Last week saw reports that Ottawa is set to make a major announcement regarding the future of the CBC in an attempt to “modernize” the public broadcaster. Senior government officials were reported as saying that alongside major legislative and regulatory changes, a new CEO is expected to be named.
This new CEO will have a difficult task ahead of them, as these expected changes come against the backdrop of contentious debate surrounding the CBC’s ongoing purpose and perceptions of its impartiality.
Is the CBC fair and objective—or ideologically driven? Is its programming world-class? Does it deliver products that are useful, widely enjoyed, and worthy of such a huge investment of taxpayers’ dollars?
To intelligently assess the CBC’s value, we need to understand three things: how it spends its funding; to what degree private sector broadcasters are already doing the work covered by CBC’s parliamentary mandate; and the CBC’s impacts—both positive and negative—on Canadians.
The data suggests that the CBC’s value ultimately depends on which Canadians we’re discussing. For instance, a typical young suburban family in Toronto is probably only vaguely aware there is a CBC. But private broadcasters and other media know it all too well—and view it as an existential threat to the industry.
CBC’s financial structure
According to the CBC’s 2023–24 projections in its most recent corporate plan strategy, the company will receive $1.17 billion from Parliament; $292 million from advertising; and $209 million from subscriber fees, financing, and other income. Company filings note that revenue from both advertising and legacy subscription pools is dropping. Advertising is trending downwards because of ongoing changes in industry ad models, and the decline in subscriptions can be blamed on competition from “cord-cutting” internet services. The “Financing and other income category” includes revenue from rent and lease-generating use of CBC’s many real estate assets.
The projected combined television, radio, and digital services spending is $1.68 billion. For context, 2022–23 data from the most recent annual report break that down to $996 million for English services, and $816 million for French services. That same year also saw $60 million in costs for transmission, distribution, and collection. Corporate management and finance costs came to around $33 million. Overall, the company reported a net loss of $125 million in 2022–23.
