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342 Billion Dollar Deficit? CBC's English TV Days May Be Numbered
Conservative candidate Erin O'Toole has defunding of CBC's English network as one of the plans he has if elected leader of the party and ultimately leader of the country. I think he is off base since most Canadians actually don't hate CBC TV, they just don't watch it much. Up until now defunding CBC TV would not win him the election, but all bets could be off now. Even the Liberals could very well end up doing something similar.
Economics at some point will take over and cuts will happen regardless. CBC/Radio Canada will likely receive less money or no increases from the government in the years ahead. CBC may try to become more aggressive for advertising, co-productions and ratings to stay in business. But it is entirely possible the English TV network may just fade away or become more of an educational/documentary/news operation with some occasional sports. Maybe CBC News Channel will morph into and become the main network, and a smaller operation.
- Radio111
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Re: 342 Billion Dollar Deficit? CBC's English TV Days May Be Numbered
Privatize?
- paterson1
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Re: 342 Billion Dollar Deficit? CBC's English TV Days May Be Numbered
But privatize it into what?
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: 342 Billion Dollar Deficit? CBC's English TV Days May Be Numbered
paterson1 wrote:
Most Canadians actually don't hate CBC TV, they just don't watch it much.
Then why spend millions of our dollars every year to fund something you admit the vast majority "don't watch...much?" Seems like a waste of money to me.
I like the idea of CBC going free-to-air all news, though. It's something they do well, gets some viewership, is far cheaper than offering a full programming slate and serves that old mandate of "bringing Canada to Canadians" in a way that a "Beachcombers" or a "Heartland" never could.
- paterson1
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Re: 342 Billion Dollar Deficit? CBC's English TV Days May Be Numbered
Waste of money? That's debatable. The english TV network tends to do a fair amount of programming that private networks don't really do or want to do. That is also part of their mandate, along with Bringing Canada to Canadians. So this narrow cast programming will affect viewership and general ratings.
CBC would be more popular if they were more mass appeal or mainstream in programming but they have decided, possibly are mandated not to do this. Also the CBC haters would be screaming about the "huge advantage" that the network has over poor Bell and Rogers because of money from the taxpayer. Even though the average taxpayer pays much more to Bell, Rogers and Telus than they ever have to CBC.
This huge advantage actually doesn't exist. Look at how Sun/Post Media, Globe and Mail were all in such a huff because CBC would dare to produce a "mainstream" show like Family Feud Canada. This is the domain of the private broadcaster they shouted. They neglected to mention that no Canadian private network was producing any game shows Not even one..
Anyway not to get into a big debate about the pros and cons of CBC TV or whether it is a waste of money or not (you could make convincing cases either way). The english network may be history anyway only because of economics and the fact that Canada is likely going to have big deficits for many years to come.
So the network will either fold, merge with the news channel or possibly form an alliance with other broadcasters, film producers and possibly have a separate division (like BBC films) that competes directly with the private sector but lives and dies as a private company.
Going to be interesting to see what happens...
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