CBC needs to kick its ad habit

Let’s just admit our conflict of interest up front.

The newspaper business, especially on its digital platforms, competes with the state-sponsored CBC for advertising — and it’s anything but a level playing field, because the CBC is hugely subsidized by the federal government.

CBC executives have denied there’s a real problem with their advertising efforts, pointing the finger instead at internet giants like Facebook and Google, while at the same time syphoning scarce advertising revenue onto the corporation’s digital sites.

But now, a panel reviewing the Broadcast Act — despite its broad support for the CBC and its future — recognizes that the CBC is part of the problem when it comes to advertising.

In a report released Wednesday, the panel said,“our framework would transform Canada’s public broadcaster into a public media institution with a singular focus on serving a public rather than a commercial purpose; one prepared to experiment and increase the diversity of its content while remaining committed to high-quality standards. Among our recommendations to achieve this is that Cbc/radio-canada should gradually eliminate advertising on all platforms over the next five years, starting with news content.”

Here’s the panel’s position in more detail: “CBC/ Radio-canada’s ability to transform itself successfully into a public media institution, with the distinct features we have highlighted, is somewhat compromised by its continuing reliance on advertising, which necessarily introduces a commercial imperative into its decision-making. As noted earlier, a public media institution should pursue a diversity of media content to reflect Canada’s own makeup and not focus on programs that are driven by the need to attract advertising revenues. Moreover, its focus on advertising puts it directly on a collision course with private broadcasters and even print media, as all pursue a dwindling pot of traditional advertising revenues and compete with giant foreign operators for the online business. Reducing Cbc/radio-canada’s reliance on this dwindling pot can provide some useful breathing space for the private broadcasters,” the report says.

The report also says, “This path forward will have clear financial consequences that must be addressed as well.”

The report was released the very same day that the CBC’S president, Catherine Tait, had an op-ed piece in the Globe and Mail spelling out the virtues of her own broadcaster.

That is, of course, the same Catherine Tait who has argued repeatedly that the CBC isn’t hurting other media by the $318 million in advertising revenue it takes out of the market every year. She’s argued the CBC isn’t even in competition with private news agencies.

So, will the CBC get out of the advertising business?

That’s up to the federal government, and remains to be seen.

It’s interesting, though, that even an independent panel that’s so very keen on the broadcaster’s future admits the CBC is hurting private players.

Maybe the CBC itself will eventually admit the obvious.