CBC ponders selling off broadcast infrastructure to increase operating funds

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp is considering renting or selling much of its broadcast infrastructure to raise money for programming. President Robert Rabinovitch recently told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that the CBC is conducting an internal review of its holdings, with an eye to shedding its transmission system and some buildings. The CBC's buildings are "wired, they're highly digital in many cases, (and) they can be very useful to people in the private sector." He suggested the CBC could share space with some major telcos and telecom operators who may rent them "because of the extent that you can link the buildings to major switches." "We are in the building management business," he added. "It isn't a core competence, and if we are going to be running buildings, we should have professionals running buildings that have one objective: to maximize revenue for the corporation. That revenue may be maximized sometimes through sales. It will be maximized, I believe, by setting up a rental stream." Rabinovitch said he would rather rent the infrastructure than sell it because the rents would give the CBC a steady income, which it needs to offset cuts to its federal grant. As well, about 25 per cent of CBC viewers still get their signals from rooftop antennas, and the CBC will need space on its towers for both digital and analog broadcasting. In 1996, the CBC's Mandate Review Committee recommended the CBC consider privatizing its distribution system to save money. The corporation has already subcontracted about 50 per cent of its distribution activities, but still owns most of the infrastructure. In Britain, ITV has contracted out its entire transmitting system, and in the U.S., most broadcasters have sold off their towers and transmission systems."Is it going to be more cost effective for us to continue to manage them, maybe in a different way? Or would it be more efficient for us to rent them out, or to sell them to someone and rent them back?," Ravinovitch asked. "There's huge change coming, the whole matter of digital systems changing from analog to digital, and that's going to cost us millions and millions of dollars." Rabinovitch reminded the MPs that much of today's technology was unheard-of when the CBC built its infrastructure. He said the CBC would probably own a satellite if the 18-inch dishes that exist today were around in the 1960s.

CBC ponders selling off broadcast infrastructure to increase operating funds

News | 03/30/2000 5:00 am EST

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