Senators call for CBC to keep traditional broadcasting model

Members of the Senate are calling on the CBC/Radio-Canada to maintain its current broadcasting regime, saying it is necessary for those in areas with limited internet access. On Feb. 7 CBC president and CEO Catherine Tait said in an interview with the Globe and Mail that the public broadcaster would be transitioning to a digital-only model over the course of the coming decades. Dennis Patterson of the Canadian Senators Group raised the matter in Wednesday’s Question Period in the Red Chamber. “While they have clarified that they are ‘not abandoning anyone who’s watching on traditional television or listening on traditional radio,’ it still does raise for me, from a rural region, questions about the timing of making such an announcement now given the serious issues around broadband and connectivity throughout rural and remote Canada,” the Nunavut representative said. Leo Housakos, the Conservative chair of the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications, responded to the question. “I do have concerns, and all Canadians should have concerns because at the end of the day, we saw the CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada come out and acknowledge — and it’s interesting that right in the middle of the heated debate on Bill C-11, she acknowledged, for all intents and purposes, what many of us have been saying for a long time — that traditional broadcasting is declining quickly,” the Quebec senator said. “The announcement she made is that there is a plan over 10 years for CBC to transform into a digital platform rather than a cable broadcaster.” Housakos said he was concerned that the broadcaster was taking billions of dollars in subsidies from taxpayers and abandoning them for a format that is not in the CBC’s mandate. He also wondered why the CRTC is not reminding the crown corporation of its obligations under its broadcasting licence. Tait told the Wire Report in an interview last month that the CBC’s traditional broadcasting system is not going anywhere. “We don't have ubiquity in our broadband penetration in this country. As long as we don't, we will be serving over-the-air audiences,” she said. “We are committed to it 100 per cent. For as long as there isn't broadband ubiquity, we will be there. But it is a financial challenge.” The CRTC came under fire in June when it released the CBC’s five year licence renewal conditions. The commission allowed the public broadcaster to to spread its Canadian programming expenditure requirements out across its linear and digital offerings, and placed no minimum expenditure requirement on its linear television services. In a rare move, two CRTC commissioners penned their own dissents to the decision. Broadcasting stakeholders filed appeals to cabinet in an attempt to overturn the CRTC’s decision. The Federal government sent the decision back to the commission in September. Tait did not comment directly on the decision but defended the focus on digital. Tait said digital audiences are growing while linear are shrinking, and regardless of the platform, the broadcaster plans to have 80 per cent of its content independently produced. “As long as we commit to the same amount of expenditure – which we said very clearly we're willing to do – where it actually ends up, whether it's on Gem or on linear, should be the business of the broadcaster,” she said. – Reporting by Paul Park, ppark@thewirereport.ca, and Jenna Cocullo, jcocullo@thewirereport.ca, and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca.

Senators call for CBC to keep traditional broadcasting model

News | 03/09/2023 2:22 pm EST

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