Up Against the Squeeze: Measures to Help CBC/Radio-Canada Meet Its Mandate
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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. 5. The risks of this situation to the CBC's ability to meet its current programming objectives and its mandate are enormous. The situation begs the question: What's the sense of the licence without the wherewithal to get the job done? 6. Because of these circumstances, we call on the CRTC to exercise its power and influence to ensure that the country's national public broadcaster can stop the bleeding and stabilize itself during the next licence period. 7. We make the following recommendations to the Commission in this proceeding: 1 Hereafter CBC will be used to refer to CBC/Radio-Canada unless otherwise noted. 2 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/canada-in-the-minority-on-vertical-integration- ubb/article624462/ Canadian Media Guild CBC licence renewals Page 1 of 16 • Renew CBC/Radio-Canada’s broadcast licences • Establish a fund from approximately 0.75% of gross BDU revenues for incremental local and regional TV programming by public, provincial and community broadcasters • Guarantee mandatory carriage of CBC News Network in French-language markets and Réseau de l’information in English-language markets • Require the CBC to report to the Commission on a plan and implementation to better reflect the “multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada.” • Undertake or commission systematic research on the impact of the loss of local news and other programming on the communities that lose it. 8. CBC/Radio-Canada: a gift Canadians give to each other “What makes me proud, as a journalist in particular, is that no one has ever picked up the phone and said to me ‘don’t do that’, ‘go easy on that’, or don’t go down that road.’ I am fiercely proud of that at the CBC. (…) It’s about the merit of the story, it’s not about who are we likely to offend, or which sponsor is going to be unhappy with us.” Adrienne Arsenault, CBC reporter and CMG member, at the CBC’s Annual Public Meeting, September 2012 9. CBC is a respected national institution that serves Canadians in a multitude of ways in every corner of the country. The CBC is more than a television network or a radio service. It is mandated by the Broadcasting Act (3(1)m), through its programming to: (i) Be predominantly and distinctively Canadian, (ii) Reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions, (iii) Actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression, (iv) Be in English and in French, reflecting the different needs and circumstances of English and French linguistic minorities, (v) Strive to be of equivalent quality in English and in French, (vi) Contribute to shared national consciousness and identity, (vii) Be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose, and (viii) Reflect the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada. 10. For seventy-five years, the CBC has been central to innovation in the Canadian broadcasting system. In terms of distribution, it has been a pioneer in embracing and Canadian Media Guild CBC licence renewals Page 2 of 16 developing new media technologies and markets, on the forefront of both AM and FM radio, television, microwave and satellite distribution, direct to home satellite service, and digitization. Although new media technologies are not explicitly mentioned in the Broadcast Act, the CBC has interpreted its mandate “as technologically neutral or platform agnostic” and continued this pioneering role with delivering web based services3. The CBC has also been the mainstay for Canadian programming, providing a range of relatively popular distinctively Canadian programs in the face of reluctance for this task on the part of the private sector. From news to drama to sports to comedy, and more recently with on-line content, the CBC has been a program pioneer in almost all electronic media genres. 11. Even after years of funding cuts, identity crises, political attacks and active discrediting campaigns by private media companies, including Quebecor4 and the the now-bankrupt Canwest5 for their own competitive purposes, the public broadcaster is considered among Canada’s top ten “influential brands” according to a November 2011 poll conducted by Ipsos Reid. A poll commissioned by Friends of Canadian Broadcasting that same month indicated that 78% of Canadians believe the CBC is doing a good job of fulfilling its mandate to “inform, enlighten and entertain” Canadians. 12. It is fair to say that the vast majority of Canadians see a future for CBC. Since February, tens of thousands of people have participated in the Reimagine CBC project6, a citizen- driven initiative to involve Canadians in a public discussion to strengthen the future of public media. Participants proposed and ranked ideas; an online survey based on those ideas was launched last spring. As of the end of September, nearly 10,000 people have taken the survey. Most of the discussion has occurred online; events were held in April in living rooms, neighbourhoods and towns across the country and an event to launch the official report is planned for Toronto in late October. “CBC has taught me so much, from both radio and television programming. When I hear of an interesting author, it is thanks to Eleanor Wachtel or Sheila Rogers. When I find a new singer, band (usually Canadian), or a piece of music that soothes or awakens my soul, it is thanks to Tom(s), Julie, Molly, Peter, Andrew(s) or Rich (CBC2). Passionate Eye, Quirks and Quarks, The Fifth Estate, The Current, As It Happens, Spark, Strombo, Q – each and every one educate and 3http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3297009&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=2&Language= E 4 See the Sun News series “Down the drain” 5 The former “CBC Watch” series. 6 Visit http://www.reimaginecbc.ca/about . Canadian Media Guild CBC licence renewals Page 3 of 16 encourage discussion and share information that I would not find anywhere else. And then there are the laughs...Rick Mercer, The Debaters, 22 Minutes, access to Comedy Festivals. I cannot forget DNTO which I never miss thanks To Sook Yin Lee. What I have learned and where I have learned it....thank you CBC.” (Online post from a Reimagine CBC participant, May 2012) “Radio-Canada doit demeurer le rempart contre la peur, la propagande et les menaces. Radio-Canada constitue notre meilleure police d'assurance pour assurer le maintien de la démocratie au Canada.” (Online post from a Réinventons Radio-Canada participant, February 2012) 13. The top three priorities for public media that have emerged from the Reimagine CBC project are: • informed and in-depth reporting; • uniquely Canadian content; • public watchdog over powerful interests. 14. Throughout the current licence term, our members have been on the frontlines, serving Canadians with programming they could not get any other way: local and regional French-language programming outside of Quebec; programming in eight different Aboriginal languages as well as daily TV news in the North; prime-time Canadian current affairs on television; commercial-free radio that explores the major social, political and cultural issues of the day. 15. The importance of CBC’s local/regional presence was underscored in the Commission’s Decision on the public broadcaster’s previous licence renewal: “Providing a true reflection of Canada, both regionally and nationally, is at the core of the CBC’s mandate. If Canada’s many voices and faces are to be represented on the public broadcasting service, the CBC must have a strong presence in all parts of the country and must be committed to local talent. If the CBC is more attentive to its activities and audiences across Canada, if it gives them greater opportunity to express themselves on the airwaves and to take part in decisions that affect them, the Corporation will be in a better position to reflect and enrich the lives of Canadians.” (CRTC 2000-1) 16.