Against a steady drumbeat of negativity, a glimmer of hope…
Sometime within the next two years, the CBC is almost certainly going to lose its single largest source of advertising revenue, NHL hockey. It will be out-bid for the contract by one of the country’s enormously wealthy commercial broadcasters, probably Bell Media. That will mean a loss of 40 per cent of the corporation’s total annual ad revenue, but also a loss of something close to 400 hours of Canadian content programming – a hole that will have to be filled. Already bled white by decades of funding reductions from successive federal governments, the CBC is in no position to survive this blow.
(h/t Maz2)
In the comments at the link, there are several blaming the Conservative government for the demise of CBC.
I may vote several times for Harper in the next election, depending on how my selection of burkhas hold up.
“The country is in peril of losing its public broadcaster” If this is peril, please may I have some more. Can’t happen soon enough, and hopefully before the next federal election.
mid island mike
No funding problem, the taxpayer will make up the difference.
Great Ceasar’s Ghost!!!!
I sure hope somebody is watching this very closely! I would hate for the CBC to kick the bucket without anyone noticing!
Stay on the job Kate and keep your ear to the rail on this one. I will buy the first round for the house when they die…
Defund it now.
Can we start celibrating NOW?
“the CBC is in no position to survive this blow”……I say GREAT!!!!!
The CBC “bled white” – good grief, it’s the tax payers who have been bled white.
Faster please!
It will be an absolute miracle if the CBC dies, but I will believe it when it happens.
Canuckguy is right: the taxpayer will cover the shortfall.
My dear SDA friends: if you don’t want to appear delusional stop fantasizing about the demise of the CBC.
Spend your time more productively: run Big Foot to ground!
For better or worse it is a CORE Canadian cultural institution and therefore impossible to shut down.
Recall, the CPC, which has good reason to despise the CBC, increased its subsidy.
Harper kills babies and eats puppies alive. He is the walking, talking manifestation of Satan as there has ever been! – according to the 3% that watch CBC
So where do I get me one of those burkas?
Oh be still my heat…
Privatize this biased media asap.
…and the lefties will start the biggest PITY party in the history of Canada and we the tax payers will pay for it and not be invited to the party after all the CBC elite only associate with their own kind not we the great unwashed whose only role is to be bled dry to support their life style.
40% of the ~20% of revenue that ads bring in. The rest is covered by the taxpayer. Cut the costs of NHL coverage and I think they’ll survive the 8% loss.
I suspect they’ll “cut” themselves in some painfully dramatic way to make it look like it’s a bigger deal though. And CBC-friendly media will have stuff to write about for months.
$2,739,726.02… The daily subsidy to the CBC.
The CBC will probably dust off re-runs of The Junior Forest Rangers to fufill the Canadian content rule…
Kick ’em when they are down Mr. Harper.
They’d do it to you sir….
“No funding problem, the taxpayer will make up the difference.”
No truer words were ever spoken.
Let the CBC die? Give me a break.
It has been pissing all over Harper & Co. for years, and there hasn’t been a peep of protest. Matter of fact, Gentle Jimmy Moore loves them so much that he keeps increasing their budget.
If you want your kids to have the comfort and security of a taxpayer funded job-for-life, tell them to get a job with the CBC or Indian Affairs.
I should think this has something to do, also with the growth of the internet and blogs such as this, that are slowly eating into the media as a whole. I just read in the April 13 edition of The Spectator, in James Delingpole’s column (it comes late to Burnaby library) that Small Dead Animals has won a 2013 Bloggies Award! Were we told about this? Perhaps, but I was probably unaware of the importance of same. Being mentioned in the Spectator is on par with being invited into the Royal Enclosure at Ascot – I should think! Bravo!
What great news !!
I had never considered this before.
Some traitorous Leftists have turned to an American website to fight their battles for them. Truly pathetic!
Sell the CBC!
That cheered me up. A fellow needs reasons to hope for the future.
“Small Dead Animals has won a 2013 Bloggies Award! Were we told about this?”
Well, let’s see…
-it’s displayed on the Small Dead Animals sidebar;
-there was a dedicated thread for this and other blog categories during the voting period.
Happy Groundhog Day. :#)
Denial is More than a River in Egypt for Canadian Leftards:
Robert Werner: Interesting to see a bunch of Leftist Canucks turning to an American organization to do their dirty work. Pathetic!
Those who want to watch the CBC should pay the extra taxes required for it. Why should the rest of us be forced to fund a pro-Lieberal Party of Canada PR machine?!?
Ullrich Fischer: Right, when we can be forced to pay to have Fox News North on basic cable instead! Harper is evidently trying to beat Mulroney’s previous record as the most hated prime minister ever!
Riley August: He’s already beaten Mulroney and Diefenbacher. It’s a war against Canada. Also, I have never seen the CBC be a pro-liberal party PR machine. It’s always been a moderate political voice, which happens to be in line with the Liberals for the last 10 years. *gasp* maybe because they’ve historically always been a MODERATE party?
Another big laugh from a Kool-Aid drinker:
Elaine Harrison Wilson: The CBC holds our leaders in all political parties to account. There’s not one party that doesn’t require monitoring on behalf of the Canadian people. Most parties, however, don’t take this kind of drastic measure to muzzle the CBC.
Just goes to show how much attention I pay to sidebars, and awards I’ve never heard of before. But to be mentioned in the Spectator !!! We’re not talking about some lefty rag,or even the NYT! But I get your point. By the way, is this groundhog day?
I find it interesting that the same bunch who want to save the MotherCorp, who as we all know is paid for by the theft of our hard earned dollars, are the same jerks who are perfectly happy to kill SunNews. Sun costs these leftists not one dime.
The hypocrisy is awful and letting the Canadian Communist Corporation go private would be the best way to level the playing field. Let them fend for themselves. If they do well, good for them. If they die, they die.
CBC TV ceased being relevant back when television sets had rabbit ears. Canadians don’t give a hoot about Canadian content…unless it’s HNIC.
CBC radio is another matter. Although I personally don’t listen, they do have an audience. I think that the CBC will have to reinvent itself in the future. That might mean fund raising, subscriptions or doing whatever it takes to stay on the air.
Canadians who want the CBC should step up to the plate and pay for it. If you want to read a magazine you purchase a subscription. Noting is different here.
The CPC will not let it die…it was a Conservative gov’t that created it in the first place.
The TV side is moribund. RIP.
Heh, just kidding.
But perchance you awoke and saw your shadow in early February, you’d have an airtight alibi.
Cheers.
Bosh and diddle! The CBC will simply replace HNiC with more skating, ringette, broomball, cycling, Arctic sports, and kids’ soccer (especially those matches where they don’t keep score).
Sorry, MND, you’re wrong on this one. I told you two years ago or so that this would happen and exactly how and why. The impact of losing HNIC is huge on CBC’s revenue and CanCon. Given its enormous costs and net negative revenue, the axechops in the television division are going to be huge. And there’s no bailout coming from the feds. Not this time.
The only chance CBC had was Stursberg’s focus on building audience and hence raising revenues. When Lacroix fired him it was lights out time. And the fact that CBC cheerleader Rowland thinks that was a good move shows just how out of touch he is.
And CBC deserves it for deliberately pouring derision over the views of at least one-third of Canadians for decades, nearly all of which are CPC voters. You think Harper’s going to save the CBC and blow any chance of balancing the budget by 2015 when simply by doing nothing he can take down his principal opposition? HAH! Not a chance. There will be a lot of cold smiles and sorry-we-can’t-help-you coming from the PMO.
And as for James Moore, with a firm hand up his back he will be turned around and say, see we poured all this money into it and it’s still a loser. It ain’t over yet, but break out the popcorn, it’s going to be fun to watch.
Why wait?
After Climategate 1 &2, then Chiefo Moose Stew, CBC has made it plain that they will omit coverage of news that contradicts their narrative and slant news coverage by deliberate mistruths( Hunger Strike?), so what ever mandate they operate under, informing the public ain’t part of it.
Not sure if it’s been mentioned on here before, but a quick primer on CBC’s budget numbers came out recently at:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Finances+Robbing+radio/8035960/story.html
One more reason to make sure shiny pony is taken down. Suck on that LAS.
A few CBC financial tid-bits from the records:
2005/2006: total revenue of $1.53 billion, with government subsidy of $946 million (61.8% of total revenue).
2011/2012: total revenue of $1.861 billion, with government subsidy of $1.162 billion (62.8% of total revenue).
Average annual subsidy increase since Mr. Harper assumed office: 3.8%, or about two and half times the rate of inflation (although somewhat less than the 4.4% average annual increase in federal spending over the same period).
Advertising revenue 2011/2012: $375.7 million, or 20.3% of total revenue, as you identify.
Loss of HNIC revenue (@40% of advertising revenue — not that professional hockey is Canada anymore, anyway) would be about $150 million per year, but, as you identify, you’d need to net out the cost of service of HNIC programming (I have no idea at the moment what that is, but let’s say it’s one-third of advertising revenue, for the sake of argument, implying a net loss of $100 million annually in revenue). Couple that with the ten percent budget cut (whatever that means precisely), and I’m guessing that CBC’s total revenue is probably going to fall in absolute terms.
CBC’s mandate, under the Broadcasting Act, 1991, is a matter of public record — see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Broadcasting_Corporation.
I’m seeing that the circle can’t be squared, particularly when the organization’s total budget is something like 0.11% of GDP (0.04% of GDP without subsidy; hardly the level needed to have a defining influence on “the Canadian identity” or whatever the delusion du jour is, assuming anybody would really want that, anyway). The problem with privatization in this case is that it’s not really clear what they would sell — they are a one-legged stool commercially, and they’re about to lose even that leg, apparently; I suppose there could be some value in the CANCON provisions of their licence, assuming any of those protectionist deceptions survive or can’t be transferred elsewhere, which I’m sure they can).
This ain’t 1932 anymore, any more than it’s 1867 in terms of Canada Post (which actually has many more commercializable opportunities, considering that it acts much more like LCBO and The Beer Store in many localities than CBC, IMO). Maybe a one-time endowment, or something, followed up with an appeal for donations and gifts from those of the, er, Geritol set, who think they’ll keep ‘er — just so that we don’t have to send our money to Buffalo to see re-runs of “Yes, Prime Minister”, “Downton Abbey”, or any other great British show of the past forty years we want to see.
I received a petition being passed around via email. This is an excerpt:
This is just one part of Prime Minister Harper’s plan to control the Canadian media landscape and shift it to control the Canadian media landscape: clamping down on the CBC while his allies help Sun News get national carrier status.
Just imagine David Suzuki, Anna Maria Tremonti, Peter Mansbridge, Rick Mercer, Stuart McLean, George Stroumboulopoulos or programs like The National being controlled by Harper and his cabinet.
Sign our urgent petition to keep the CBC independent from government control.
The country is in peril of losing its public broadcaster, in any recognizable form, and we need to know how to prevent that from happening
cough cough; unsustainable national debt,…cough cough; failing business model,…cough cough; broadcasts 8766 hours per annum aaand 40% of their ‘loyal’ viewers only watch during what? 200hrs of hockey and the CBC has had a virtual monopoly on covering televised hockey since the inception of televised hockey when? 60 years ago?!
Public television is socialized television just as public health care is socialized health care.
Trivial query: If Hitler had called his party the National Public party or if V.I. Lenin had called his Bolshevik ruled international hostage amalgamation the Union of Soviet Public Republics.. oh wait, the Bolshies did throw the word ‘public’ in there and that’s why it lasted so long.
Time is up Canadian Bolshevik Corporation. No more monopoly power for you.
In this sea of watered down conservatism, one shiny rock in the distance upon which the CBC ship will strike and sink…
A smattering of applause, drinks for all my friends.
Pfff. Do you think this is just about the CBC? If it were, no problem—the Young Pretender has plenty more shills in the Toronto media, and the forcibly retired CBC hacks who were still employable at all would find their feet at another Toronto network.
Problem is, anybody with an Internet connection and the sense God gave a gnat found out long ago that the only thing reported by the Toronto and Montreal media, public or private, print or broadcast, that wasn’t a pack of lies was last night sports’ results. They’ve outlived their usefulness even as a means for ad men to convince the gullible to buy garbage nobody needs or ought to want, and they know it. Left to their own devices without the CRTC to prop them up, CBC, CTV and Global would go the way of Scinteia in no time.
Related: apparently our local free weekly closed its doors this month, this only being more than a nine-day wonder because I only learnt about it tonight, 21 days after the fact (the last issue was dated April 11). The editorial board, with all hope gone of their jobs being saved or ever returning, finally admitted the awful truth that now that every dive bar in town had a website, Facebook page or Twitter account—or some combination of the three—they no longer needed the free weekly as a shill. Nobody would buy ads any more.
The Globe has the exact same problem. I’ll admit it—the full article was gated, so I didn’t bother reading more than Kate quoted. How many here would be daft enough to pay good money to read anything printed in the Globe if they had a choice?
The CBC is not the country’s “most important cultural institution”. It doesn’t have the audience to be that. Only leftist fantasists would even attempt to claim that TV hardly anyone watches is the most important of all. The shabby secret is that they support it because their own writers and producers, etc., will continue to get cheques paid from tax dollars.
Furthermore, there is nothing special about “public broadcasting”. It is merely broadcasting that is presently done by a government-constituted body. One sentence of Rowland’s article states, “The public service mandate demands excellence in information and entertainment – which means reflecting the country’s values, interests and aspirations in all genres of programming”. Nations don’t have “values, interests and aspirations” – only individuals do, and most of them find their information and entertainment elsewhere. The left always talks “excellence” but rarely delivers.
There is enough anecdotal evidence from commenters here at SDA regarding their own comments on the CBC web site not being published to conclude that not every Canadian’s values and interests are acceptable to the CBC, thus further contradicting the official bumpf.
I repeat: Follow the money. It’s not about culture, it’s about writers and actors and hangers-on getting paid for their work without bothering to care whether anyone watches or not. In other words, they want to go on producing without worrying about whether anyone chooses to consume their product. To continue to sponge indicates that these elitists think their own “values, interests and aspirations” are more important than those of the poor taxpayer who has to foot the bill.
That hole has been filled long ago with the Manure of the Suzuki crowd of Bunko artists
Raving Marxists. Lying politicians. Micro-programming even a 7 year old knows is completely bogus, worse absurd lies. Mean while the harassment of Women in its corporate culture like children in the BBC abounds.
Something in these free ride rent seekers brings out the natural born perverts in them.
Mixed feelings on this one.
Dislike gov’t media – yes.
But I also despise everything being on cable which is a giant rip-off. It’s over the air only in this house with some net streaming services.
I basically only watch hockey over the air (HD) as CBC has over the air channels.
Bell will make it expensive cable only which will mean no more NHL hockey in our house — oh well, better things to do.
If HNIC is gone no reason to watch the POS
TV news has turned into partisan drivel and is going than same way as the print media. Predict within ten years most will be going to the internet for their news
Hurray! Having a state broadcaster just guarantees a continuing megaphone for leftist statism, paid for increasingly by taxpayers as the CBC’s ad pool shrinks. So just let the beast die!
“The problem with privatization in this case is that it’s not really clear what they would sell”
The CBC has physical infrastructure, and most important, enormous amounts of bandwidth and frequency. That’s where the real money is. It also has a large, only partly occupied Ottawa headquarters. The real privatization problem is the unions. No one wants those fleas with the rest of this dog.
It is immaterial how much of an anti-Harper entity the CBC is. Even if it promoted sunshine and rainbows it does not merit a subsidy.
North Korea and Cuba have socialized medicine, public schooling and state-subsidized broadcasters (axil-of-evil), just as Canada. If CBC bites the dust one of three will go down. Cross your fingers and hope for the best.
@ Oz: Public television is socialized television just as public health care is socialized health care.
Well stated.
@ David S.: The Globe & Mail article claimed “decades of funding reductions from successive federal governments”
Thanks for pointing out the increase in funding from the federal govt. Do these guys not do any fact-check?
You mean like when they went on strike a few years back and no one noticed?
I still maintain that the CBC workforce should represent the same ratios of the general population in terms of percentage of socialists and homosexuals.