CBC, the uncreative predator

Imagine, for a second, that Via Rail started a pizza delivery service. Canada already has plenty of pizza delivery businesses, of course. But those pizza-makers don’t have what Via Rail does: a massive, recession-proof chest of public money. And Via Rail is technically in the transportation business, so why not gussy up the normally dour year-end report with an easy win? Canadians love pizza.

So, bolstered by a vast war chest of public cash, Via Rail proceeds to steamroll the Canadian pizza business. Panago and Pizza Pizza franchisees look on helplessly as a taxpayer-subsidized monolith snaps up their best drivers, bids up their suppliers and uses its immense advertising budget to dwarf them in public exposure.

Sounds pretty frustrating, right?

This parable provides a small window into why Canada’s beleaguered private media are more-than-usually upset at the CBC right now. The CBC is a broadcaster with resources the likes of which most others can only dream. It has bureaus in every province and territory. It has correspondents in almost every Canadian ethnic and linguistic community. It has $1 billion in stable government funding and an extra $150 million a year to come.

In the right hands, this kind of wealth could be wielded in awesome, history-changing ways. Look at National Public Radio. Even with a budget only five per cent supported by government, it has rolled out revolutionary projects like Planet Money. NPR member station WBEZ provided seed funding for Serial. Both projects have permanently changed the face of the podcast medium.

Or look at NPR One, a listening app that uses state-ofthe-art metrics and A/B testing to automatically generate a personalized radio stream for each user.

Across the Atlantic, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corp. has pioneered “slow television,” broadcasting hours-long, commercial-free specials featuring nothing more than a camera mounted on a ferry, train or bird feeder. It was a huge risk, but it paid off: the NBC’s slow TV specials have seen up to 20 per cent of the Norwegian population tuning in.

It’s this kind of stuff that CBC could be doing. Instead, it has a bad habit of simply cribbing from the private sector. website. Somehow, a room full of CBC executives concluded that Canada is in need of more people spouting their opinions on the web.

I need not remind you all this comes during a time of unprecedented constriction and competition in the online news business. Having a Crown Corporation busily developing new ways to crib revenue streams isn’t helping.

The point of giving taxpayers’ money to a broadcaster is so it can provide a service that would not exist without government support. This was the reason the proto-CBC Canadian Royal Broadcasting Commission was founded. Private capital was not up to the task of sending radio

This isn’t just uncreative, it’s predatory — and has the predictable effect of kneecapping CBC’s non-subsidized competitors.

Take the Olympic Games. For every Olympics between 2014 and 2024, CBC has successfully outbid its privatesector competitors for the Canadian broadcast rights. The price is not disclosed, but it can hover close to $100 million a games.

Why would CBC feel the need do this? Canadians get Olympic coverage in either case; we don’t need a public broadcaster to help us watch speedskating. We don’t even need them to watch Hockey Night in Canada. And yet, apparently devoid of other ideas for attracting viewers, when Olympic bidding time comes around, CBC turns to its strategy of muscling out the competitors that — conveniently — help to fund its budget every April 30.

It’s like the Royal Canadian Navy trying to stay relevant by opening a container shipping division. Or the National Arts Centre outbidding private promoters for the next Justin Bieber tour. Or the Royal Canadian Mint bidding up the licensing rights to manufacture Star Wars action figures.

I get it, CBC: nobody watches you anymore, and you’re trying to get people to come back. But here’s an idea. Take a good long look at your towering pile of resources and potential, and think to yourselves, “Maybe we could start using all this for something that doesn’t otherwise exist.”

I may not know much about the Canadian character, but I think a camera bolted to the front of a Marine Atlantic ferry for nine hours would utterly slay Murdoch Mysteries in the ratings.