by paterson » Tue Oct 15, 2019 12:24 pm
Well tuned, we have either bored everyone to death with our long posts, or we have livened up the message board!
Collectively I think it is a mixed bag pro and con radio compared to say 30 years ago. A lot of things and businesses are nothing like they were 30 years ago. Some radio is better today as I mentioned with all talk, news, sports radio which wasn't the norm back in the day. Some of the independents in my area sound better now than they did when they were locally owned. All have new equipment and better studios, they don't however have the number of staff as they did. Smaller broadcast groups that own 8-10 stations have done the same thing as the big guys. Are they doing this out of necessity or because they can, is debatable. However in our free enterprise society companies will tend to opt for the route that will save money, improve the bottom line. And if they go too far, as you say the market will decide. I am not saying this is wrong or a bad thing, it is how all companies large and small operate.
The CRTC I think to their credit has attempted to treat broadcast companies differently than a regular business however. They and the BBG before them have always treated a broadcast license and frequencies as a responsibility, not a right. Frequences (the air) are not the domain only of broadcast companies, they also belong to all Canadians, and as we know the number traditional radio frequencies are not infinite. Having a license for any station is a responsibility and yes a privilege. I know in the states they don't necessarily look at it that way, and that is fine. But it also doesn't mean that the way it is done here is wrong.
CBC has a 100% left bias is 100% wrong. CBC as a public broadcaster does and will air different points of view. Do they always get the balance right? Probably not. CBC is not consistent in their viewpoints and they are not supposed to be. As I said an editorial on CBC.ca a few weeks back was absolutely critical of the liberals, Justin Trudeau,and was about as good as anything you would read in Sun Media. They do and will provide a more right point of view on occasion and will likely have the other side as well. That's likely why they have comments after stories that let all shades of the spectrum voice their comments. I remember the only editorial you would see a few years ago on the National once per week was with Rex Murphy, who often was critical of both the Liberals and Trudeau. But he would argue the other side on occasion as well depending on the story.
CBC radio is not really my cup of tea but I do listen on occasion and they are by no means all political, they do feature a lot of programming that isn't otherwise found anywhere else, and that is what they are supposed to be doing. CBC is not the extravagant money pit that many on the right try to portray them as. CBC/Radio Canada last year received $1.2 billion from the taxpayer, from advertising, cable fees, selling of some of their programs, real estate etc they bring in about another $450-500 million. So they have a working budget of about $1.7 billion for all programming, wages, benefits, buildings etc for CBC/Radio Canada. BBC in the UK received over $6 billion in Canadian funds from the taxpayer in the UK. The BBC from advertising (some of their specialty channels have ads), cable fees, program sales, real estate etc brought in another $2 billion for a total of $8.4 billion for their working budget.
In terms of total budgets CBC would be smaller than Bell Media with 35 specialty channels, Corus with over 30 specialty channels, and Rogers with 10. And as you rightly pointed out, Bell, Rogers, Corus (Shaw) control the cable companies as well. Is that a bad thing. Yeah on paper it could be, but broadcasters felt they needed to grow and cable is and was an expensive business to get into and the CRTC listened to them. CBC is also no longer competitive for bidding on major league sports, they couldn't match Rogers $5.2 billion offer for NHL rights. CBC does have the Olympics until 2024, and they were smart to partner with TSN, Sportsnet and TVA sports to help with costs and coverage. I don't think Rogers will be doing anything like they have with the NHL again.
Lack of right wing radio. Yes we don't have the yelling shout radio of the US, on mostly the right and some on the left. Who cares? We don't need to be a carbon copy of all things american. I am not anti american and find americans usually friendlier and more interesting than most canadians I meet, but we do live in a different country, with a different legal system, different political system and yes a different broadcast system. Just because it is different and you or whoever doesn't like it doesn't mean it is inferior or wrong.
Sun News Channel was crap and that's why it didn't survive. Also Sun didn't really have the resources in the first place, they had no broadcast experience, and there was no news on the channel, it was all opinion. Notice how both CBCNN and CTV News Channel both actually have news. Sun Media didn't think that part through very well.
They weren't on basic cable but most people don't buy basic cable. I had Sun News Channel on my Rogers service from day one with the other news channels. Anyone I talked to had either never watched them and if they did, thought it was more like a local cable channel and seemed amateurish. Sun whined about how unfairly they were being treated by everyone, and it was everyone else's fault why they didn't succeed. It couldn't be the content. YUP it was the content, and guess what, the market decided.