TORONTO – When the CBC appears in front of the CRTC in January asking for its broadcasting licences to be renewed, the commissioners had better ask the public broadcaster about Tandem, say a large group of former employees.
The CBC announced the new Tandem unit in September, which was meant to “enhance its offer to advertisers and media agencies in Canada with the dedicated service for the creation of unique and distinctive branded content,” by using CBC folks to create special content for certain clients – such as the Go The Distance podcast for Athabasca University, hosted by CBC personality Leah Simone-Bowen.
Other videos sponsored by Visa and HSBC Bank are also reportedly in the media mix.
Since CBC had already been delivering branded content like this, Tandem was to be a dedicated unit, with its own staff and revenue targets. Most of Canada’s other broadcasters offer similar services to advertising clients already and have for years. However, after an internal and public backlash, the CBC set Tandem aside for a rethink earlier this month.
Now today, more than 70 former employees issued a press release and submitted a Part 1 application asking the CRTC to investigate Tandem, saying “it blurs the lines between advertising and news, and marks a clear departure from the mission of Canada’s public broadcaster.”
It wants the Regulator to either consider the complaint as a Part 1 application, or to add the investigation to the CBC’s licence renewal hearing in January.
The signatories, who include former editor in chief Tony Burman; former VP Radio Jane Chalmers; former host and pas Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson; former host of The National, Peter Mansbridge; former president Robert Rabinovitch; Kelly Crichton, former executive producer, The Fifth Estate and The National, and many others say branded content “exploits the trust of Canadians in the broadcaster’s news and information services.”
The release points to where chief revenue officer Donald Lizotte said Tandem was created to “leverage the credibility of our network” in creating branded content for advertising clients.
“It’s no secret the CBC has been struggling financially for years, but some things should not be for sale,” said Paul Gaffney, a former director of regulatory affairs, who also signed the letter. “The CBC was established to provide Canadians with high-quality programming, not to sell its credibility for a quick buck.”
The letter decries a lack of transparency since the CBC made no mention of branded content in its fall 2019 licence renewal application to the CRTC. Plus, says the application to the Commission, “The CBC’s current Advertising Standards… state that while commercial content generates revenue, ‘the CBC’s first priority is to deliver distinctive, high-quality programs to its citizens and not consumers to advertisers’.”
“Clearly, the CBC has been selling branded content without a frank discussion about the implications with its own journalists and the Canadian public,” added Kelly Crowe, former medical sciences reporter for The National. “When did the CBC’s board of directors approve this form of marketing and what are the rules that govern how branded content is labelled to avoid misleading readers, listeners and viewers?”
It’s worth noting the branded content the CBC has published that does make it clear it is sponsored content either with logos or text.
