CBC, the great Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, nationally known as the main artery for its Canadian content and public broadcasting, which seeks to “inform, enlighten, and entertain” its audience (citizens in this case) about what the citizens themselves want to hear, and about what is in the viewers, or listeners best interest. However, as paradigms have shifted, does CBC actually still fully stand by its original mission to deliver quality Canadian content to its viewers, the Canadians, which they want to hear? The answer is no. CBC has derived from its original statement and the idea on what it was originally built on and this trend is slowly continuing. Based CBC’s current model and inability to adapt to change, the CBC is on a constant decline which will inevitably result in a struggle to survive if CBC is left as is. CBC is choosing not to appeal to those who are seen as “worthy” (in terms of quality content to those with power, money, etc.) but rather to as many ears, and eyeballs as possible (mass audience in a sense) stated Richard Stursberg during a speech in 2007 at a BBC conference. Richard Stursberg is the head of all English-language programming in 2007 (Simpson, 2009, para. 13). In addition, CBC is experiencing considerable financial problems. CBC has several different forms of equipment, both hardware and software, which are outdated. CBC is also experiencing a lack of public money and very limited government funding as is (Simpson, 2009, para. 26). Lastly, consumer age and demographics are posing a huge threat to CBC’s current outdated strategy. Popularization is a phrase which can now be used to describe CBC’s current strategy, in the exact same sense as private broadcasting networks. The only differentiation between CBC and other private television networks is the fact that CBC claims to be more “Canadian” than those of its “competitors” (Simpson, 2009, para.14). CBC is a public broadcasting network, why would it need to worry about having competitors if the corporation’s main goal is to deliver quality, Canadian content to its citizens? The answer is simple, if CBC uses the word “competitor” so freely; it means that CBC is competing with other networks from the private sector to maximize its audience and viewers (Simpson, 2009, para.14). To further examine this flaw, one of the CBC’s top shows, “The Hour” (recently renamed to “George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight”) will be further investigated. The Hour is a Canadian talk-show hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos. The Hour perfectly defines CBC’s current strategy to reel in as high of an audience as possible. The Hour is portrayed as a show which is trendy and sophisticated, however irrelevant to actual matters. The show is considered irrelevant to those who are considered “worthy” by Stursberg. In CBC’s meaning of worthy it ranges from leaders to decision makers to public figures. If top shows such as The Hour are seen as irrelevant by politicians and those who decide on CBC’s budget then the entire corporation may seem irrelevant translating to less sympathy for funds, since funding would lead to more irrelevant shows such as The Hour (Simpson, 2009, para. 22). The Hour does not provide any authentic, traditional content that the audience really cares about. A show like The Hour could easily operate on other television stations such as: MuchMusic or MTV due to the fact it does not provide anything unique and generates the same audience as said networks. The Hour targets the young-adults to middle-age people, specifically those who are not too concerned with public issues; but to those who might be viable target for advertisers (Simpson, 2009, para. 21). Based on a 2003 CBC valuation survey, the value for per household of CBC is roughly $5.03 per month. $3.70 or 74% is the own value of a respondent’s household having access to CBC, and the remaining 26% is the recognized value of other household’s having access to CBC. Over half of the respondents indicated that CBC offers them no use value whatsoever, and about three quarters stated that they obtain no value from having it available to other Canadians (Finn, McFayden, Hoskins, 2003, p. 187). If over half of the randomly selected households in Canada see no value in CBC programming, there is a huge problem; especially for a company which promises authentic and quality content to Canadians. CBC has strong financial problems which occur at many different fronts. The CBC receives about $33 million a year per capita. The only country which provides less money per capita to its nationally financed broadcasting station is New Zealand. Australia provides about $45 million per capita, France and Ireland around $70 million, and the BBC in the United Kingdom over $125 million per capita (Simpson, 2009, para. 27). In 1990, CBC was receiving $400 million more dollars from Ottawa than it was in 2009 ($1.1 billion). From 1995 to 2004, cultural spending increased by $580 million meanwhile CBC’s budget dropped by $105 million. After the recession hit in the fourth quarter of 2008, in early 2009 the government started feeding money to organizations everywhere in an attempt to galvanize the economy except into the CBC (Simpson, 2009, para. 28). Why would the government not want to fund the Canada’s own public broadcaster? Simply because majority of the public does not really care for CBC anymore, nor does it attract the same amount of viewers. CBC’s primetime market share for English-speaking television in 2008-2009 was a lowly 7.6% (Simpson, 2009, para. 31). The government does not feel obligated to defend the CBC, nor has the public provided the government any reason to do so. Due to non-rivalry consumption in the television industry, it costs the same amount to produce a show with an audience-base of three million or three thousand, and same concept applies to audience shares. Due to an increasing amount of channels, CBC’s audience share has decreased from 23.3% in 1984 to 9.4% in 1999 during primetime 7:00-11:00pm television (Hoskins, Adam, McFayden, 2001, para. 51). In addition, CBC has also lost some of its uniqueness with specialty television broadcasting arising, now similar offering programs to what CBC had broadcasted in the past. CBC’s top rated and most viewed program is Hockey Night in Canada. The show runs every Saturday night during the regular season, and every other night during the playoffs for two months (Simpson, 2009, para. 33). The CBC uses HNiC to promote itself and target as many audiences as possible, especially during the playoffs. However, a public broadcaster’s number one program should not be hockey. If HNiC was to be moved to another sports channel such as TSN or Sportsnet, the results would be almost identical in terms of audiences, amount of viewers, and revenue generated. The idea of consumer age is something CBC is definitely concerned about. The core faithful audience is aging, which is inevitable. Television advertisers strongly prefer to target the younger demographic, not an aging one (Simpson, 2009, para. 20). The approach CBC has chosen to take includes ending the longer running classic shows, such as The Journal, and creating new shows which appeal to a larger, younger demographic despite not following its original promise of delivering authentic, quality television in order to achieve a maximum audience. Not only is the CBC losing consumers on its television broadcast, but this also applies to CBC Radio. According to an unpublished poll in early 2011 by Canadian Media Research Inc. CBC is substantially losing listeners mostly due to its strategy. The survey indicates that the current strategy CBC has used to deploy content on CBC Radio Two has seen failure after three years of introducing the strategy. CBC has been playing mainstream Canadian pop and indie on their radio (Dvorkin, 2011). Once again, CBC is trying to appeal to the mass audience playing music that the younger generations should prefer, however has not seen success as of lately due to alienating its original, core listeners. The main conclusions drawn from the results highlight that the 50% of the current listeners are light listeners and prefer the weather and news above all. CBC Radio listeners are not smartphone users, and dislike constant sport updates and cross promotion for CBC television programs. Should CBC Radio return to its classical music genre programming, some of this lost audience could be restored (Dvorkin, 2011). These conclusions can safely lead to an assumption that the devoted listeners of CBC are an aging demographic which are having a negative experience with CBC’s current audience maximizing strategy and choosing to abandon the broadcast. The CBC has long changed since its original release, the CBC has been seen as a national broadcaster which delivers Canadian content to shape and reinforce Canadians culturally in the interest of the public. The model CBC currently uses has not seen much success due to some poor managerial decisions. CBC’s audience maximizing strategy has left many loyal and dedicated viewers/listeners stranded. CBC has managed to alienate its core audience by creating such mass appealing, irrelevant programming without introducing something new and valuable to re-appeal that loyal group of consumers. Due to the CBC not providing ‘relevant’ and unique content as seen by those in power, the government has chosen to barely support the CBC financially in addition to the CBC’s already existing financial problems. The financial hole is being dug deeper and deeper as CBC continues to lose viewers yearly. The government should not fund the CBC unless the CBC can regain its distinctive edge in content which would give the people more value in the entire television broadcast. Based on a 2003 public relations report by Ipsos-Reid (as cited in Golfman, 2003) 88% of Canadians would like CBC strengthened in their part of the country, and 94% of Canadians want the CBC to survive and prosper. Canadians in general like the CBC, they believe it is something that can strengthen the country and promote diversity. Should the CBC decide to re-evaluate its current motives, strategy, and model it could return once again its glory and ensure survival. Besides, the only thing which can change the CBC’s dilemma is itself—the CBC.
References
Chernov, G. (2010). Stealth Advertising: The Commercialization of Television News Broadcasts in Canada. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.remote.libproxy.wlu.ca/docview/888152815/13315C0BC7977F9E597/2?accountid=15090

Dvorkin, J. (2011). CBC: Losing Audiences in a Losing Strategy?. Retrieved from http://nowthedetails.blogspot.com/2011/02/cbc-radio-losing-audiences-in-losing.html
Golfman, N. (2003). Who controls the future of public broadcasting?. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.remote.libproxy.wlu.ca/docview/208698794/132E2540B44285E1E76/11?accountid=15090
Hoskins, C., Finn, A., McFayden, S. (2001). Refocusing the CBC. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.remote.libproxy.wlu.ca/docview/219597183/132E236EC33FFAC2BF/11?accountid=15090
Hoskins, C., Finn, A., McFayden, S. (2003). Valuing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved from http://remote.libproxy.wlu.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/197441942/132E2540B44285E1E76/10?accountid=15090
Simpson, J. (2009). The Fading CBC. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.remote.libproxy.wlu.ca/docview/233301872/132E22FAF3DBBAFB3D/1?accountid=15090