Study: Eliminating Ads on CBC Would Harm Canadian TV Industry

OTTAWA: A new study from the Nordicity Group, commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC), reveals that advertising does not detract from the public broadcaster’s mandate and that there is "no good public policy reason to eliminate advertising from its TV services."

Nordicity estimates that eliminating advertising from CBC/Radio-Canada would result in a net loss of $533 million. Not only would it lose advertising revenue of $368 million, but it would incur some $190 million in additional costs in order to fill the airtime from the loss of ads and sports programming. This study argues that this would all negatively impact Canadian programming, independent producers and the Canadian economy as a whole. There would be a $160 million reduction in Canadian programming expenditure, leading to a $150 million overall decrease in independent production activity.

The study, released by CBC/Radio-Canada, was commissioned as part of its efforts to inform debate about the role and responsibility of the public broadcaster. The findings will inform decisions for the implementation of the 2015: Everyone, Every Way strategy.

"Private and public broadcasters compete on many levels in our mixed public-private system, but each has a contribution to make," said Hubert T. Lacroix, the president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada. "The national public broadcaster has access to advertising revenues to help meet Broadcasting Act objectives, while private broadcasters have, most notably, access to public subsidies to help them meet Canadian content requirements."

"The elimination of advertising revenues would seriously compromise the Corporation’s ability to fulfill its mandate and roll-out initiatives planned under 2015: Everyone, Every Way," added Lacroix.