CBC should ‘explore alternative funding models’: Senate committee

The Senate's transport and communications standing committee is recommending that CBC/Radio-Canada “explore alternative funding models and additional ways to generate revenue to minimize the Corporation’s dependence on government appropriations.” The committee issued a report Monday following a study it held into the future of Canada’s public broadcaster, which heard witnesses from the CBC, including president Hubert Lacroix, representatives from the CRTC, and watchdog groups, among others. The study followed funding cuts by the Conservative government in 2012, which brought CBC funding down by $115 million implemented over three budget cycles, and ended a $60-million content-creation subsidy that the CBC had been getting every year since 2001. The report said that during its study the committee did “not encounter compelling arguments that an increase in government appropriations was necessary to fulfill the Corporation’s mandate or to increase viewership.” The committee did hear from numerous witnesses who called for stable-multi-year funding for the CBC, it said, recommending that to achieve such stable funding, the broadcaster “may need to look at funding models other than parliamentary appropriations.” Options for alternative funding that were brought up during the hearing included a licence fee, like the fee in place in Britain that funds the BBC, a dedicated broadcasting tax, sponsorship by companies, viewer donations, and paid subscriptions, the report noted. Watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting said in a press release that recommendation, and a recommendation to reallocate a portion of CBC funding to an external fund that would finance Canadian content, are “a thinly-disguised cut to CBC’s parliamentary grant that could never be implemented without a major contraction of the services that our national public broadcaster offers to Canadians every day.” It added the recommendations in the report would “fundamentally change the national public broadcaster for the worse.” CBC said in a press release issued Monday that it had been “hoping for more” from the report. “This report fails to propose constructive suggestions to address any of the real challenges facing the broadcasting system,” it said. The report said that members of the Senate committee all agreed that a public broadcaster is necessary in Canada, but that there are “various views” about how it should respond to the changing environment in broadcasting and communications. “The disagreement reflects the difficulties in pinning down the nature of possible market gaps in this changed environment and the set of merit goods that should be offered by the public broadcaster,” it said. It made several other recommendations regarding the financial situation of the public broadcaster, including that CBC should divest its real estate holdings and instead lease the office space and facilities it needs. The report said such a move “would allow the Corporation to focus on delivering its mandate, and would free up valuable commercial real estate.” CBC has in recent years made moves to sell real estate, such as its Montreal headquarters. The report also said the CBC should “review all non-executive salaries and compensation to ensure they are in line with those for comparable positions with private broadcasters.” Several witnesses had suggested the CBC could eliminate advertising, the report said, recommending the broadcaster “examine the benefits and the costs of commercial advertising on both the English and French services.” The committee said changes need to be made to the CBC’s mandate. That includes an amendment that would “include increases in the presentation of Canadian history and Canadian film,” the report said, suggesting the Broadcasting Act could be amended to reflect that new priority. It also said the CBC should “ensure that its programming reflects all regions of Canada.” A number of witnesses had taken issue with the Prime Minister appointing the CEO of the corporation, the report noted, suggesting that the CBC’s board of directors instead be the body responsible to appoint and manage the president. “This would, additionally, allow the CBC/Radio-Canada’s board of directors to exercise improved oversight with respect to the office of its president and CEO,” it said. The report also called for representatives from the public broadcaster to appear in front of House of Commons and Senate committees on an annual basis, and recommended that it “be more transparent in its operations, specifically with regard to the disclosure of financial information, procurement and contracts, and salaries; and it must make such disclosures easily accessible to the public.” The committee also made a number of recommendations regarding programming, telling the CBC that it should focus on content not being offered up by the private broadcasters. Such programming could include “more Canadian biographical/historical dramas and documentaries, public affairs programming and … amateur sports and performances by Canadian artists,” and improved coverage of local and municipal affairs and more community-oriented programming, it said. It also recommended that “CBC/Radio-Canada discontinue all in-house production of non-news and current affairs programming, and instead emphasize the broadcasting of performances by Canadian artists and cultural events,” including Canadian ballets and orchestras. It should also broadcast more amateur sports, such as minor league sports and university sports, the report said. The report, which noted that the Broadcasting Act was last updated in 1991, also said the Senate committee “believes strongly that the Act must be modernized” in order to “reflect the realities of providing public broadcasting services in the new world of Netflix, iTunes and YouTube and other sources of information and entertainment.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Shruti Shekar at sshekar@thewirereport.ca

CBC should ‘explore alternative funding models’: Senate committee

Broadcast | July 20, 2015

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CBC should ‘explore alternative funding models’: Senate committee

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