February 26th, 2007

Mr. Jacques Lahaie Clerk Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage House of Commons Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Dear Mr. Lahaie:

Re: Role of the Public Broadcaster in the 21st Century

FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting submits the attached brief in response to the Committee’s invitation. We look forward to appearing as a witness during the course of the CBC investigation.

Executive Summary

In contrast with private radio and TV, delivering audiences to advertisers and wrapping Canadian ads around foreign programs, the public broadcaster’s mission is to illuminate Canada for Canadians. CBC is not a ‘company’, but rather an essential public service. Its Board should be chosen at arm’s length from patronage among the best and brightest Canadians, and that Board should have the authority to hire and, if necessary, fire its CEO. Local programming is at risk among all broadcasters. CBC’s priority should be to “reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions”. CBC Radio One should establish a programming presence in large centres where it currently has none. Canada should finance public broadcasting at least as well as other western democracies. CBC’s Board should be invited to develop a business plan to address its regional responsibilities and wean itself from its dependence upon television advertising. To fund that plan, Parliament should increase CBC’s budget progressively by annual increments of $100 million over the next five years, and consider this as an investment in up-dating Canada’s social infrastructure amounting to 15¢ per Canadian per day.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Morrison Spokesperson

200/238, 131 Bloor Street West, Toronto ON M5S 1R8 [email protected]

Brief to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage House of Commons

The Role of the Public Broadcaster in the 21st Century

“I am extremely proud of both CBC Radio and Television…. We are the envy of our American friends and neighbours who would dearly love to hear broadcasting that is both enlightening and informative.” Patricia Jacobs, Wembley, AB 1

FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting thanks the Committee for an invitation to comment and to appear as a witness during the forthcoming investigation. We consider the study you have undertaken to be important and timely.

FRIENDS is an independent, non-partisan watchdog for Canadian programming on radio and television in the English-language audio-visual system. 2 We are not affiliated with any broadcaster. One hundred thousand Canadians support our work with after-tax contributions. Although we collaborate with groups speaking from a French-language perspective, we do not purport to do so directly.

“Over the years, the CBC has been scrutinized by many committees, none of which have called for its diminution; indeed always for its consolidation and expansion…. You are not engaged in politics; you are engaged in a conversation with Canada, and you must listen well and hear profoundly. Nothing less is being asked of you.” Robert Harlow, Mayne Island, BC

Context

Since the dawn of the audio-visual age, the challenge for English-language broadcasting in Canada has been the overwhelming influence of United States programming. The private television broadcasting and signal distribution

1 The boxed quotations in this brief are drawn from submissions of individual Canadians to the Standing Committee. 2 In addition to matters covered in this submission, FRIENDS’ priorities include protecting Canadian cultural sovereignty through defending majority Canadian ownership and control of the media and communications sectors, and fighting increased concentration in media ownership, including cross- ownership.

200/238, 131 Bloor Street West, Toronto ON M5S 1R8 [email protected] Brief to Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage House of Commons

industries, which have matured under the shelter of federal public policy, have long been in the core business of distributing American programming into Canadian homes.

“I believe that the CBC’s role in the Canadian community is extremely important in light of the fact that we are inundated constantly with mostly American programming from the private Canada networks.” Harvey Rowland, Winnipeg, MB

Here is a representative sample of what was available on over-the-air television in Ottawa in prime-time last year:

Spring 2006 Ottawa Prime Time TV Schedules 7 p.m. - 11 p.m. February 18 - March 10 2006 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

7 Air Farce 22 Minutes Rick Mercer Report On the Road Again Red Green Marketplace Coronation Street Venture 8 Rick Mercer Report Air Farce Browning's Gotta Skate This is Wonderland Comedy Fest 22 Minutes Opening Night NHL Hockey Movie 9 Songwriters Hall of Hatching DaVinci's City Hall Fifth Estate Fame Getting Along Famously 10 The National Sunday Night CBOT

7 eTalk Daily W-Five Law and Order Jeopardy! 8 Corner Gas American Idol American Idol American Idol Ghost Whisperer Cold Case Degrassi 9 Medium Law & Order SVU Criminal Minds CSI Close to Home Movie Desperate Housewives

10 CSI Miami Amazing Race CSI: NY ER Law and Order Grey's Anatomy CJOH

7 Entertainment Tonight Canada Malcolm Legends and Lore Entertainment Tonight King of the Hill 8 My Name is Earl The Simpsons Skating with Celebrities Fear Factor Survivor NUMB3RS Falcon Beach The Office War at Home 9 Family Guy Family Guy The Apprentice House Skating with Celebrities Las Vegas Blue Murder Free Ride American Dad 10 24 Gilmore Girls Falcon Beach Without a Trace Conviction Code Name: Eternity Crossing Jordan (Toronto)

7 Who Wants to Be A Millionaire Access Hollywood Funniest Videos Star! Daily 8 Cops 7th Heaven Young Blades Monk Missing Funniest Videos Cops Movie 9 Smallville Dead Zone America's Most Wanted Movie Movie Movie 10 From Bella Coola to Primetime Thursday Charlie Jade Missing CHRO Berlin

Canadian Local Foreign Simulcast Foreign © 2006 http://friends.ca

During his successful effort to persuade Parliament to create a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the 1930s, the late Graham Spry coined the phrase: “It’s the State, or the United States”. Spry was not advocating “state broadcasting”; rather that only public funds could ensure a ‘share of mind’ 3 for Canada in the emerging audio-visual age. Spry’s values have found a modern resonance in the contemporary predominant viewing share for Canadian programs on CBC’s English Television Network, although this commendable

3 FRIENDS appropriates this term from another important funder of the audio-visual system, the advertising industry.

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Brief to Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage House of Commons

record has deteriorated in recent years under the current senior management of CBC. 4

“We need to recognize and honour the role of the CBC in keeping rural-living Canadians connected to each other and to the rest of Canada. The health and well-being of rural Canada is the cornerstone of the health and well-being of our nation.” Lafern Page, Edgewood, BC

“ ‘Canada: a People’s History’, a sensational series, could have been done by no other organization. What is so important about the CBC, television and radio and Newsworld, is that it engages Canadians in a collective conversation, one that binds us together. Given the 500 channel universe, this is more and not less important.” Margot Sackett, St. Andrews, NB

Building this share of mind for Canada has been the central mission of successive Broadcasting Acts. The goals of the present Act were unanimously endorsed by your Committee in the report Our Cultural Sovereignty, 5 which the Committee has recently re-endorsed. In that document, your predecessors wrote:

“Public broadcasting remains a vital instrument for promoting national values and identities. Public broadcasters create bridges that are essential for citizens and for democracy”. 6

For many decades the viewing share of foreign programs has been double that of Canadian programs in English-language television:

VIEWING SHARE OF CANADIAN AND FOREIGN PROGRAMS ON ALL ENGLISH TV, 6pm-Midnight 100%

90% Canadian 29 Programs 32 34 31 32 35 34 33 32 32 33 33 80%

70%

60%

50%

Foreign 40% Programs 71 68 66 69 68 65 66 67 68 68 67 67 30%

20% 10%

0% 1960 1967 1972 1978 1984 1993 1997 1998 1999 2002 2004 2006

Source: CMRI (BBM,Nielsen)

4 In 2003/04, CBC’s Canadian offerings were 86% of its prime-time schedule (a substantial decline from mid-90% levels at the turn of the century). In 2004/05 Canadian offerings dropped to 68%, and in 2005/06 to 79%. CBC now airs more hours of foreign drama than Canadian drama. Foreign drama series offerings were less than 2% of prime-time in 2003/04 but rose to 9% in 2005/06. Foreign movies accounted for another 9%. During the same year, Canadian drama series were only 4.5% of the prime-time schedule. 5 Often referred to as the “Lincoln Report”, June 2003. 6 Page 9.

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Because this two-thirds foreign share consists largely of fiction programs, English- speaking Canadian children – who grow up spending twice as much time watching television as they do studying in school – learn more about life (as American TV sometimes violently presents it) in Miami or Los Angeles than they do about life in Montreal, Halifax or Edmonton. Researchers find frequent misconceptions about the level of gun violence and crime in Canada, for example, as a consequence of long-term exposure to this phenomenon.

“Canada has survived as a country because we have found ways of communicating intelligently and with respect, despite the large distances and values separating us. That is the value of the CBC!” Angela Kelly, Ottawa, ON

Since most of this foreign viewing takes place on privately-owned Canadian television stations, CBC Television’s mission should be to present predominantly Canadian choices.

In this submission, FRIENDS will focus on CBC’s governance, local and regional programming and financing public broadcasting.

Governance

“The appointment of the Board and the President must be taken from the PMO and assumed by Parliament. We should have a Board composed of the best our country has to offer and it, and it alone, should hire and fire the President.” Jewel Rimmer, St-Lambert, QC

In 1996, the Mandate Review Committee on CBC, Telefilm and the NFB, chaired by Pierre Juneau, reported:

“The CBC is not a private sector company manufacturing automobiles or providing financial services. It is a critically important public service, which is in the public eye more than any other corporation in the country. The frequent controversies that arise over CBC programming illustrate this point dramatically.

“Therefore, the Corporation needs a Board that can protect the CBC’s independence and integrity from outside interference, on the one hand, but also can provide the sophisticated leadership that ensures the Corporation is fulfilling its various responsibilities. The more credible the Board, the more it will be able to guide and supervise the Corporation effectively. With this in mind, we would recommend that the government take the following criteria into account when making future appointments to the Board.

“We think it is crucial that the Board include a reasonable number of men and women who have real stature and prominence in their communities or professions – in business, labour, science or the academic world, for example. Other members should have achieved renown in the fields of broadcasting, journalism or the arts. And given the complex corporate and financial issues

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Brief to Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage House of Commons

the CBC deals with on a continuing basis, we believe that the Board should include members with high level corporate management skills. “Finally, we believe that Board members with a strong political background can provide some clear benefits. We want to stress, however, that the integrity of the Board and the independence of the Corporation would be enhanced if directors with known political affiliations represented the full political spectrum and not just the governing party. We note that this pattern has been followed by successive British governments and has, in our view, helped to preserve the BBC’s independence and prestige.” 7

This Committee also recommended that:

“The Broadcasting Act should be amended to specify that the President be chosen by the CBC's Board of Directors and not the Governor in Council, or alternatively, by the Governor in Council on the recommendation of the CBC Board.” 8

The Mandate Review Committee’s rationale:

“We think that in future the President of the CBC should be chosen by the Board of Directors. We note that this is the pattern that has been followed successfully by both PBS and the BBC for years. With all due respect to CBC presidents past and present, it simply does not make sense that over a period of almost 60 years, so few of the Corporation's chief executives have had direct hands-on broadcasting experience, either inside or outside the Corporation.” 9

FRIENDS strongly endorses this advice. We note that the Lincoln Committee adopted a similar position unanimously in 2003:

“In the interests of fuller accountability and arm’s-length from government, nominations to the CBC Board should be made by a number of sources, and the CBC President should be hired by and be accountable to the Board.” 10

FRIENDS further recommends that nominations for CBC’s Board should be drawn from the advice of eminent Canadians, such as, for example, Officers and Companions of the Order of Canada. Such an arm’s-length process could guide appointments under the authority of the Privy Council.

“The biggest problem with the CBC is the fact that its leadership is appointed by the Prime Minister’s Office.” Janet Findlay, Toronto, ON

7 Making Our Voices Heard, Report of the Mandate Review Committee – CBC, NFB, Telefilm, Ministry of Supply & Services, Canada, 1996, page 117. 8 Ibid, page 115. 9 Ibid, page 115 10 Page 567.

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Brief to Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage House of Commons

A reformed CBC Board with the power to hire and fire its CEO would address a serious accountability deficit at the helm of the Corporation, and would contribute to the resolution of other problems at the national public broadcaster, while putting its governance for the first time on a par with international standards in public broadcasting. We invite the Committee to insist on nothing less.

Local and Regional Programming

Members of Parliament are in a good position to know how important broadcast media are to the functioning of communities all across Canada. Broadcast media are an essential element in the infrastructure of local economies. They also facilitate the functioning of democratic institutions by informing citizens on major societal issues. And they fall under exclusive federal jurisdiction.

Local programming is on the decline all across the broadcast spectrum, particularly in smaller markets. On television this is most pronounced during prime-time, when most adults are free to watch. 11 This applies in spades to the national public broadcaster.

Among CBC’s statutory mandates, FRIENDS believes it has performed least well in recent years on its responsibility to “reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions”. 12 President Rabinovitch, in the early days of his appointment, attacked the CRTC for expectations it expressed in its January 2000 CBC licence renewal announcement regarding minimum levels of local and regional content. 13

He attempted to kill CBC English Television’s regional supper-hour news programs across the country. Only strong intervention by your Committee and tens of thousands of Canadians led to a compromise: thirty minutes of local programming, following Canada Now.14 FRIENDS has documented a 38% audience loss in the ensuing years. 15 Recently CBC Television has announced the termination of Canada Now and a return to regional supper-hour programming16 but it by no means follows that the lost audience will return to CBC Television.

Local news programming is a top priority for viewers. In Canadian Media Research’s 2006 TV Quality Survey, local news is the most important program

11 See the 2006 Ottawa prime-time schedule. 12 The Broadcasting Act, Section 3 (1) (m) (ii). 13 http://friends.ca/News/Friends_News/archives/articles01070003.asp

14 http://friends.ca/News/Friends_News/archives/articles05300002.asp

15 http://www.friends.ca/files/PDF/Report_Card.pdf

16 http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2006/11/30/cbc-media.html

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category identified by survey respondents: 61% of respondents were “very interested” in local news, and an additional 31% were “interested”. This compares with 45% who were very interested in national news (41% interested) and 33% who were very interested in international news (38% interested):

Percentage Interested in Local News , Anglophones 18-plus, Fall 2002 to Fall 2006

100% 1.0% 0.5% 0.4% 0.4% 1.1% 4.1% 4.0% 7.3% 7.0% 7.5% 90%

26.3% 27.1% 80% 31.1% 30.8% 30.6% 70% Not at all Interested Somewhat Interested 60% Interested Very interested

50%

40%

69.1% 68.5% 30% 60.6% 61.7% 60.8%

20%

10%

0% 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Source: CMRI (TV Quality Survey)

The Lincoln Report expressed the view that “it is incumbent upon the CBC to ensure that levels of local programming – based on local needs– are delivered to audiences” and added: “The CBC cannot possibly be expected to act on one part of its public mandate – over and above its other responsibilities – if it is not ensured sufficient resources”. 17 Your Committee’s report also called on CBC to “deliver a strategic plan with estimated resource requirements to Parliament within one year of the tabling of this report on how it would fulfill its public service mandate to… deliver local and regional programming”. 18

“CBC radio, in particular, is informative and delightful to listen to without commercials. I and more and more young Canadians listen to it in the car and in the shower! Sports and news (without American spin) from a Canadian perspective (Olympics) are important.” D. Reavie, Brockville, ON

FRIENDS understands that CBC is submitting to the Minister of Canadian Heritage a new plan to expand CBC Radio One’s programming capacity in approximately ten cities which it does not now serve. We recommend that the Committee extend its support to such a plan.

As the Lincoln report notes, additional resources are needed to enable CBC to discharge these grassroots responsibilities.

17 Op.cit, page 217. 18 Ibid, page 219. While the CBC failed to meet the Committee’s deadline (June 11, 2004), it did present the Committee with a copy of a regional plan submitted to the Minister of Canadian Heritage on February 3, 2005. See: http://www.friends.ca/files/PDF/Local_Strategy.pdf

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Brief to Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage House of Commons

Financing Public Broadcasting in Canada

“The thing that will save our country from being absorbed into a cultureless playground of competing interests is an engaged citizenry equipped with information supplied by ethical broadcasting that empowers them to act for the good of all. CBC has the mandate to achieve that now, and we must support it with the funds required to enable them to do a good job.” Janet Vickers, Abbotsford, BC

Canada’s investment in public broadcasting is modest when compared to most western democracies. The Lincoln report offered comparative data from our OECD partners and identified Canada as ranking 20th among the 25 OECD countries, expressed as a percentage of GDP: 19

Canada spends 0.08% of our GDP on public broadcasting, well below the OECD average of 0.14%, and far below Finland (0.28%), Denmark, Norway and the

19 Ibid, page 178.

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Brief to Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage House of Commons

United Kingdom (0.23%), and Germany and Hungary (0.19%), the leading countries cited above.

As Committee members may know, the majority of national public broadcasters in western democracies are funded through viewer/listener levies, rather than through annual appropriations from general tax revenues. A recommendation from the 1996 Mandate Review Committee to explore such a system in Canada was shot down through the concerted opposition of the Department of Finance, and Canada’s cable and telecom companies. 20

FRIENDS recommends that, as a long-term goal, funding for Canadian public broadcasting should be increased to at least the OECD average. The Committee should recommend to Parliament practical benchmarks for the success of Canadian public broadcasting, including at the top of the list, meeting its mandate to “reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions”.

FRIENDS has made an identical recommendation to your colleagues on the Standing Committee on Finance, where our comments were favourably received over the three most recent pre-Budget consultation cycles. 21

FRIENDS notes that the Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications’ recent Media Study touched on reforming CBC’s mandate. Among its recommendations, the Committee called on CBC to reduce its dependence upon advertising and professional sports. Both of these directions would, of course, require an inflow of additional public funds.

We also note that Prime Minister Harper, in a 2004 speech to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, advocated that Canada should “seek to reduce CBC's dependence on advertising revenue and its competition with the private sector for these valuable dollars”. 22 Clearly, this goal would also require additional public funds. It would also enjoy substantial support from Canada’s private broadcasters, by reducing CBC’s drw upon advertising dollars.

FRIENDS therefore recommends that CBC’s Board of Directors be invited to develop a multi-year business plan to build a strong local and regional strategy and to reduce the Corporation’s dependence on advertising revenue in return for an incremental increase in its Parliamentary allocation of $100 million each year for the next five years. This business plan should also indicate how the Corporation would reduce its dependence upon

20 Playback, February 12, 1996, page 1. 21 See, for example, recommendation 11 from the 2004 pre-budget consultation report of the Finance Committee http://www.friends.ca/News/Friends_News/archives/articles12130401.asp and http://www.friends.ca/News/Friends_News/archives/articles12130604.asp 22 http://www.friends.ca/files/PDF/SHarper.CAB.n29.pdf

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Brief to Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage House of Commons

professional sports 23 in order to balance its program offerings in the direction of drama and children’s programming, among other under- represented categories. Five years hence, this would amount to 15¢ per Canadian, per day.

“Parliament should provide CBC with sufficient funding so that it can meet its grassroots responsibilities while reducing its dependency upon television advertising.” Lynda Weston, Stratford, ON

“When we hear that more money was spent on the CBC back in the 70’s than is being spent now we think, “Is this really true?” If it is, shame on Canada.” Jean & Gordon Dakin, Parson, BC

“Due to the mountainous character of the region I live in, CBC Radio One is almost the only source of information available to me. Without it I would be cut off from the rest of Canada and the world. Although I am sending you this e-mail, I do not have this technology at home and must travel twenty kilometers to access it at the local CAP site. This is because I have no phone line available. My radio operates on battery power. In many ways I live at a19th century level. CBC Radio One is my connection to the 21st century. When I hear that CBC could become a thing of the past, it makes me fear for this country we call Canada. If your Committee does not in the end find in favour of keeping and strengthening the CBC, both Radio and TV, it will have failed Canadians and condemned us to becoming Americans.” Michael Brown, Edgewood, BC

– 30 –

Additional information: Jim Thompson 613-447-9592

23 In 2005/06, 48% of CBC English Television’s prime-time audience watched sports programs, dwarfing the audience for Canadian drama, and raising serious questions about scheduling strategies.

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