OTTAWA – “It’s a very important time for public broadcasters,” CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Hubert Lacroix told an audience during his opening keynote at the International Institute of Communications Canada (IIC) conference earlier this week.
This is perhaps an understatement as the national public broadcaster is faced with the prospect of having to cut 5% to 10% of its budget. But it’s not only the CBC, which is facing some hard decisions, public broadcasters around the world are in an equally financial precarious situation as government’s grapple with the requirement to tighten the fiscal belt as a result of tough economic times.
Mandate, mission, digital platforms and funding are among the key challenges public broadcasters around the world are having to confront, said Lacroix, adding that funding, media consolidation and audience fragmentation are specific issues with which the CBC is dealing.
Despite calls for the eliminating of advertising from its programming or the privatization of the public broadcaster, Lacroix said any debate on its future should be based on fact not fiction. First, he noted, all broadcasters, public or private, receive public subsidies. CBC gets the majority of its budget from its annual Parliamentary appropriation, but the privates get money from the public purse through specific and targeted subsidies to support Canadian content. In fact, Lacroix said without subsidies, Canadian broadcasters, public and private, can’t survive. “If we want to have any substantive television outlet for Canadian voices, then we will need to subsidize the Canadian broadcasting sector,” he argued.
Suggestions that CBC not be allowed to supplement its revenue through advertising are wrongheaded, particularly when it comes to the development and airing of Canadian content, Lacroix said, adding that CBC spends as much on Canadian programming as all the private broadcasters combined, or roughly $696 million annually. Lacroix said eliminating advertising from CBC “would have a devastating effect on our public broadcaster mandate. We would also have a negative impact on Canadian programming, on independent producers and for the Canadian economy as a whole.” The Corp released a research report saying just that this week, too.
The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) is also dealing with the consequences of a difficult economic situation where Europe has been hit extremely hard by the sovereign crisis. “We know that we must live within our means as a public service broadcaster… and that we must live within the means of those who pay for our services,” Caroline Thomson, COO of the BBC, said in her address to the conference. “At the same time, we know that we must maintain our investment in the digital future.”
While the CBC has its Parliamentary appropriations delivered annually, the BBC was able to secure a five-year funding deal with the British government. From 2012 to 2017, the corporation will receive a per-household licence fee of about $240. But she added, in real terms, that means funding will go down over the next five years because costs will go up and the BBC has added responsibilities such as meeting the cost of BBC World Service, supporting the Welsh language television service and some new local television services.
To deal with this funding scenario, the BBC has undertaken a number of initiatives to find 20% savings over the next five years. About 16% of savings will be realized through efficiencies. For example, $400 million annually over the next five years will be found through the introduction of new digital technology that will improve productivity. But an additional 4% will have to be found somewhere, meaning that cuts will come in jobs, services and real estate.
“To meet the challenge we will also have to reduce the scope of what we do by putting money into content that matters to most to audiences,” Thomson said, pointing to five key programming areas on which it will focus: news, children’s programming, original drama and comedy, knowledge and cultural programs and events of national importance.
If CBC/Radio-Canada has tough choices to make with respect to having English and French language services, the problem in South Africa is enormous where there are 11 official languages. “First, how do you represent 11 languages on TV and then how do you fund the content?” asked Pieter Grootes, general manager of markets and competition for the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa.
Another major problem for the emerging South African public broadcaster is still about getting infrastructure rolled out. “We’re not talking about smart subsidies and getting content rights, we’re still talking about getting infrastructure out there and who should pay for it and what to do,” said Grootes. He suggested that rather than focus on building a terrestrial broadcasting infrastructure, the goal should be to come up with a satellite solution that perhaps can be more effectively rolled out and be accessible to a large number of citizens.
John Frelinghuysen, a partner with consulting firm Bain & Company in New York, said there are common themes among public broadcaster mandates around the world. He spoke about a number of things public broadcasters could do to compete better in the market with the commercial broadcasters.
Frelinghuysen pointed to non-scripted programming, co-productions and early adoption of non-linear programming as elements that can give the public broadcaster a leg up on its private competitors. On this last element, he said time is of the essence.
“We believe it’s critical for public service broadcasters to recognize they have a window of opportunity to actually be some of the first to market here,” he said. “The commercial broadcasters have some disincentives to move too fast… to over the top video and non-linear because they are very worried about cannibalizing their advertising revenue.”
For TVO, the Ontario-based public broadcaster says much of its success can relate to its mandate with respect to education. Lisa de Wilde, CEO of TVO, noted that the company is leveraging that education focus to become the trusted source for kids and parents. The first element is on kids and getting them ready for school; the second being an online component to equip parents to be that first teacher; and current affairs and point of view programming round out its primary programming activities.
