Tait defends Tandem initiative at CRTC hearing

On the final day of the first week of CBC/Radio-Canada's license renewal hearing before the CRTC, CBC executives Friday defended the broadcaster’s branded content initiative Tandem, pointing to what they called "guardrails" put in place after the initiative was put on a pause following public criticism in the fall. Responding to questions from CRTC commissioner Alicia Barin, CBC president Catherine Tait said that while branded content on CBC has been sold to advertisers for years, it was the launch of the initiative under the name Tandem that had provoked the backlash. "It's speculative because obviously I was not here then, but I think it was the press release that announced the name Tandem, that provoked a reaction," Tait said. "Pretty well every news organization -- reputable and respectable, respected news organizations -- do this kind of advertising, and oftentimes they name it. Oftentimes naming it makes it clear that it isn't part of the core activity," she told the commission. The initiative had come under criticism from former employees of the CBC, who in November filed a Part 1 application with the regulator asking it to investigate the program. The CRTC declined to open a Part 1 proceeding, but said in December that the matter could come up at the license renewal hearings. Also in December, a group of 500 current and former employees penned what they called an "Open Letter to Canadians" demanding that the broadcaster drop the English-language initiative. A group of 35 former employees also sent a letter to Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, asking that the government intervene. Prince Edward Island senator Percy Downe said in December that he would introduce an amendment to the Broadcasting Act preventing the CBC from selling branded content. "The issue of sponsored content … undermines trust in the CBC and creates the impression that if CBC News can’t be bought and paid for, it can at least be rented,” he said in a release at the time. On Friday, Tait sought to reassure the CRTC that certain guardrails had been put in place clearly labelling branded content as being advertising, and that the broadcaster had conducted a review of the initiative after the controversy. "When we became aware of the really serious concerns people were raising, we felt it was very important to do this review process. We put the whole thing on pause," Tait said. Barin asked what safeguards existed to avoid confusion for "vulnerable" consumers. Tait responded that it was a fluid process, and that it was "something we are going to continue monitoring." "There are challenges on the audio side that are different than on the straight visual side in terms of those kinds of signals to eliminate any kind of confusion. We think we've achieved it, but we will continue monitoring it," Tait said. Donald Lizotte, CBC's chief revenue officer, explained that there had been instances in the early roll out of the Tandem initiative where the CBC logo had appeared on branded content, but that the logo has been removed, and that it would not happen again. He also said that when navigating CBC websites, branded content would be delineated by a black or grey bar, and would not appear adjacent to journalistic content. The CBC president did push back against the suggestion that the CRTC might require it to produce a public report on its use of the Tandem initiative, and detail the title, client, platform, and disclaimers of each piece of branded content. "I'm somewhat surprised to have a request for detailed information and make it public on our advertisers. That would be extremely, I think, problematic for the advertisers," she said. "If we're into commercial transactions, this is not editorial content created by the corporation. These are advertisements. So I'm not trying to be obstructionist here, I'm just really perplexed at why the commission would find that helpful," Tait said. Barin replied that the commission was not seeking revenue figures, but rather information on how content was presented. Tait said that she would discuss the matter with CBC leadership, but was concerned that such reporting might violate contracts the broadcaster signed with advertisers. — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Tait defends Tandem initiative at CRTC hearing

News | 01/18/2021 11:20 am EST

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