Speeches and Interviews

April 14, 1999

Broadcasting in a Knowledge-Based Economy - Roundtable on Innovation

Ottawa — Perrin Beatty

From the invention of the printing press to the creation of the computer chip, technology has always kindled strong human emotions that span a fear of enslavement to the elation of being masters of an unlimited domain. In the early 19th century, members of newspaper guilds in Britain tried in vain to destroy the machines that threatened their livelihood. Last month, in the midst of a strike by CBC technicians, a similar concern was raised by several employees who questioned whether the sophisticated technology of the 21st century would ultimately render their jobs obsolete. One such technician noted in an e-mail that the seven-week strike had only a limited effect on CBC radio because new, user-friendly technology kept our services, however diminished they might have been, on air. And yet that same technician astutely underlined his own worth when he added: "Ideas are useless without good pictures and adequate radio is a lousy substitute for great radio." In the end, we all must adapt. But the difference between good and great is forged by people, not machines.

One of the challenges facing the CBC is the task of assuring the fearful and convincing the doubtful that the enormous leaps and bounds in technology are developments to be embraced, not shunned. There is no doubt that technology is changing the way we work and the way we live and entertain ourselves. We need only look around us to witness the sweeping and spectacular effect of the computerized age, from a microchip that allows us to shop and bank from the comfort of our homes to high-speed fibre optic wizardry that may one day lead to empires in space. Despite the onslaught of scientific data, there will always be a place for people in this new knowledge-based economy. After all, machines will not, and can never, replace the artistry, ingenuity and accomplishments of the living beings who operate them.

Nowhere in the last decade are the changes brought about by the technological revolution more dramatic than in the communications sector. Breakthrough information technologies are developing at a pace and with a potential impact unprecedented in our history. The comfortable world we once knew is now less certain, more volatile.

Family-owned newspapers and independently operated radio and television stations have succumbed to massive conglomerates such as Time Warner, Disney Capital City-ABC and Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp. In fact, the entire broadcast industry is restructuring around complex strings of services pulled together in consolidated organizations unafraid to reach new audiences in bold new ways.

Even so, the fractured global communications universe cannot be curbed by one person or by any one organization. Distribution monopolies, for one, are fast becoming relics of another age. Only 20 years ago, cable television was primarily a way to deliver the American networks to Canadian viewers. In a multi-channel universe, specialty and pay television channels — more than 50 of them in Canada alone in the last decade — have grabbed prime time audience shares that rival those of established networks. Digital technology delivers not only superior quality of sound and image, but its vastly increased bandwidth offers myriad new channels.

The Internet, too, has opened a borderless frontier for media, business and consumers alike, scattering shot-gun bursts of news, information and entertainment across a delivery platform that defies time and distance.

For all the developments, it is perhaps too early to predict where the revolution that will shape the 21st century will take us. Some commentators, such as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward O. Wilson, a pioneer of sociobiology and biodiversity, suggest that the merging of natural science and humanities in a technological era will trigger the reblossoming of the best of the age of Enlightenment. That view echoes Canadian author Don Tapscott, who in his 1997 book Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation, argues that our children, the "Net Generation," are being transformed by computers and the Internet in ways that can only benefit personal, social and economic development. In this train of thought, knowledge is enhanced, not stifled, by technology which is no less, or no more, than a key to unlock new doors.

Another, less lyrical, view is that the road leads straight to Hollywood. In his recently published book, The Entertainment Economy: How Mega-Media Forces Are Transforming Our Lives, American author Michael J. Wolf contends that technology has spawned an entertainment era, or what he calls the e-factor, that is already so pervasive that it touches every single aspect of our lives and has evolved into the central driving force of modern commerce. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming bulk of that entertainment beaming across the globe not only emanates from, but reflects the values of the United States. Sustaining a society of fun-seekers has its benefits. Wolf cites statistics that reveal, for instance, that for every job lost in the California aerospace industry as a result of the collapse of the Cold War, the local economy gained two in entertainment, a sector that has grown by 83% in the US since 1988.

The downsides of such a communications landslide are obvious, particularly here at home. Our history as a country has been marked by a constant battle to protect and enhance Canada's cultural sovereignty.

Indeed, the CBC was created by an Act of Parliament in 1936 to act as a cultural bulwark against the clatter from American airwaves that threatened to engulf our own distinctively Canadian voice. That imperative has not changed in 1999. In fact, in a rapidly expanding broadcast universe, a vital public broadcasting system is needed now more than ever. If not the CBC, who then will speak for Canadians, using their own voices to tell their own stories? Who will promulgate Canadian values across a cluttered broadcast spectrum or reflect the rich and diverse tapestry of a population that is so essentially and purely Canadian that there is no other like it in the world?

Of course, strong public support for public broadcasting transcends flag-waving. It springs from a willingness to listen to all voices with the assurance that there is a place where your own voice is not only heard, but recognized.

The combined elements of new information technologies empower consumers who, for the first time, are able to control the flow of material by choosing what they want to see and hear, when, how and where they want it. That egalitarian and decentralized nature of the Internet, for instance, is both its charm and its frustration.

As information consumers, we now have access to a potentially endless array of resources. The difficulty arises, however, in sorting out what information is useful and valid. And while the CBC makes no claim to omniscience, Canadians do know that we will use our expertise and our journalistic integrity to act in their best interests.

In that regard, any debate of the nature of Canadian broadcasting in a knowledge-based economy must include the historic role of the country's national public broadcaster. More important, to be of value, discussion must focus on the future of such a unique institution — as well as the tools it will need to fulfill its mandate. The essence of the CBC is to reflect Canada and Canadians.

As Canada's largest cultural institution, and indeed the best instrument available to government to protect a cherished cultural heritage, the CBC exists to serve its shareholders, the Canadian taxpayers. In contrast, the private sector broadcasters must quite rightly focus on the bottom-line of profits and revenues if they are to survive.

While the heart of the CBC's mission remains constant, the means by which we carry out our duties must evolve in step with the broadcast industry and Canadians themselves. Otherwise, the CBC will wither into a marginalized, if not eventually hollow, anachronism. Those large global conglomerates are not consolidating services simply because a spread sheet tells them it is the most cost-effective way to operate. They are reacting as well to market and consumer-driven demands. Likewise, the BBC is not investing a reported $50 million a year in its Internet services because it merely wants to flaunt its brand name in cyberspace. The BBC is there because, increasingly, that's where its audiences are — and hence where their audiences want their public broadcaster to be.

In a knowledge-based economy, any successful business plan includes two essential ingredients: efficiency and innovation. The CBC has just emerged a leaner and more nimble operation after a decade of cutbacks, most notably a several hundred million dollar paring from our annual government appropriation. Because of who we are and what we represent, we could not afford to slash and burn the services that Canadians expect for their hard-earned tax dollars. Nor do we want to — flourishing as Canada's premiere national storyteller is a job we pledged to undertake in good times and in bad. Instead, we have opted to confront the future head-on, in the belief that just as we are shaped by technology, so can we shape it ourselves.

Next month, the CBC will appear before the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission in a series of licence-renewal hearings that will determine much more than our own future. At stake is a critical element of Canadian cultural policy that cannot be held in abeyance while Canada's policy-makers figure out the ramifications of this rapidly-changing environment.

We are not asking to exclude others or be given special privileges. In order to take full advantage of the opportunities before us, the CBC is simply asking for three things. We need a reaffirmation of the importance of public broadcasting as a centrepiece of a thriving Canadian broadcast system. We need stable, not simply predictable, funding to ensure we can embark upon our future with confidence. And third, our hands must be untied to enable us to acquire the tools to break away from confining structural frameworks that no longer work.

A central component of our Strategic Plan is the development of a constellation of new services that will allow us to exercise our mandate more widely and better respond to the needs of Canadians. The CBC of tomorrow must be available to all Canadians wherever and whenever they choose to consume media. For that reason, we applied to the CRTC last year for two English-language and four additional French-language specialty channels. These requests are hardly greedy — in the last 15 years, the CBC has been granted only two of the 60 specialty licences approved by the CRTC.

Like Newsworld and RDI before them, each of these specialty channels will be financially self-sustaining. They will not cost taxpayers one cent more.

Following a common industry trend, the CBC has forged strategic alliances in these ventures with a range of partners that include private broadcasters, production companies, the National Film Board and a satellite distribution company. In the past, such partnerships may have been few and far between. Increasingly, however, they are fixtures of the knowledge-based milieu that offers cost-effective and richly rewarding avenues to broaden audience reach with superior quality products. Our applications are not serendipitous forays into what some CBC critics regard as the exclusive domain of the private sector. They represent attempts to fill very real gaps in our country's programming. The more we work with the private sector, of course, the more flexibility we will require to respond to the needs of the partnership.

The CBC is prepared and able to exercise its leadership role.

In fact, we are already well-established in key growth areas of the information and knowledge-based society. Our work with our private sector colleagues, for instance, has laid the groundwork for the earliest possible transition to digital technology. Our early and aggressive approach to the Internet has established a Canadian presence on the Web that is unlikely to be dislodged. CBC sites that include CBC4Kids and the on-line arts and culture magazine InfoCulture attract more than a million page views a month, extending our reach far beyond the coverage of our on-air transmitters. The importance of our achievements should not be underestimated. We will never know less competition than we do today.

In fact, it is entirely possible to spend a full day on the Internet and never once come across the word Canada, with the exception perhaps of stories and gossip about Céline Dion or Wayne Gretzky. Many Canadians who appeared before the CRTC public hearings on the CBC in March found that justifiably disturbing. Our websites punch a hole through that blanket of data.

Since the CBC's primary focus is on content, we can offer the same kind of reliable and professional news, information and entertainment as do our four main radio and television services, as well as supplementary content Canadians cannot find elsewhere. Public discussion forums allow listeners and viewers to communicate directly with the CBC. Several independent web sites, developed by CBC in collaboration with internal and external partners, draw upon existing content, expertise and resources to provide new services to new users. Our commitment to new media activities is so strong that we have allocated 2% of our total budget to achieve our strategic goals. If we could afford to do more, we would. There is not a shred of doubt that the CBC belongs — indeed, will thrive — in this new medium.

The course the CBC has charted is ideally suited to the economic and social conditions of our time. Our plan refines our mission, establishes our core priorities and builds upon our strengths.

Our considerable creative capital will ensure its success; our resolve to open up our corporate culture to the new competitive environment will guarantee that we achieve the necessary efficiencies that will allow the CBC to grow.

Some day, and probably sooner than we think, we will look back at the close of this millennium and wonder how we ever got along without the features the 21st century will make commonplace. Tragedies thrive in missed opportunities; leaders are lost in short-sighted dreams. At this moment, the CBC is in the midst of cataloguing and conserving more than 60 years of radio and television material, a legacy that represents Canada's largest audio-visual archives. Captured on tape and celluloid are the memories of a nation, through boom times and recessions, personal triumph and collective despair. It is perhaps fitting that we are preparing for the future as we preserve the past. There are lessons to be learned from our history. But there is also every reason to move on.