What to do with Radio Canada and the CBC?

[Acajack]

According to Journal de Montréal the decline un CBC ad revenues is 4x that of Radio-Canada.

[Acajack]

Norman Spector on Twitter: "Tait Carrée"

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by thurmas

Canadian media and the crtc in general need a giant reset and reassessment of what Canadian media and content rules should look like going forward. The slow widdling down of things like much music and local sports departments and radio stations over the past 20 years and real lack in English Canada of prime time shows that can draw viewers and streaming services offering pittance in developing Canadian content needs to be addressed.

Originally Posted by thurmas

Growing up in the 90s i enjoyed English cbc for cfl and hockey night as well as air farce and 22 minutes when they were actually funny. As well Mansbridge leading the news desk it was more balanced and stronger journalism to that of how Rosie runs their news division today which is way more opinion based.

Agreed.

Despite you growing up in (assuming) Manitoba and me in southern Ontario it sounds like we had very similar experiences growing up, not just due to similar age range but how strong CBC was and its influence Canada wide at the time.

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

Aye, there's the rub.

Unfortunately

[thurmas]

Originally Posted by Acajack

According to Journal de Montréal the decline un CBC ad revenues is 4x that of Radio-Canada.

Sounds like English cbc was running on autopilot enjoying the crumbs Trudeau gave them and not prepared at all and freaking out when PP likely takes over in the next year or two. Will likely get very ugly when he implements his cuts and reforms.

[Acajack]

It'll be a bigger test for Poilievre than people realize when he has to navigate between CBC (unpopular with anglophones) and Radio-Canada (popular with francophones).

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by thurmas

Sounds like English cbc was running on autopilot enjoying the crumbs Trudeau gave them and not prepared at all and freaking out when PP likely takes over in the next year or two. Will likely get very ugly when he implements his cuts and reforms.

Not sure I follow? Why would one prepare to be shut down?

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It'll be a bigger test for Poilievre than people realize when he has to navigate between CBC (unpopular with anglophones) and Radio-Canada (popular with francophones).

It makes me disgusted that so many cuts are being made as Canada is growing so quickly. We'll be close to 50 million by the end of the decade. I understand CBC doesn't have the viewers or radio listeners of the 80s/90s and the times they are a-changin'

And while I'm not Francophone, I believe it's important to maintain Radio Canada and ICI Radio-Canada Télé for the almost 9 million Quebecers and large amounts of Francophone population in Ontario, NB.

I wish there was "efficiencies" to be found instead of axing 600+ jobs overnight. I know maybe I'm just nostalgic for our national broadcaster.

I was about to say we don't hear about BBC getting many cuts but it appears they've been a victim in UK with Sunak's Conservative Party administration.

[Wigs]

Talking to Americans in Buffalo/Western NY the CBC was always a source of pride of being Canadian. They would say "I grew up on Hockey Night in Canada" or "the CBC does a better job at news coverage than we get on the big 3 networks in America"

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It'll be a bigger test for Poilievre than people realize when he has to navigate between CBC (unpopular with anglophones) and Radio-Canada (popular with francophones).

I imagine the corporation will be sliced and diced into separate companies for anglos and francophones.

The former will be starved to death, the latter will survive if only for political reasons.

Preparing for the Conservatives is basically admitting the CBC is done, so I don’t know why the head of the CBC would make the execution any nicer a process for a new government. Make them pay for it politically, if no other satisfaction is to be had.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It'll be a bigger test for Poilievre than people realize when he has to navigate between CBC (unpopular with anglophones) and Radio-Canada (popular with francophones).

The easier solution would be to keep funding Radio Canada, with which he has no particular political beef, keep CBC Radio, which remains popular in English Canada and scale back CBC TV, which is unwatched, unloved and pisses off the Conservative base.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Wigs

Talking to Americans in Buffalo/Western NY the CBC was always a source of pride of being Canadian. They would say "I grew up on Hockey Night in Canada" or "the CBC does a better job at news coverage than we get on the big 3 networks in America"

A lot of Americans also appreciate CBC for its Olympic coverage. And rightfully so.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by thewave46

I imagine the corporation will be sliced and diced into separate companies for anglos and francophones.

The former will be starved to death, the latter will survive if only for political reasons.

There are good political reasons to try and spare Radio-Canada, but also keep in mind that the French CBC network is the only outfit in the CBC family that would be a viable commercial enterprise if, with a few tweaks, it were spun off on its own.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Acajack

There are good political reasons to try and spare Radio-Canada, but also keep in mind that the French CBC network is the only outfit in the CBC family that would be a viable commercial enterprise if, with a few tweaks, it were spun off on its own.

I can't imagine the federal government selling off SRC. If for no other reason, it is one of the more visible bits of federal infrastructure in the province and would undoubtedly be of value during the next referendum campaign (when it happens).

As for the English language CBC (especially the TV service), hopefully this crisis will serve as a wake-up call as to how irrelevant and out of touch they have become to the vast majority of Canadians in the ROC. Perhaps if they concentrated on doing general interest programming of interest to the broader population and quality documentary series rather than obscure and inane niche programming to satisfy every woke cause under the sky, they wouldn't have driven the viewers and advertisers away, and they wouldn't be in this mess.

There is a price for wokeness and political correctness. The CBC is soon to learn what that price is....................

If CBC English TV survives, it should become a lot more like PBS or TVO. I actually watch those services. I gave up on CBC TV after Mansbridge left.

[Acajack]

All true though CBC English TV was already in big trouble and irrelevant to most Canadians many years before anyone had ever heard of wokeness.

The wokeness is now sealing the deal though, and giving its detractors an even stronger ideological reason to scuttle the Corp.

[Acajack]

CBC/SRC is a tough one for any politician. Unpopular and unloved in the ROC but well supported in Québec.

The apparently easy logical fix of scrapping the English network and keeping the French network really isn't one. Lots of ROCers (even if they have no love for CBC) will be angry and see this as pandering to Québec, even if the numbers support keeping the French network alive.

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by Acajack

CBC/SRC is a tough one for any politician. Unpopular and unloved in the ROC but well supported in Québec.

The apparently easy logical fix of scrapping the English network and keeping the French network really isn't one. Lots of ROCers (even if they have no love for CBC) will be angry and see this as pandering to Québec, even if the numbers support keeping the French network alive.

I suspect the political optics of knifing the CBC (especially the TV network) and keeping Radio-Canada aren't as bad as they seem on the surface.

The people who will oppose this aren't voting for the party who is going to implement it anyway. The pandering to Quebec aspect might bite a bit, but it'll likely be lost in the victory cheer of killing the CBC. SRC might as well be a non-entity in most of these conversations, especially if it's operating at near-breakeven or at a slight profit.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

There are good political reasons to try and spare Radio-Canada, but also keep in mind that the French CBC network is the only outfit in the CBC family that would be a viable commercial enterprise if, with a few tweaks, it were spun off on its own.

Perhaps both could be sold off?

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by Acajack

CBC/SRC is a tough one for any politician. Unpopular and unloved in the ROC but well supported in Québec.

The apparently easy logical fix of scrapping the English network and keeping the French network really isn't one. Lots of ROCers (even if they have no love for CBC) will be angry and see this as pandering to Québec, even if the numbers support keeping the French network alive.

Since I assume you’re talking about a hypothetical conservative government, who is going to make the “poor anglos” argument? Conservative Premiers? The Liberal Opposition? Probably the NDP, but a Tory government wouldn’t be bothered by that.

It wouldn’t have to be so dramatic either. They could announce CBC TV is switching to a commercial free TVO (and maybe some local news) model and dropping the expensive sports and scripted TV.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Since I assume you’re talking about a hypothetical conservative government, who is going to make the “poor anglos” argument? Conservative Premiers? The Liberal Opposition? Probably the NDP, but a Tory government wouldn’t be bothered by that.

It wouldn’t have to be so dramatic either. They could announce CBC TV is switching to a commercial free TVO (and maybe some local news) model and dropping the expensive sports and scripted TV.

There are plenty of people who will make the "Quebec gets pandered to again" rant without needing the corresponding "poor anglos" argument on the flipside.

[Hecate]

I used to listen to CBC radio a lot when I was younger, then the whole jian Ghomeshi thing happened and it wasnt the same, should have gave him his job back when he was found not guilty. But would he have gone back… clearly That’s one hell of a toxic work environment. Then lots of the great shows were axed, used to loveDNTO, but they canned that, Stuart died so vinyl tap was done, good veteran hosts retired so younger ones could stay, and the whole vibe just went down. It really began to suck so I stopped listening to it completely, but recently have started listening to more radio Canada and the difference in quality of programming between the French and English services is amazing. Night and day.

As for tv, some of their recent shows have been good, I love sort of, but it’s very niche. And then there was the success of schitts creek, and heartland. But can’t really think of anything else. Rosemary Barton has to go, toxic personality. Even the cbc news channel is pathetic, same clips over and over and over. For hours on end. With the amount of people working for them and they can’t update shit? Sad. They used to be very reputable, now meh.

Bureaucracy killed the cbc, at least the English side of it.