Radio / Television News

Friends presents petition to CBC board asking for Tandem to be dropped



TORONTO — Friends of Canadian Broadcasting says it garnered almost 10,000 signatures on a petition calling for the CBC to end its branded-content Tandem initiative, which was presented to the CBC’s board of directors ahead of their scheduled meeting today.

As we reported yesterday, the board was set to discuss Tandem at a meeting with CBC president Catherine Tait and vice-president Barb Williams. This follows a letter sent to the board from former CBC employees who want to see the public broadcaster stop Tandem.

“ʻBranded content’ is a euphemism for secret advertising: articles, podcasts, and other programming that look and feel like CBC content but are actually bought and paid-for by private companies,” said Friends’ executive director Daniel Bernhard, in an emailed press release. “Tandem will hinder Canadians’ trust in our public broadcaster and it needs to be stopped.”

“Thousands of Canadians believe that CBC’s Board of Directors needs to put a decisive end to Tandem immediately,” added Bernhard. “We know times are tough and the pandemic has hit the CBC hard. But we cannot save the CBC by selling its integrity.”

Cartt.ca reached out to the CBC for comment and received the following email statement from Chuck Thompson, head of public affairs at the CBC:

“With respect to the concerns raised by our journalists and members of the public, we are finalizing our review of CBC’s guidelines and policies for branded content. If modifications to those guidelines and policies are required, we will make them,” Thompson wrote.

“It’s important to note that in no way does branded content affect how our journalists go about their work. Simply stated, the two worlds do not intersect. We have clear lines to separate CBC content from that of our advertisers. Protecting the integrity of our journalism is imperative and with every execution of branded content, we are fully transparent that the content is produced by or for an advertiser,” Thompson added.