XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ont.politics   
   From: gregcarrsober@gmail.com   
      
   On 26/06/2014 4:18 PM,  (ಠ_ಠ)Раиса wrote:   
   > Let's test the leadership candidates for the next election on the   
   > subject of funding for the CBC. Harper we can ignore. How would Justin   
   > Trudeau or Thomas Mulcair handle public funding for the CBC?   
   > ___________________________________________________   
   >   
   > Contributed to The Globe and Mail - Thursday, Jun. 26 2014   
   > by Wade Rowland   
   >   
   >   
   > The CBC’s a service, not a business   
   >   
   >   
   > The CBC’s strategic plan to shift priorities from broadcast to digital   
   > services and outsource virtually all but news and current affairs   
   > programming is, on the whole, a sensible strategy – from a purely   
   > business perspective. It saves money by reducing production and   
   > distribution costs. Shedding more jobs will further enhance the bottom   
   > line between now and 2020; as many as 1,500 positions will be eliminated   
   > in the plan announced Wednesday.   
   >   
   > The thing is, however, that the public broadcaster is not a business in   
   > any conventional sense. It exists not to make money or to satisfy   
   > financial goals, but to fill a public need – one that is not being   
   > served by private media outlets. The CBC is a public good, like the   
   > school system, like medicare, like our universities and colleges, our   
   > public museums and galleries.   
   >   
   > In a world of commercial sponsorship of media, both broadcast and   
   > online, the CBC’s purpose is to serve its audiences as citizens, rather   
   > than as consumers. Its purpose is to create news, information and   
   > entertainment that’s judged for its creative, intellectual and artistic   
   > integrity, rather than its ability to attract large audiences that can   
   > be sold to advertisers.   
   >   
   > What CBC management has delivered is not a public broadcasting strategy   
   > but a business plan, one that further distances the corporation from its   
   > public-service mandate.   
   >   
   > For example, most people who study digital online media recognize that   
   > one of its impacts is to atomize audiences. Where traditional   
   > broadcasting creates a kind of congregation, a community of interest,   
   > the fragmented, specialized nature of Internet content tends to   
   > encourage individuals to focus on their own established interests. There   
   > is certainly a place for this, but it runs counter to the   
   > community-building remit of public broadcasting.   
   >   
   > Another example: Nowhere in Wednesday’s in-house town-hall webcast, nor   
   > the accompanying documentation, was the issue of whether the public   
   > broadcaster ought to be carrying advertising even mentioned. The best of   
   > the world’s public-service broadcasters (PSBs) carry no commercials.   
   > Their involvement means engaging in the ratings game, which pushes   
   > programming toward the lowest common denominator in tastes and   
   > interests. This is why commercial-free subscription television services   
   > such as HBO and Netflix, like true PSBs, tend to produce superior   
   > programming.   
   >   
   > One of the reasons why CBC is anxious to accelerate its shift to online   
   > services is because that’s where advertising revenue is moving. It hopes   
   > to cash in on the bonanza.   
   > But a reliance on ad revenue from online services is just as corrosive   
   > to PSB values and goals as it is in conventional TV and radio, for the   
   > same reasons.   
   >   
   > If 70-odd years experience with the CBC to date proves anything, it’s   
   > that the public broadcaster can’t serve two masters. It should leave   
   > commercial sponsorship to the private media, which exist to serve   
   > advertisers, and it should focus on its public-service mandate exclusively.   
   >   
   > Can the CBC survive without advertising revenue? That’s like asking   
   > whether the public school system can survive without corporate   
   > sponsorship. Of course it can – as long as that’s a public priority, as   
   > it ought to be.   
   >   
   > At present, the CBC receives an annual parliamentary appropriation of   
   > about $1.34-billion. This puts Canada third from the bottom of the list   
   > of OECD nations’ support for their PSBs. A subsidy of $3-billion would   
   > boost us to around average.   
      
   Funding should be cut or eliminated entirely.   
   That level of funding would make it possible   
   > for the CBC to produce television programming matching the highest   
   > international standards, and to continue to finance an exceptional radio   
   > service while providing online services as the market – rather than   
   > internal balance sheets – dictates.   
   >   
   > A dedicated 5 per cent to 7 per cent impost   
      
   I already pay taxes on my internet bundle and don't want an additional   
   impost. The CBC is an archaic anachronism let it die.   
     on what the CRTC calls   
   > Broadcast Distribution Undertakings – the big, vertically integrated and   
   > enormously profitable Internet/wireless/telephone/broadcast providers   
   > like Bell, Rogers, Shaw, Quebecor – could bring CBC funding up to a   
   > level that would allow it to properly do its job of providing an   
   > alternative to commercial media.   
   >   
   > It could put the CBC back in the business of being an authentic   
   > public-service broadcaster, beholden to no vested interests, commercial   
   > or political. It’s what the country needs and deserves as a culture and   
   > a community – more so than ever in the evolving digital era.   
   > ______________________   
   >   
   > Wade Rowland is the author of Saving the CBC: Balancing Profit and   
   > Public Interest. He teaches in York University’s communication studies   
   > department.   
      
      
   --   
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