Up Against the Squeeze: Measures to Help CBC/Radio-Canada Meet Its Mandate
Up against the squeeze: Measures to help CBC/Radio-Canada meet its mandate Canadian Media Guild Submission in response to BNC CRTC 2011-379-3 October 5, 2012 1. The Canadian Media Guild (CMG) is a union that represents more than 5,000 CBC/Radio-Canada employees and freelancers outside Quebec and the City of Moncton. Our members are on-air hosts and anchors, reporters, videographers, producers, sound and lighting technicians, media librarians, IT and finance specialists, and freelance contributors. As employees on the frontlines, we have a unique perspective on public broadcasting in Canada. 2. We are pleased to participate in this public process and we strongly support the renewal of CBC/Radio-Canada’s broadcast licences. We request to appear at the public hearing in order to comment on any additional information that becomes available by that time. Executive Summary 3. It is impossible to consider the renewal of the CBC1’s broadcast licences without looking at the state of the Canadian broadcast industry and the insecurity of funding that is provided for public interest programming and services. 4. The CBC plays a fundamental role in Canadian broadcasting, in the promotion and development of local and national talent, and in its major contribution to Canada's cultural life. It is the most important cultural engine in the country. As a public broadcaster, ideally the CBC should be funded adequately to fulfill the myriad of programming the Broadcasting Act mandates it to deliver. Unfortunately, this is not the case. To make matters worse, after the recent mergers and acquisitions, the CBC now finds itself squeezed from all sides of an industry that Carleton University Professor Dwayne Winseck points out is highly concentrated by global standards and more than twice as concentrated as in the US2.
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