I’M NOT THE FIRST HACK to write that CBC Television’s mandate is the reason why it suffers so much in the court of public opinion – and in practice.
It’s mandate, broadly, is to be all things to all Canadians – in both official languages, no less. So, while it airs some hugely popular programming like Hockey Night In Canada and some of the recent mini-series and made-for-TV movies which often attract over a million viewers, it also airs some stuff that so few people watch, like Zed, or the former Opening Night (it once broadcast a live Opera performance from Winnipeg), it barely blips the ratings needle. Not every TV show can be for every Canadian, so in attempting to fulfill its mandate, CBC suffers from some serious ratings swings.
(On the whole, I like CBC TV. I could do without the whiff of anti-U.S. bias I get from the news division, but I do think a national public broadcaster is necessary, and that the CBC does the best it can, under the current set of circumstances.)
But, if CBC TV is going to be everything to everyone, and no one in government has piped up to say the Broadcasting Act must be altered to change that, the Ceeb then has to have CFL football – along with the odd documentary on left-handed fishermen of the Fraser River… (okay, I made that one up).
This particular TV model, however, is pleasing to fewer and fewer Canadians, all of whom are paying for the CBC. Fans of opera or Zed are often not big football buffs. Opera fans are probably not fans of Zed, either. And the members of Leafs Nation would probably cringe if faced with some of the subject matter found on The Passionate Eye. While most Canadians can easily find things they like on CBC each week, they’re often confused by or disinterested in the rest of it.
So, what to do to “fix” the CBC? Can it be fixed? Does it need fixing?
The consensus among those I’ve talked to and the many, many, many articles I’ve read in the past month, is that CBC Radio is doing a good job. People listen to it. People enjoy it. They really like the fact it’s commercial-free. A cabbie in Halifax this Sunday told me, “I wouldn’t have believed how much I miss it.”
CBC has Radio One, Two and Three, serving all sorts of constituencies. And Radio One, with its local programming in many markets, reflects the communities in which it airs that local content, which builds a loyal audience. Before the lockout, Radio One’s Toronto morning show with Andy Barrie was the top-rated program in the Greater Toronto Area.
CBC Radio is divided up pretty nicely, serving different listeners and offering local choice.
Not so with TV. Sure, CBC has Newsworld and Country Canada, but those specialty channels have different mandates than the mother network.
So, could CBC Television be similarly spliced – a-la radio – into different niches to better serve the varied tastes of today’s Canadian TV-viewing taxpayers?
What if the CBC could offer a TV One with most of CBC’s more highly-rated, mainstream programming (sports and shows like This is Wonderland, Coronation Street, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and DaVinci’s Inquest), along with local and national news? Then, a commercial-free TV Two with programming from the “it’s Canadian so it’s good for you” niche (Life and Times, docs about the “Canadian experience” and its kids TV block). And, a TV Three (also commercial-free) with experimental or more risqué programming, like Rough Cuts or Zed, along with even some free-form video from regular Canadians experimenting with video blogs or some such.
Now, private broadcasters and cable companies might wish a severe pox on my house – or that my laptop will spontaneously combust for even suggesting this – but CBC TV could be re-engineered in this way. It can be done with a multicast strategy.
Under the digital television distribution regs written back in 2003, which were primarily about the transition to high definition television (and cable’s must-carry obligations for standard definition and digital broadcast signals), any broadcaster can ask the Commission for permission to multicast, whereby the broadcaster would send multiple digital signals instead of just one. The CRTC said in the framework that it would decide on multicast requests on a case-by-case basis and made no formal policy on the subject.
“The Commission would be disposed to authorize the distribution of new and innovative multicast services,” it reads.
As far as we’re aware, The Commission has never fielded such a request from a TV broadcaster.
What a battle it would be, if the CBC tried this route. Massive opposition from all sides, most likely. Private broadcasters complaining about CBC getting extra channels and cable and satellite companies howling about additional must-carry channels.
Would such a radical step fix the CBC? All I can say is it seems to be working for radio.
What’s clear is that CBC TV can’t keep going forever in its current form. It can’t be all things to all people on one channel, but it could be more things to more Canadians with additional channels.
All we need is the political will, the stomach for a lengthy regulatory and possible legal fight, some serious programming genius and of course, more money to make it work.
On second thought… nevermind.
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