The Macro
On Monday, we may have witnessed the beginning of the end of the CBC. At least, the end of Canada’s public broadcaster in its current state.
A Canadian Press story revealed the CBC paid out more than $18 million in bonuses in the 2023-24 fiscal year. That’s the same year that saw the CBC layoff 140 employees, eliminate 205 vacancies, and cut back on programming.
More than $3.3 million was paid to 45 executives, which works out to an average bonus of $73,000. Another $10.4 million was paid to 631 managers and $4.6 million to 518 other employees.
The timing of this story could not be any worse.
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party — which is poised to win an election that will likely be held sometime next year — has repeatedly threatened to “defund” the CBC and turn its Toronto headquarters on Front Street into condominiums.
Although we cannot know what he will do when actually in power, the bonuses paid out last year make it much easier for Poilievre to follow through on his threat.
Conservative politicians have threatened similar actions in the past. Some, including Stephen Harper, have followed through with cuts to the CBC’s annual appropriation. From 2006 to 2015, the Harper-led Tories cut funding by 14 per cent, or $173 million.
Of course, Liberals have also cut CBC funding. Jean Chretien’s Liberals slashed $390 million over his time in office.
However, the big difference now is that Poilievre believes there are votes to be garnered by ending government support to the CBC.
This electoral wager is based, in large part, on the fact the current Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has significantly expanded funding during its nearly nine years in power — and the Tories claim this has bought them favourable coverage. Many Tory supporters believe this baseless allegation.
(Point of clarification: the Tories have taken aim at the English-language CBC television and specifically excluded the French-language SRC, which has much higher ratings and is much beloved in Quebec.)
The best-case scenario now for the CBC, or so it appears, is that when the Conservatives are elected, they decide to give the public broadcaster a reboot by redefining its mandate, reconfiguring its funding model, and getting it back to fulfilling the role for which it was originally created.
Right now, the CBC is trapped between public and private media models and in the process, it has made some very silly decisions.
It should be noted: the CBC has produced some great programming recently, some of which (Schitt’s Creek, Murdoch Mysteries, Son of a Crick, Kim’s Convenience, Working Moms) has garnered a viable international following.
But it has also created a Canadian edition of Family Feud. How is that Canadian content?
The CBC has also attempted to compete with video streaming, paying to stream a broad array of shows from around the world through its free Gem service.
CBC Gem offers, for example, all of the best of CBC-produced shows and many UK-produced shows, including a healthy supply from the BBC’s Masterpiece Theatre, a model used by PBS in the United States. But Gem also features top shows from U.S. and U.K networks including HBO, Showtime, Sky, ITV, NBC Peacock and FX.
The strategy behind the free streaming of these is dubious at best. If you don’t pay for any streaming services, Gem is a good deal. And it might even be a break-even prospect for CBC, which inserts advertisements in its free stream.
But as a tool to grow an audience, it’s woefully lacking in common sense.
Does the CBC think Canadians won’t subscribe to HBO, Netflix, Prime or BritBox because they can access a small percentage of the content on Gem for free? This is not only a bad business model, it’s way outside the CBC’s mandate.
To date, CBC executives have shown a complete absence of any keen sense of self-preservation. They seem intent on wagering over and over again that no matter what they do or how much money they pay themselves, the CBC will endure.
That inflated sense of invulnerability, which has been enabled by previous governments that have only made cosmetic changes to the funding model, is incredibly maddening.
And it will be put to the ultimate test after next year’s election.
|
