Senator wants to amend Online Streaming Act to deal with CBC

A Prince Edward Island senator told his colleagues he wants to bring in a trio of amendments to the Online Streaming Act to deal with deficiencies he sees at CBC/Radio-Canada. Senator Percy Downe of the Canadian Senators Group was speaking Tuesday during debate on C-11. “The Online Streaming Act, currently before the Senate, provides a useful and rare opportunity for us to look at the Broadcasting Act as a whole to see what improvements can be made. To that end, I have three major concerns that we can fix as we take this opportunity to review the Broadcasting Act,” he stated. His first concern was the cancellation of local television news broadcasts as a result of the pandemic. PEI does not have a private broadcasting source of news, he told the chamber. “In a time of crisis, Prince Edward Islanders were abandoned by CBC Television as a direct result of a decision made at CBC headquarters in Toronto,” Downe said. “To be clear, CBC local radio and television broadcasts form an essential service in Prince Edward Island that must continue to receive the support and funding necessary for it to perform its vital function.” There was no way for Islanders to appeal the decision, he noted. While the decision was eventually reversed, the CRTC was absent from mandating the CBC to fulfill its duties to Canadians, Downe argued. The senator would have the corporation fined $2 million a day for each day local news is not broadcast. The money would be directed to local libraries. The second proposed amendment revolves around sponsored content on the CBC website. Downe pointed out that the Canada Revenue Agency placed ads that looked like news stories on the corporation’s website. “Unable to earn any positive media for their well-known incompetence in fighting overseas tax evasion, they decided to buy some positive media coverage and try to pass it off as legitimate news, which is the problem inherent in sponsored content,” the 19-year Senate veteran said. “It is why I object to the CBC, through its marketing arm Tandem, attempting to incorporate such content into its digital news platform.” Downe would prohibit the use of sponsored content on CBC platforms. While the private sector may choose to accept such advertising, the public broadcaster should be held to a higher standard, he added. CBC President Catherine Tait defended the broadcaster's Tandem sponsored-content initiative during CRTC hearings into CBC's license renewal last year. Downe's proposed amendment is an echo of the senator's previous attempt to amend the government's first attempt at overhauling the Broadcasting Act under the previous parliament's Bill C-10. The Tandem initiative had come under criticism from former employees of the CBC, who in November, 2020 filed a Part 1 application with the regulator asking it to investigate the program. The CRTC declined to open a Part 1 proceeding, but said a month later that the matter could come up at the license renewal hearings. Also in December, a group of 500 current and former employees penned what they called an “Open Letter to Canadians” demanding that the broadcaster drop the English-language initiative. A group of 35 former employees also sent a letter to then-Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, asking that the government intervene. Downe's last change to the Bill C-11 would revolve around compensation for CBC senior management and high-profile broadcasters. In this effort, he is following an example set by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The British broadcaster releases the names of senior on-air talent, the programs they host and their annual salaries within a range of roughly C$7,000. “By contrast, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation rarely provides an average salary for all employees within a C$50,000 salary band,” he remarked. “So, for example, while we know that Nick Robinson at the BBC earns between £295,000 and £300,000 to host the BBC ‘Today’ show, we only know that five CBC staff earn between C$250,000 and C$300,000 with an average salary of C$342,000 — no names, no programs and, more importantly, no information on gender. That last part is significant.” The significance is that when the BBC reluctantly agreed to release the salary details, it was discovered that female employees were being paid much less than their male counterparts. The BBC had claimed it was averse to releasing the information due to competitive concerns. Downe proposes that anyone at CBC earning more than a Canadian senator –$164,500– have their salary details made publicly available. That same day, the Senate Transport and Communications Committee heard from opponents of the bill, including a trio of YouTubers. The committee continues its hearings Wednesday night with witnesses including Digital First Canada and Accessible Media Inc. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Senator wants to amend Online Streaming Act to deal with CBC

Broadcast | September 28, 2022

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Senator wants to amend Online Streaming Act to deal with CBC

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