similar plea on advertising. “We urge you to impose a gradual phase-out of all English-language advertising, on all platforms by the end of the license term, beginning with news, which should be ad-free in all languages by the end of 2021,” said Daniel Bernhard, executive director.
“Such a move is not without precedent. In 1974, CBC radio was thought to be on its death bed, rendered irrelevant by cable TV and stale programming. Your predecessors responded by prohibiting ads on CBC radio, ushering in an era of renewal and innovation that has vaulted CBC Radio to the number one or number two position in every major market today,” he added.
Commissioners, however, then asked questions about programs of national interest and a measurement framework, which leads us to conclude it’s not contemplating ending advertising and it will devote its questions for intervenors to test its own conclusions on that.
