What to do with Radio Canada and the CBC?
 

As noted on another thread, the CBC wants $400 million in annual increased donations from Ottawa so it can be ad-free.

I think CBC Radio is universally appreciated but far less so the CBC. In it's desperate bid for ad revenue we get our national broadcaster "bringing us together coast to coast to coast" by trying to find "Canada's Smartest Person" and of course what kind of self respecting CBC decade would it be without yet another rendition of Anne of Green Gables.

I think the only way the CBC TV will maintain any relevance is if it sways more towards a PBS platform with extras such as sports. Save a fortune and ditch every local newscast in the country and simply run the National. This would save a king's ransom for a service that is already provided 24/7 including the CBC. Local news can be covered by local private TV stations which nearly universally in English Canada get the higher ratings anyway.

I would like a commercial free CBC with nearly total or all Canadian content but not without a major overhaul of what the CBC and what it sees as it's future and if that means more renditions of Canada's Smartest Person, then they shouldn't get a cent.

Millions of Canadians willingly already pay for quality programming as exemplified by BC's Knowledge Network, Ontario's TVO, and even sending money to the US via PBS. The fact that hundreds of thousands of Canadians are willing to send their money out of country for decent programming says a lot about both the need and how little they feel they get from our national broadcaster.

Got to keep CBC Radio 2 in Calgary, where else am I going to get my classical music while on the job site.

For anybody who has driven long distances across this great land. CBC radio is a nessesaity. As for CBC TV it needs some help. Crap like Canadian Air Farce, Little Mosque on the Prarie and yes the new Anne of GG are examples of shit we shouldn't pay for. But Schittz Creek is genius.

And this is why management decisions at the CBC should not be subject to "mob rule". This is simply about your personal likes and dislikes. Other people might have the opposite views on these same programs. It does not mean that they should be cancelled or continued as a result.

It's vogue to complain about the quality and breadth of content on CBC Television, but this is directly rooted in the instability of their funding over the past 25 years or so. It's difficult to run a network and make real commitments to different projects, or take any sort of risks when you don't know if your budget will be cut $100 million next year or not. There is value in public broadcasting, even in the digital age, and I'd love to see stable funding models of some sort. A gradual phasing out of advertisements on the TV network would also be a good thing. On the other hand, I don't believe a BBC-type television license model would be appropriate, because there's no precedent or tradition of this in Canada and I think it would be politically toxic. I also don't think it should just opt for the PBS model of essentially being a minor player in the media landscape. The CBC should be a strong and widely viewed network that focuses on promoting the mandate that already exists in the Canadian Broadcasting Act, and the funding meat to make it happen.

Air Farce was hugely successful, which is why it ran for decades upon decades, and Little Mosque was one of the most globally acclaimed series to come out of Canada in this century. Ditto for Anne...they'll likely actually make money on that globally.

Even though Poverty in Canadian Children has increased from 15% to almost 20% in the last 25 years, CBC has made a request that for it to go commercial free & it would like to have a boost of almost half a Billion dollars in tax payers money so that instead of $35/year for every man/women/child goes to CBC but an increase to $45/year. How many people in the country pay that amount of money to any single cable or radio station per year?

if you want to say no to these increases, visit http://www.byebyecbc.com/ and add your name to the growing list of Canadians that don't want to pay even more for government workers like the CBC.

Oh look, child poverty started increasing when the CBC's budget started feeling the big cuts.

I therefore conclude that the cause of child poverty is the cuts in the CBC budget.

I might watch this if it's on netflix.

I'd like to see it broken down into more radio stations kind of like the BBC.

CBC One - be like a current music station like BBC One with some commercials to help bring in revenue perhaps
CBC Two - an all-classical music station, more like it used to be back in the day
CBC Three - the same as it is as available currently only online or on Sirius/XM
CBC Four - Talk and news current issues, like the current AM Service
CBC Five - kind of like BBC 2 with an eclectic mix of music, sort of an adult version of BBC 1, variety of shows from pop, indie and rock to country

When you live in a rural area CBC is one of the only stations you can pick up, they have some good stuff sometimes.

I used to love brave new waves back in the 80's

What I'd do with the CBC:

-Maintain the English language network more or less as is
-Expand online, TV and radio news and current affairs
-Improve radio service by increasing the programming budget for CBC Radio One
-Shift Radio 2 back to focus a bit more on classical music and arts-related programming
-Roll out Radio 3 stations nationwide, shift it a bit to include some of the more adult-contemporary offerings currently on Radio 2
-Beef up local newscasts
-Build a new broadcast centre for radio and TV in Calgary, which is woefully underserved by CBC

Yeah, it would be expensive but quality costs money.

I have no idea with the French side.

Today's G&M has an interesting piece by tv critic John Doyle about a new CBC mini-series called Keeping Canada Safe (Thursday, CBC, 9 p.m.) about the day-to-day of first responders in different parts of Canada. It sounds more in the documentary genre than existing "reality" shows about first responders. I don't know that I'll rush to watch it, but it strikes me as the sort of useful programming that CBC is particularly well suited to produce.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/...ticle34292589/

I would love to see a rejuvenation of programming on Radio One, especially on weekday evenings. That is, ditch the Current and Q condensed reruns from that morning with some fresh content.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking when I referred to improving Radio One. There should be something between As It Happens and Ideas that isn't just a rerun from earlier. These days with podcasts posted online right after airing, there's really no need to do that.

I wish Dispatches came back, or a radio show like it. That was one of the best and most unique shows on the CBC... something with that kind of international focus through a Canadian lens is sorely missed.

Dispatches is sorely missed!

Getting off track here, but I can't think of a radio program as perfect as As It Happens. Radio magic every night of the week, in my humble opinion.

I too miss Dispatches and love CBC Radio (both Radio 1 and 2).

I'm quite honestly ambivalent about CBC TV. I think it has a place, but with the way the TV landscape is changing, I wonder if they wouldn't be better off producing higher quality content for other distributors to release and just get out of TV broadcasting entirely. I'd probably keep Newsworld in that situation.

CBC English TV has always had difficulty with producing non-sports, non-public affairs content (think fiction and variety) that Canadians wanted to watch, regardless of the ups and downs of its funding levels.

Every era has also had its one or two modest CBC "hits" living alongside a much larger CBC prime time broadcast schedule that is received with wholesale indifference by the Canadian viewing public.

When I was a kid the exceptions to the rule where King of Kensington and Beachcombers. In our era it's Little Mosque on the Prairie and Murdoch Mysteries, I guess...

Hire someone from the BBC to oversee the CBC and fund it so that it is a network that delivers content Canadians will watch. I would be happy to pay a TV tax if we were guaranteed decent channels and programming like they have in the UK. Our current for profit media outlets provide very little decent Canadian content and only focus on profit so they are basically re-broadcasters of US programming. I remember living in the UK, the non-BBC channels competed by also providing high quality homemade shows.

Canada must be have the lowest standards for TV programming in the Western country. It's time to turn that around.

Radio 1 & 2 were better before they screwed around with them with Q etc. Still CBC Radio seems to be well respected.

CBC should get rid of any of these "reality" programs and get back to telling Canadian stories whether that be comedies, drauma, investigative programs, documentaries, or the arts.

Lots here complaining about Q, but isn't it one of their biggest shows, and syndicated across the continent? I know it was when he who must not be named was the host anyway.

less critical today with satellite and streaming services, but still good none the less and in many cases is a local news source preferred over tv.
I assume you mean in a historical case and RAF and LMotP have been off the air for years. (2008 and 2012). And as Acajack states, we each have our own preferences as I find SC and Kim's Convenience both excruciating to watch.

I think in answering the OP's question, we need to ask another question and that is, what role should the CBC play? Is it to "tie us together", produce Canadian stories (that we've likely heard a million times already - Anne!), show Canadian sports (TSN, SN, RDI ???) or something else.

I hardly watch tv, but when I do** I can't imagine why I would watch CBC - no offence, but I just don't know what role it's trying to fill.


** FTR, when I watch tv it's mainly HBO/AMC dramas.

At a minimum, CBC English television should be shut down. It's a money pit of no real value - it is very rare to see a CBC show, other than hockey, rank even in the top 50 in ratings.

Is that even a relevant criteria? Not challenging, just asking. I imagine it depends on what role is envisaged for the CBC.

Feb. 27-March 5, oddly enough HNIC didn't make the top 30 programs for the week. Murdoch Mysteries and Heartland were the only CBC programs on the list.

http://assets.numeris.ca/Downloads/F...(National).pdf

Rare event on that Saturday, Maple Leafs did not play. Probably a big contributor to HNIC not making it.

CBC local news may not be important for British Columbia, but it's a much more vital service in some markets where private broadcasters are lacking - particularly in Atlantic Canada. In New Brunswick and PEI, they are the only locally based TV broadcaster with news aimed at the province they are in; neither Global or CTV have a station in PEI and those broadcasters have a limited presence in New Brunswick. Ratings for the local CBC news in PEI are very high, I've read.

There are also several markets where CBC has only one TV competitor: Newfoundland and Ottawa in particular. Ottawa, shockingly for its size, has only one English private TV outlet, CTV's CJOH. I have heard that that station is very poorly staffed nowadays on the journalism side of things. Global has no local presence in that city, though they have a bureau for Global National since it's the national capital.

People in markets like Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary or Edmonton understandably do not understand the importance of CBC TV's local presence in other parts of Canada, where there is far less private competition. The private broadcasters here do not cover English Canada the way they cover Toronto and Vancouver.

If anything, CBC needs to do more for local English television. They have no presence in mid-sized, poorly served markets such as London and Northern Ontario. The London area, which including surrounding counties has a population of close to 1 million, gets a token CTV Two newscast. That's it.

Radio 1 - English
Radio 2 - French
Radio 3 - Punjabi
Radio 4 - Mandarin
Radio 5 - Tagalog
Radio 6 - Spanish
Radio 7 - everyone else

You forgot the service in indigenous languages, which is in fact a part of the CBC's mandate and something they do a fairly good job in large parts of the country.

Wanted to bring this thread back...……….

I have seen the CBC line-up and the more I look, the more I want to puke. CBC tots Schitt`s Creek as a success but for whom? CBC is suppose to tell Canadian stories and help Canadians connect to one another so how does SC do that? The show has literally gone out of it`s way to conceal where the town is suppose to be }aka somewhere in The States} lest it not be as positively viewed internationally. The CBC seems to go out of its way in much of it`s entertainment programming to pretend to be in the US. Canadians a generation ago were always accused of doing nothing but watching American TV and now it seems we still are except now it`s paid for by Canadian taxpayers via the CBC.


I use to enjoy the National but now they have managed to even screw that up. I enjoy CBC Newsworld a lot and CBC Radio but for english language TV I am starting to think it`s time to scrap the whole damn thing because most of it is irrelevant to Canadians and seems to be more of a make-work project than anything else.

The CBC is what has helped create and unite this country. Its been our voice through Wars, and natural disasters. It has been a beacon whenever Canadians have participated in sporting events. It brought a third of Canadians together to celebrate in the life of one of our most treasured artists. People watched and they listened. In some of the most remote parts of the planet we were all connected. From coast to coast to coast. It’s an historic institution that should be respected and protected. Schitts Creek, Burden of Truth, and Anne with an E, are all broadcast in multiple countries outside of Canada and they are all fantastic programs. I applaud them for all three of these shows. In Winnipeg CBC Radio 1 is number one, and it deserves to be. Great local cast, fantastic national one. The CBC connects us all, its harder to see its importance in the middle of the big city but if you live in Thompson, Lynn lake, Churchill, Yellowknife, rankin inlet, and Iqaluit. It is important. Rural communities deserve weather and farm and fishing reports too as well as updates on events and issues in their local communities. its our responsibility to make sure this continues. Please don’t ever vote to destroy our national voice. A private media company will never be willing or able to fill its shoes.

I'd increase funding for both Radio-Canada and the CBC. Like I would for PBS if I were American. Likewise for Via Rail and Amtrack.

Those are the two key words IMO. CBC filled a need at one point, but times have changed and are still changing. I'm fine with CBC radio continuing on, but couldn't care less about CBC TV. I can't speak for places like Rankin Inlet, but I know even in the many of the rural areas (like the norther Ontario town where my sister lives) people don't watch it anymore. Everybody has satellite TV and internet, and Netflix is more popular than ever. For better or worse that's the way things are. Let CBC stand on its own with out funding and they can still keep their mandate of a united Canada, but it can't stand on its own because it's not what people are interested in.

Schitt's Creek is a guilty pleasure. After a shaky start, it has evolved into something quite entertaining. The first episodes of the new season have been, imo, a bit weak however and I'm wondering if it's running out of steam.

Strangely enough I feel like I know more people who currently watch shows on CBC than there have been in recent memory. We don't have cable and don't pick up signal over air so I never really watch, but Schitt's Creek, Murdoch Mysteries and Kim's Convenience seem relatively popular here.

It's not so much the quality of CBC, it's the quality of CBC programming relative to its peers.

The current crop of CBC drama/comedies are much better than they were 5-10 years ago (Mr. D, Heartland, Little Mosque on the Prairie), but the bar has risen really high for what qualifies as "good TV".

CBC also needs to have more intelligent current affairs/events podcasts. With its limited funding, NPR has been doing a fantastic job on this front.

I find that CBC's entertainment programming has improved considerably over the past few years. Baroness von Sketch has some terrific stuff. I haven't seen Cavendish yet, but hope that it's better than Little Dog, which I found unwatchable. Also haven't yet seen Coroner, the commercials for which are a bit weird. Not sure what to think about the fact that they're bringing back Street Legal.

One program that they need to cancel already is This Hour has 22 Minutes. It has been beyond stale for years now.

We'd be a great sewer and pavement and flu shot country without the CBC/Radio-Canada, but is that really what we want?

To me at least, a country is more than just bricks, mortar, rocks, trees and very basic public services. I agree there needs to be a balance and some needs are more critical than others, but geez...

OTOH there needs to be some major retooling of some of the CBC's services - on that I won't disagree. CBC English TV in particular has consistently failed for decades in providing fictional (comedy, drama) and variety programming that the country's anglophone population actually wants to watch.

BTW you could have a revolution complete with guillotines and such here in Quebec if you dared touch any of Radio-Canada's services. And this includes the mainstream generalist TV network.

Oh yes I forgot about Baroness - I've seen some clips and it seems really quite good.

Agreed completely about This Hour has 22 Minutes, it stopped being funny many years ago. Just cringey at this point.

True, but it's also where the greatest need for reform is apparent, especially wrt news and public affairs programming.

You think news and public affairs programming is sub-standard at Radio-Canada TV?

Best option is to go down the PBS model out of the US. Perhaps with some Canadian twists.

Each existing CBC station is setup as it is own locally community (non-profit) owned and independently controlled entity.

CBC at the national level can continue to run News World (or what ever it calls in 24/7/365 news channel). The local stations can rebroadcast The National.

CBC also runs some national cable drama/entertainment channel limited to 100% created Canadian content. Some of that it creates, some it picks up from the local now independent CBC affiliates. Some of it is are reruns from its library of staff going through its history.

Once this is setup, the plan is for government to slowly reduce funding over say 50 years. The regional stations can run adds if they like or raise money. The national cable channels should be able to fund their operations from adds.

Since I personally can't stand the politics of the CBC, I'd prefer to see them get out of it entirely and focus on news and learning. If that was all that they did then I'd tell the government to give them whatever they asked for.

I completely agree.

A PBS model is the way to go with individual stations for local programming. The CBC should only be running the National ¨from Toronto for news so they can save huge sums of money on local TV news which invariably are poorly rated.

Certainly run different types of programming but 100% Canadian content with none of this pretending to be in the US crap. I do like a lot of the CBC content and certainly it has excellent news, current affairs, sports, drama, kids, and even some comedy series but it could be so much more with a lot less money and nearly commercial free.

Why the CRTC ever allowed the glut of American television stations to begin broadcasting on Canadian airwaves all those 30 or so years ago is beyond me. Now all we seem to want is American-style programming for entertainment, media coverage, etc.

We have really become brainwashed by American culture. Truly vomit-cringe worthy.

In large parts of Canada you can pick up American TV with rabbit ears. The CRTC didn’t have much choice.

I tend to agree that spending a lot of money on scripted programs that portray generic North American settings and hardly anyone watches anyway doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.

Not a big fan of the PBS model though. There is significant variation in quality between the stations and they all run different schedules and spend half their time begging for money.

It’s really nothing new. When the Canadian government first established Canadian radio stations in the 1920s, people were unhappy because the Canadian signals with their dreary Canadian content were drowning out the U.S, stations that had the programs everyone wanted to hear.

The new Anne of Green Gables is on Netflix.

EDIT: Darn, I thought this was a new thread. Did not realize I was replying to a 2 year old comment.

CBC Radio remains a gem, and should be preserved and even expanded. As previously mentioned, in large parts of the country, CBC Radio is the only quality product available, and does serve as a "glue" that binds the country together.

My model for CBC Radio would be very much like the BBC. If I recall, I think the BBC maintains seven streams nationally, as well as local and regional broadcasting stations (like BBC Scotland).

So, for CBC, I would make the following streams available over the airwaves nationally:

CBC-1 (very much like the current CBC-1, concentrating on news and current affairs, and maintained by a network of local CBC radio stations producing some local content, including morning and late afternoon news and information shows for people as they get up in the morning and commute to and from work ).
CBC-2 (classical, and by this I mean all classical all the time, not like the current iteration of CBC-2, which includes a bit of everything)
CBC-3 (jazz, world music, ambient, relaxation)
CBC-4 (pop, rock)
CBC-5 (country, folk)
CBC-6 (hip hop, rap)
CBC-7 (local music programming, aboriginal (for the north)).

As for CBC TV, something radical needs to be done. I agree that it should be more like the PBS (but not a clone). To that end, I would maintain advertising (I really dislike the way that the individual PBS stations spend half their time begging for donations). Having said this, PBS does some things exceedingly well, this is what the CBC should emulate.

1) - I would have CBC TV concentrate on high quality dramatic productions, especially producing content that presents Canada to the world (like the BBC does).
2) - Information programming and documentaries of all types (including nature and science documentaries, which should really be the CBC's forte (think NOVA and Nature on PBS)). The CBC could make a real impact on the entire world by doing this (such work could easily be sold to international broadcasters).
3) - CBC should really drop the idea of producing sit coms and low brow popular entertainment. Current quality is generally poor, and frankly a national embarrassment.
4) - The CBC should maintain good quality national and regional news and public affairs shows, but try to make their products more balanced in their presentation than they currently are now (more business news, more hard news, more local human interest, less SJW and activist content).
5) - The CBC should retain a sports department, but concentrate on international sporting events, and content not covered on SportsNet and TSN. Hockey Night in Canada should be maintained.
6) - To fill up the remainder of the time slots, the CBC should present the best of international programming (especially from the BBC), just like PBS does in the states.

By doing this, CBC TV would become the high quality public broadcaster that Canada needs and deserves.

Under that scenario pretty much the entire FM dial would be CBC/SRC.