CBC wants to go ad-free

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CBC wants to go ad-free

Postby kal » Mon Nov 28, 2016 5:30 pm

In a move sure to shake up the broadcasting industry, the CBC has filed a paper with the government in which it specifies wanting to go ad-free, a move that would require some $400 million in extra funding, but that also redirect some $150+ million in advertising to the private sector.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/cbc-radio-canada-ad-free-proposal-1.3871077
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Re: CBC wants to go ad-free

Postby jon » Mon Nov 28, 2016 5:41 pm

‘We have no other tools’: CBC asks Ottawa for more than $300 million in new funding to go ad free
Sean Craig
November 28, 2016 6:30 PM ET

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has submitted a proposal to the federal government requesting $318 million in additional funding in order to allow the public broadcaster to move to an ad-free model.

Inspired by the British Broadcasting Corp., the CBC is also recommending that its funding level be “depoliticized” by tying its subsidy to its current five-year licence cycle, indexing it to inflation, and keeping it separate from election and government budget announcements.

“Canada today is the third-worst-funded public broadcaster in the world,” said Heather Conway, CBC’s executive vice president of english services, in an interview with the Financial Post. “I think its an important conversation for Canadians to have, to decide whether they want public broadcasting or not. If we don’t shift the financial model for supporting public broadcasting, there is a question as to its ultimate survival.”

Conway said the decision to ask for the increase in funding came after Heritage Minister Melanie Joly indicated that “everything is on the table” with regard to the government’s current review of federal Canadian content policy.

The investment would bring the per capital annual support for the public broadcaster to $46, up from $34.

The CBC says the $318 million figure it is requesting will act as a “replacement” if the broadcaster were to eliminate advertising, noting it would require $253 million to make up for ad revenue and $105 million to produce content to fill the gaps in air time left open free of ads. Going ad-free would also save $40 million that would otherwise be spent selling ads.

The public broadcaster has faced a storm of criticism in recent months from executives of private newspaper companies testifying before a panel of MPs studying the future of media in Canada. Those critics have argued that while the CBC is the the recipient of a five-year, $675 million increase in funding from the federal government in addition to its annual $1 billion largesse, its digital operations have taken away potential ad revenue from struggling private competitors.

However, the CBC says that its proposal to go ad-free would help Canada’s media economy, with two-thirds of its ad revenue set to “migrate to other Canadian media, including private TV and digital, for a net gain to them of $158M.”

“There’s a lot of tools the private sector has at its disposal: they have telephones, cellphones, internet fees; and the opportunity to merge or grow or make acquisitions and sell off their businesses,” added Conway, explaining why . “We have no other tools at the CBC.”

The CBC says the economic benefit of moving to an ad-free model would be a gain of $488 million in GDP, a $355 million labour income impact and the creation of 7,200 new jobs.

“When we looked at what happened when Creative Britain was put in place, and the investment in the BBC tripled, we saw that employment in that sector has doubled, the exports have doubled,” said Conway.

She added that one project of the broadcaster, if it were to obtain the additional funding, would be to further expand and entrench its operations in local communities, which have been heavily impacted in recent years by less and less media coverage.

While Conservative leadership candidates Kellie Leitch and Brad Trost last week called for the dismantling of the broadcaster, Conway said the broadcaster’s role in Canada is more important than ever.

“It doesn’t go without notice that our private sector competitors run American content 95 per cent of the time,” she said. “I have every opportunity to be reminded of American culture, I don’t have every opportunity to be reminded of Canadian culture.”

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Re: CBC wants to go ad-free

Postby albertaboy4life » Tue Nov 29, 2016 11:34 am

Actually there are other tools . . . so stay out of my wallet.

How about the CBC consider the ways of old and sell the individual TV stations and have private operators run them as affiliates of the network? I'm prepared to leave the radio services as is.

CHCT/CFAC Calgary, CFRN Edmonton, CJLH/CJOC Lethbridge, CHCA/CKRD Red Deer along with CFJC Kamloops and CHBC Kelowna and many others across this country operated as privately-owned CBC affiliates and were all profitable, delivering local news and other community-focused programming.

Obviously, the CBC can't sell itself to advertisers so let the private broadcasters do it. They failed to sell sufficient ads with CBC Radio Two and now it seems television sales are also too hard for them to master so let them run the tv and radio networks and focus on programming.

Let the private broadcasters pay the network licensing fees and we can all keep more of our respective pay cheques.
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Re: CBC wants to go ad-free

Postby tuned » Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:07 pm

Let the corporate media shell out the 300 million to the CBC since they would benefit from taking a competitor out of the marketplace. As a taxpayer I'm not willing to pay another nickel towards the CBC. The CBC needs less government subsidies not more and if their management can't figure out how to make it work they should be replaced. CBC Television is has become more and more of a joke. They run an Aussie reality show in the afternoon and so many of their programs were past their sell by date a decade ago. Think about the millions they spend on the local Vancouver newscast that no one watches. However in the end I think taxpayers are going to get screwed and the corporate media is going to make out like the bandits they are. No one is Ottawa is looking out for the average person.
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Re: CBC wants to go ad-free

Postby Tom Jeffries » Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:21 pm

Two words.

SCREW THEM.

Sorry, but we all are getting hosed by this pack of government clowns, and there is NO WAY I am going to want to cough up a ton of money, so they can go ad free.
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Re: CBC wants to go ad-free

Postby Rich Elwood » Tue Nov 29, 2016 4:28 pm

Why not go ad free - it's already interesting programming free!
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Re: CBC wants to go ad-free

Postby jon » Tue Nov 29, 2016 6:51 pm

I'll admit to never having taken a Political Science course, but I could see Mr. Trudeau going along with this CBC request for more funding under the guise of an economic stimulus program for those Oh-So-Needy private television station owners. At least, if you believe -- and more importantly, if Mr. Trudeau thinks you believe -- all the "Woe is Me" cries from those owners over the last few years.

Who knows? He might even slip it into the Infrastructure funding program that he announced back in August.
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Re: CBC wants to go ad-free

Postby jon » Sat Dec 03, 2016 1:56 pm

jon wrote:$105 million to produce content to fill the gaps in air time left open free of ads.

Having been a manager at CKUA's parent when Access TV was founded, and visiting TV Ontario during that period, I understand the problem, but I also know that how little or how much you spend on this fill programming has next to no impact on overall viewership.

A cheap and better alternative is to follow the example of KVOS-TV in the late '50s and what was originally planned for CHAN-TV before they signed on: Newscasts as filler, in their case, when you have a lighter commercial load.

The CBC has the embarrassment of riches when it comes to choice in News content. Simulcast their local CBC Radio Newscast, in French or English, when one is available. With a disembodied voice and CBC News slide.

When no local Newscast is being aired on Radio, there are several choices:
  1. Get local radio staff to do one just for TV, but from a radio studio, voiced behind the CBC News slide;
  2. Simulcast the Regional or National Newscast being aired on the local CBC Radio One station; or
  3. Re-jig CBC Newsworld's schedule to allow simulcasting of their programming at top of hour.
The radio simulcasts on TV would require that CBC-TV air Newscasts at the Top of the Hour and delay TV shows so that they time out to the top of the next hour. For example, for two half hour shows, each created with space for 5 minutes of commercials, i.e. - 25 minutes long: Show One would begin at 10 minutes after the hour and Show Two at 25 minutes before the next hour.

Otherwise, radio simulcasts could be adapted to have Newscasts just before the top of the hour, either Live or Prerecorded. CHQM used to do this to strictly follow the CRTC's Simulcasting rules: CHQM-FM News would be recorded by the Newsman at 10 to the hour on cart, and it would be run at the top of the hour from the automation machine, while the Newsman would read the CHQM-AM News live at the top of the hour.

Given the above, I really think that the CBC is asking for 50% more "new money" than they need to eliminate ads.
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