The NDP’s heritage critic Charlie Angus has weighed in on the CBC’s mandate, in an interview conducted by CARTT:
What would you like to see done with the CBC, considering the review the committee has planned?
I definitely think a review is needed. The CBC has done some things very well but where are we challenged today? English television.
It costs a lot of money to put on good domestic content and we have a situation where we are beside the biggest cultural industry in the world, and we don’t even have a full market because out of the 30-some million Canadians, nine million (in Quebec) are watching a completely separate market. So about a third of our market is watching their own programs, which is great for the Quebec market but it puts further challenges on English television.
And you’ve been on record asking for more or stable funding for the CBC.
Since the cuts in the mid-’90s, the CBC just can’t fulfill the job it has to do. We wanted to set a standard for domestic drama, but how is it going to do that when we also want it to be a voice in the regions, where it does play a very vital role.
We’ve talked about the need to return to CBC television’s roots - the supper hour shows have basically disappeared - and to compete in the multi-channel universe as well and get ready for high def.
It simply doesn’t have the money to do that, so I believe we have to increase the funding. Next to the United States we provide about the lowest level of support of any of the western nations for (public) broadcasting.
From bottom up I think goes to U.S., New Zealand and then Canada, per capita.
So it’s an issue, because when CBC-TV does well it’s like CBC radio, where everybody listens to it.
And then you’ve seen the loss of local programming in your own riding firsthand. When I was growing up there, we had a separate hour newscast based out of Timmins. It was done around the corner from my house, actually, because I lived in the shadow of the old CFCL towers, but as you know that’s all gone now. There’s a reporter there still for CTV but I’m not sure there’s a CBC reporter based there anymore.
Radio-Canada has one there but they don’t even have an English CBC radio reporter in the region. So, it’s a challenge, especially in terms of regional programming, I’ll tell you. A couple weeks ago one of the transmitters went down and so they were feeding my part of the region the morning show out of Toronto. I don’t know what else you can do quicker to get an audience to turn off but waking up in the snow and hearing about the Don Valley parking lot - people won’t listen.
At the end of the day, viewers at some level want to see themselves reflected - whether it’s domestic drama or whether it’s regional news programming.
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Well Bah Humbug to you buddy! Yes it would be great to have more Gvt funding but that won’t happen anytime soon. Just so you know…CBC/Radio-Canada is generating revenues on it’s own that all goes into programming, count English in there too. The Real Estate Division saved an estatimated 44M$ just this past year from property taxes and such. ALL that goes back into programming ’cause that’s our mandate, to generate revenue for the Corp. And me thinks it’s all good!
I agree that the CBC should have stable consistent tax payer funding — $0.00!
If it wasn’t such a biased organization, I might not be so offended with the forced payment. But, its own internal studies has shown that it’s a left wing Fiberal/Liberano propaganda machine.
Cut off tax payer funding and ask the socialists and Liberals to pay to watch.
The NPR in the States is laft wing too. But, it’s not so offensive because they have their little telethons to raise money.
What? FYI - There are 43 federal Crown corporations (not including subsidiaries) in Canada now. From Canada Post to the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation - which own IMAX theatres - to VIA Rail. So let’s cut funding to our national broadcaster so the “Smart Regulation Initiative” can get the extra cash…yeah right.
Hey Nikki - yes, let’s cut tax payer funding to the “national broadcaster” because it is a biased organization that regularly offends the very people who unwillingly pay for the abuse.
Or, why not get one of the heavy hitting “journalists” to some digging. Interview the decision makers and creative talent. Ask them, anonymously, how they vote. Where they stand on the big issues. Then present this story describing the CBC’s diversity of ideas and thinking — or lack thereof. I dare them! Or is Fox News the only news organization worthy of the CBC’s investigative attention? Out Foxed indeed.
There are two things that are causing CBC to bleed too much red ink. One is the fact that CBC feels compelled to own as many television stations across the country as possible, and that has meant that limited resources are spread too thin throughout the country. No American network owns 90% of its stations - it wouldn’t even be allowed. Ownership is spread around, and that means affiliates have healthy news departments with 4 or 5 hours a day of local news. But CBC? They are trying to program 13 English stations with the amount of money that is capable of running 3 stations. There is no reason why CBC should have to own all of it stations. They should sell off all English stations except CBLT Toronto, CBUT Vancouver, and CBXT Edmonton (the three largest Anglophone markets). The others would be owned by other companies that don’t yet own stations in cities with CBC O&Os. And for Pete’s sakes, CBLT shouldn’t rebroadcast to every corner of Ontario. It should remain a Toronto station. There should be local CBC affiliates similar to CKWS Kingston in places like London, Wingham, Barrie, and Sudbury, to name a few.
The other problem is that Radio-Canada has too many French TV and radio stations in locations with next to no Francophones. CBXFT in Alberta and CBKFT in Saskatchewan have next to no potential viewers. The ratings for radio station CBKF in Regina were a 0.0 in one of the recent BBM books. I have heard of contests on Windsor’s CBEF where there aren’t any listeners to call in to win. This kind of waste has to end. Sure, I don’t mind having French transmitters in areas with few Francophones, but local programming is a waste because there’s too few watching or listening.
I have no sympathy for CBC becuase they are wasteful. No, the network shouldn’t be privatized, but most of the TV stations need to be. Some radio stations should also be sold off, to maximize local programming on radio. Canadian broadcasters have forgotten about their responsibilities to be local stations, not networks. That is where the Americans have it right.