CBC – All or Nothing

I think I feel a call to my MP, Bev Oda coming on.  The CBC (or the federal government) needs to make a choice.  Either allow paid commercials on both TV AND radio or eliminate them totally across all their platforms – all or nothing 

It has never made sense in my black and white brain: CBC runs a TV operation that competes in the commercial TV landscape, the radio operation runs like it’s competing with the commercial industry but they’re commercial-free, and they get a massive subsidy from the federal government every year (over half of their revenue)

Now the CBC can’t make ends meet (and it’s not going to get better), so keeping the status quo makes even less sense.  They need to drastically crank up revenue, or cut costs 

And there are big costs associated with being a competitive media player:  In 2008, CBC spent $11 million on advertising ($1.4 million of that supported radio).  This is a lot less than what CTV and Canwest spent, but significant portions of those spends were just money changing pockets across their own properties – in the CBC’s case it’s all out of pocket.  They spend a ton of money to get programming that people will watch (including Hockey Night in Canada, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and all their own productions) and fill up 80 radio stations with content.  Not to mention sales staff, costs of audience measurement, the high-end envelopes they mail out invoices in…

They’re screwed though – at least on the TV side.  If they don’t incur some of these costs, no one will watch and the revenues will sink further.  So if they’re going to sell commercials, they need to do this – you have to spend it to make it

As a media geek, the obvious thing for me to say is that the CBC is missing out on a large amount of revenue by not allowing paid commercials on their radio stations (we’ve said it before too).  If they made this one change, they could probably cover their current revenue shortfall as well as the new costs to sell the ads

Done.  This would seem completely rational to most Canadians.  The commercial precedent is already set with TV and they get the added revenue without tapping taxpayers directly.  To the CBC Radio lovers who will complain: suck it up.  It’s not going to hurt Canadian culture all of a sudden.  You’ll still love it and you’re taxes won’t increase to pay for it – plus, 80%+ of the population who never listen to CBC Radio won’t even notice

But maybe TV should follow radio instead – kill the commercials and take a hit on the revenue

The CBC’s mandate is to “provide radio and television services incorporating a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens, and entertains…predominately and distinctively Canadian, reflect Canada and its regions, and contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression”

I buy into this.  The CBC was started to ensure we weren’t overrun with US media, so I think we need it now more than ever.  While I don’t think having ads on a TV or radio station hurts its ability to promote Canadian culture, following a commercial model has put them in a trap that takes them away from Canadian content or makes it unaffordable.  Jeopardy/Wheel of Fortune may have helped CBC’s audience numbers (and increased ad revenue as a result), but really, where do these shows fit into the mandate?  I’d even argue that as Canadian as hockey is, the NHL should not be the CBC’s #1 hockey focus and could be served better elsewhere (for the NHL and fans)

Go the PBS route and now you have a service for Canadians that fits the mandate.  It’s funded by the government because they can afford it – with 30% total revenue chopped out from elimination of ads and other associated costs reduced.  Focus ALL the money on producing TV and radio that fits the mandate and make the math work.  I bet even the Conservatives would pony up a few more bucks if the mandate was being fulfilled better

There may be a happy medium between these two ideas, but that’s the basic decision that has to be made.  There’s no rational or fiscal way for the current situation to make sense.  The CBC needs to do its job for Canadians and they won’t be very good at it if they stay in the same rut

I’m sure it would be another productive conversation with Bev