By Peter Menzies
March 20, 2025
Executive Summary
Does the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation have a future as a publicly funded broadcaster? Should it?
With a federal election looming, the fate of the CBC seems to hang in the balance. As private media organizations complain about unfair competition, and many Canadians express frustration with what they believe to be overt political bias, the Official Opposition is vowing to slash funding for the 88-year-old broadcasting corporation. The ruling Liberal government, meanwhile, warns that cuts to the CBC will severely harm Canadian culture and leave Canadians at the mercy of “fake news.” Caught in the middle are taxpayers, who pay $1.4 billion annually to keep the “Mother Corp” afloat in both languages.
This paper deals specifically with the value and impact of the CBC – which employs one-third of the nation’s journalism labour force – as a provider of news and offers key recommendations for reshaping it for Canada’s current needs. (We must set aside the cultural component for a future analysis.)
Our review also considers the CBC’s place within the framework of national news industry policies designed to ensure citizens are provided with shared sets of facts that they can trust.
In doing so, it is important to recognize that the CBC exists within three distinct news markets: the North, francophone Canada – which has its own unique needs and demands – and anglophone Canada, also known colloquially as “RoC” – the “Rest of Canada.”
When it comes to the future of CBC’s news operations in each of these markets, we recommend the following:
• For civic, sovereignty, and security reasons, CBC North should continue to be publicly funded until it develops into a market capable of providing sufficient consumer-based support for news organizations. It must maintain journalistic objectivity in its news coverage and continue to transition into an audio and visual streaming service.
• Radio-Canada, which serves Canada’s francophone population, should also continue to receive federal funding – at least until a thorough analysis can be done of the francophone news market. A federally funded Radio-Canada can play an important role in promoting national unity – especially by being a truly national service, not one designed as a commercially inspired service for Quebec only.
• For the anglophone market, there is a strong demand for trusted news delivered in an objective fashion. Unfortunately, public funding for CBC News – by far the largest news media player in Canada – distorts this market and fails to provide a level playing field for other news organizations seeking to serve it. Its mandate includes public interest programming and editorial independence from the government, which involves being impartial and trustworthy. It has also veered too far away from standards of neutrality and the portrayal of a balance of perspectives, especially important for a national broadcaster that ought to be representative of the diversity of views. As a result, the government has chosen to also subsidize private-sector news media, at a huge cost to Canadian taxpayers. Therefore, anglophone CBC should no longer receive federal funding. Instead, a much more targeted English-language CBC should be transitioned into a new company financed through donations and subscriptions.
The increasing dependence of public and private media on government largesse is eroding the public’s trust in media in general. Our conclusion is that all forms of direct subsidy must end. We encourage public policy-makers to consider more consumer/ market-based forms of funding through donations and subscriptions, especially as media continues to transition and evolve into largely internet-based platforms.
There is a significant market for a subscription-based English CBC news service. Canada has approximately 15 million homes, which, based on a $30/month subscription, converts into $5.4 billion in annual revenue potential. If the CBC was able to convert just 10 per cent of that amount, it would have a stable base of $540 million to operate. Meanwhile, Canada’s media landscape would become a far more level playing field, and the CBC would be more accountable to the desires for better and more representative programming from its audience.
This proposal presents a bold opportunity to free the CBC from government reliance and create a media model driven by the people it serves. A subscription-based system would not only provide financial independence but also establish a direct, accountable relationship between the CBC and Canadians. Ultimately, this approach would promote healthier competition within the media landscape, encouraging innovation and providing a stronger, more dynamic Canadian media ecosystem.
Read the full paper here:
