What the CBC needs: not more money, but real leadership
In a 1939 speech, my godfather, Leonard Brockington — the CBC's first chairman — passionately urged our new public broadcaster to concentrate 'all available sources of revenue … on the production of Canadian programs.' He described the ideal model as 'public ownership of stations, competition in programs,' and warned that 'advertising and the profit motive should not be the foundations on which this new medium of mass communication should be built.' If only his advice had been followed.
Instead, we've ended up with a hybrid public broadcaster — particularly in television — that is increasingly dependent on advertising revenue, and perpetually pleading poverty when compared to its international peers. In broad strokes, CBC's budget is about $1.4 billion of which about $400 million comes from advertising revenue — more than the promised new funding, but more than sufficient to distort its vision as a public broadcaster.
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Canada News.Net
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