News Releases
February 21, 2002
OpEd: Robert Rabinovitch, President and CEO
A recent spate of articles in CanWest Global publications has called for the dismantling of CBC English Television. So did the company's Executive Chairman, in a recent interview. The motivation for these attacks is obvious: blatant self-interest. (CanWest owns the National Post, the Ottawa Citizen, and numerous other dailies across the country. It also owns Global Television.) What is less clear is any logical or factual basis for these comments. In fact, there is none.
CBC Television attracts as large a share of conventional Canadian television viewing as it did five years ago. In fact, this past year, our share of viewing actually went up, while those of the private networks went down. Two-thirds of the population tune in to us each week. All conventional channels are facing audience erosion due to the proliferation of new specialty channels. In this environment of ever-increasing fragmentation, CBC Television is holding its own, while strengthening its role as "Canada's Own" public television network.
CBC Television is overwhelmingly and proudly Canadian. In prime time, when most viewers are available to watch, CBC is presenting Canadian dramas, documentaries, public affairs and arts programming produced in all parts of this country, while private broadcasters are simulcasting American sitcoms with Canadian commercials substituted into them. They are driven by an economic imperative; we are delivering on a mandate to serve Canadians.
About forty percent of all the prime-time viewing to Canadian programming on all English-language television is on CBC. Less than five percent of it is on Global. Many of CBC's Canadian shows are as popular and high-impact as anything the privates can import from south of the border. One in every two Canadians saw some part of Canada: A People's History. Recently, our Newfoundland-based historical drama Random Passage drew average audiences of 1.2 million. That's equal to Hockey Night In Canada. And those numbers held up even while Global was running the Super Bowl.
Right now, millions of people are tuning in to CBC's Olympic coverage. And once again, it's being praised by commentators and viewers on both sides of the 49th parallel as better than NBC's, with about one-tenth the staff. Our Salt Lake City coverage isn't costing the taxpayer a penny; in fact, it's turning a profit. We earned the right to broadcast the Games in Canada, not by outbidding other networks, but by offering clearly superior coverage to anything they could provide.
In times of crisis and national importance, people turn first to CBC Television for reliable news and information, as they did during the last federal election and the week of September 11th. We continue to provide a uniquely Canadian perspective on the unfolding events in Afghanistan. Before the last provincial election in Mr. Asper's home province of Manitoba, only CBC Television carried a provincial leaders' debate and full election night results. Meanwhile, his station continued business as usual: paying the bills with simulcasts of US shows.
Now, there's nothing wrong with running a profitable operation. But please don't pretend that it takes the place of an essential public service. And please don't repeat the ludicrous suggestion to close CBC-TV but keep CBC Newsworld. Newsworld pays its own incremental costs, through subscription and advertising revenues. But it simply couldn't exist without the basic infrastructure of CBC's award-winning journalists, based across Canada and around the world.
Today's media environment is a paradoxical combination of fragmentation and convergence. More and more channels are owned by fewer and fewer players. That adds up to less and less real choice — especially since those players are focused entirely on the interests of their shareholders and advertisers. In these circumstances, a strong public broadcaster, dedicated to the genuine interests of all Canadians, is more necessary than ever. In repeated independent surveys, nine out of ten Canadians say they believe that CBC Television is essential.
In the face of ever-increasing concentration of media ownership, only CBC Television provides a public space on the airwaves: a place where Canadians can come together to share important national events, issues and celebrations; a place where they are treated as citizens, not just as consumers. That's why we've cut commercials in half in our flagship newscasts, expanded our ad-free blocks for children and youth, and reintroduced weekly prime-time, commercial-free performing arts programming.
Is all this worth it? CBC English Television costs less than $300 million a year in public funds (not the half, three-quarters or one billion some ill-informed writers suggest). That includes the national network, fourteen local stations and the longest distribution system in the world. Perhaps a better question is: can we afford not to have it? Our management team is running our business more efficiently and effectively than ever. And we are reinvesting the proceeds, not in shareholder dividends, but in quality Canadian programming.
The orchestrated campaign against CBC Television in this and other publications is the new face of media convergence in Canada. CanWest Global is simply looking out for number one by using (or abusing) its newspapers' editorial pages to push the business objectives of its television stations.
We believe Canadians deserve better. And we will continue to provide it to them.
About CBC/Radio-Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada's national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. CBC/Radio-Canada reaches Canadians through eight national radio and television networks, its full-service Web sites, local/regional stations and affiliates, as well as the digital television channel Country Canada and the continuous music network Galaxie. In addition, CBC/Radio-Canada has forged partnerships with other broadcasters and is a partner in the satellite radio service SIRIUS Canada as well as in the specialty television services ARTV and The Documentary Channel. Through this array of activities, CBC/Radio-Canada brings diverse regional and cultural perspectives into the daily lives of Canadians in English, French and eight aboriginal languages. (2006)
For additional information, please contact:
Katherine Heath-Eves
Media Relations
CBC/Radio-Canada (Ottawa)
Tel: (613) 288-6235
heathevk@cbc.ca
www.cbc.radio-canada.ca
