CBC’s ‘increased presence’ in local news would expand ‘predatory’ practice
Senate report wants beefed-up role for broadcaster in local news but not at expense of established players
The Senate’s transportation and communications committee is calling for an “increased presence” for CBC in local news but doesn’t want it to come at the expense of established news organizations. (File photo)
Maybe we should have said it louder. It’s almost as if the senators were asleep when we told them CBC engaged in “predatory business practices” that hurt private-sector news organizations, including Nunatsiaq News.
The Senate’s transportation and communications committee released a report Wednesday on the future of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., called Local News Matters: Rethinking CBC/Radio-Canada’s Role in a Changing Media Landscape.
The report reads like a parliamentary blessing of CBC’s publicly funded foray into local news, without much concern for how much harder that makes it for privately owned news organizations to thrive.
The Senate committee made seven recommendations, including that the federal government give “stable, multi-year funding” to CBC and Radio-Canada “to enhance local programming.”
Another recommendation is for the federal government to add “the reflection of local communities” to CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate in the Broadcasting Act. Since 1991, its mandate has simply been to “provide a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens and entertains.”
Earlier this year, CBC announced 11 new local bureaus and the hiring of 33 more journalists across Canada. While it’s probably good for the public broadcaster to expand into so-called “news deserts” in Flin Flon, Man., and Haines Junction, Yukon, there are other markets — including Nunavut and Nunavik — where existing private-sector organizations must compete with CBC.
The report and its recommendations are disappointing. It says the committee supports CBC’s “increased presence in local communities” but recognizes that should not come “at the expense of local media already established in certain markets.”
It’s hard to have it both ways. In Canada’s delicate news ecosystem, Parliament can’t tell CBC to be more present in local markets without it having a detrimental effect on the existing players.
Nunatsiaq News and CBC compete for news stories. We also compete for journalists. Competition is good. It forces everyone to be better. However, CBC has a $1.4-billion-a-year advantage thanks to government funding. And with its deep pockets full of taxpayers’ money, CBC can pay better than private-sector news organizations.
We also compete for advertising. In online news, CBC benefits from its government subsidy but also cashes in by selling ads. When testifying at the Senate committee’s hearing in 2024, Nunatsiaq News called that “a predatory business practice, funded by the federal government.”
The committee invited news organizations from every region of Canada to describe what CBC’s presence in their areas looked like. The subsequent report included some of their evidence.
“CBC is in competition with the private-sector news organizations, including their broadcast competitors… but also with the newspapers and radio stations,” I told the committee members.
“We also compete with CBC when it comes to recruiting and retaining journalists. With its massive federal government support, CBC can offer compensation that exceeds ours. It routinely poaches employees from private-sector news organizations, including ours.”
In a country as complex as Canada, it’s important to have a national public broadcaster.
But it’s also vital in a free society to have a healthy, competitive, private-sector news industry. The $1.4 billion in public funding the CBC gets makes it hard for private-sector news organizations like Nunatsiaq News to compete.
Corey Larocque has been the managing editor of Nunatsiaq News since 2020. He worked as a writer in the Senate’s communications directorate from 2016 to 2018.
The senate has got it wrong. Cbc should be defunded. We need less not more of its propaganda,.
How to tell everyone who you voted for without telling them who you voted for.
Some of us voted wisely, many did not. I am on the wisely voted side and see cbc for what it is.
The cbc has a vested interest in one single party winning election after election.
Coming from a part of the country where CBC covers local news (and had local competition), I’m sorry, but this editorial reeks of assumed privilege. “How dare CBC do here what it does everywhere else…not to mention what it already does here…without out permission! This is intolerable!”
CBC received at least $1.4 Billion in subsidization last year. Then directly competed with private media outlets and didn’t even attempt to change their business model….. in fact I believe many media would accuse CBC of copying their business model (and not working weekends).
It is morally wrong for a heavily subsidized Crown Corporation to directly compete with private Canadian owned businesses. Then of course, there are CBC’s “pet agendas” that they cater to, but that is beside the point right now.
Compare the CBC to US broadcast media. The FCC Chairman called it a “vast wasteland” in 1961, and it has badly deteriorated since then. Commercial networks are blatantly political, and the US Congress has defunded public broadcasting.
Public funding may make competition tougher, but it also helps maintain journalistic standards for everyone.
“Public funding may make competition tougher, but it also helps maintain journalistic standards for everyone.”
————————-
Exactly how does that happen? I don’t buy this statement at all!
The only possible relationship I see is Federal subsidization ensures subsidized media is less likely to criticize the Federal government. Which has been a major criticism of CBC for decades.
Hey nunatsiaq news please give us news over the radio in each community just like cbc.
I would strongly encourage any CBC reader to seek out a controversial subject, and compare CBC’s coverage to the local coverage. Until you start doing that, you don’t realize how much CBC censors.
It is not the mandate of any Crown Corporation to decide what Canadian’s are allowed to know.
Jim Bell would never have written this codswallop.