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CBC’s business model is trapped in a very dark place

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The Audit

 

 David Clinton

I Testified Before a Senate Committee About the CBC

I recently testified before the Senate Committee for Transport and Communications. You can view that session here. Even though the official topic was CBC’s local programming in Ontario, everyone quickly shifted the discussion to CBC’s big-picture problems and how their existential struggles were urgent and immediate. The idea that deep and fundamental changes within the corporation were unavoidable seemed to enjoy complete agreement.

I’ll use this post as background to some of the points I raised during the hearing.

You might recall how my recent post on CBC funding described a corporation shedding audience share like dandruff while spending hundreds of millions of dollars producing drama and comedy programming few Canadians consume. There are so few viewers left that I suspect they’re now identified by first name rather than as a percentage of the population.

Since then I’ve learned a lot more about CBC performance and about the broadcast industry in general.

For instance, it’ll surprise exactly no one to learn that fewer Canadians get their audio from traditional radio broadcasters. But how steep is the decline? According to the CRTC’s Annual Highlights of the Broadcasting Sector 2022-2023, since 2015, “hours spent listening to traditional broadcasting has decreased at a CAGR of 4.8 percent”. CAGR, by the way, stands for compound annual growth rate.

Dropping 4.8 percent each year means audience numbers aren’t just “falling”; they’re not even “falling off the edge of a cliff”; they’re already close enough to the bottom of the cliff to smell the trees. Looking for context? Between English and French-language radio, the CBC spends around $240 million each year.

Those listeners aren’t just disappearing without a trace. the CRTC also tells us that Canadians are increasingly migrating to Digital Media Broadcasting Units (DMBUs) – with numbers growing by more than nine percent annually since 2015.

The CBC’s problem here is that they’re not a serious player in the DMBU world, so they’re simply losing digital listeners. For example, of the top 200 Spotify podcasts ranked by popularity in Canada, only four are from the CBC.

Another interesting data point I ran into related to that billion dollar plus annual parliamentary allocation CBC enjoys. It turns out that that’s not the whole story. You may recall how the government added another $42 million in their most recent budget.

But wait! That’s not all! Between CBC and SRC, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) ponied up another $97 million for fiscal 2023-2024 to cover specific programming production budgets.

Technically, Canada Media Fund grants target individual projects planned by independent production companies. But those projects are usually associated with the “envelope” of one of the big broadcasters – of which CBC is by far the largest. 2023-2024 CMF funding totaled $786 million, and CBC’s take was nearly double that of their nearest competitor (Bell).

But there’s more! Back in 2016, the federal budget included an extra $150 million each year as a “new investment in Canadian arts and culture”. It’s entirely possible that no one turned off the tap and that extra government cheque is still showing up each year in the CBC’s mailbox. There was also a $93 million item for infrastructure and technological upgrades back in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. Who knows whether that one wasn’t also carried over.

So CBC’s share of government funding keeps growing while its share of Canadian media consumers shrinks. How do you suppose that’ll end?

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CRA must not enforce undemocratic capital gains tax hike: Taxpayers Federation

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From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

By Devin Drover 

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is demanding the Canada Revenue Agency to immediately halt enforcement of the proposed capital gains tax hike which has not passed a final vote in Parliament.

“The CRA is trying to enforce a tax increase without it ever becoming law,” said Devin Drover, CTF General Counsel and Atlantic Director. “Taxation should only be based on laws duly passed by elected representatives and not assumptions by unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats.”

The controversy stems from a proposal by the Trudeau government to raise the capital gains inclusion rate for the first time in 25 years. While a ways and means motion for the hike passed last year, the necessary legislation was never introduced, debated or passed.

But now that Parliament has prorogued, the tax hike is stalled until March 24, 2025, when the House of Commons resumes. Given promises from both the Conservatives and the NDP to bring down the Liberal government, it’s unlikely the legislation will pass before the next election.

Despite this, the CRA continues to move forward with enforcing the tax hike.

“It’s a central role of Parliament to vote on tax hikes before the government takes more money from you,” Drover said. “It’s wrong for the prime minister and CRA to treat your elected representative like a rubberstamp.

“The CRA must immediately halt plans to enforce legislation that hasn’t been passed and will undemocratically cost Canadians billions.”

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Business

McDonald’s the latest corporation to retreat from DEI policies, commits instead to ‘Golden Rule’

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From LifeSiteNews

By Calvin Freiburger

Fast food giant McDonald’s is the latest major corporation to distance itself from “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) policies, reframing its approach to inclusivity around the more universal “Golden Rule.”

The Associated Press reports that the chain plans to abandon specific diversity targets for senior leadership, end a program aimed at diversity training for suppliers, and pause participation in “external surveys,” such as those conducted by the LGBT pressure group Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

“McDonald’s position and our commitment to inclusion is steadfast,” McDonald’s leadership declared in a January 6 open letter. “Since our founding, we’ve prided ourselves on understanding that the foundation of our business is people. As Fred Turner said, ‘We’re a people business, and never forget it.’”

“We are also excited to introduce a new concept: the power of OUR ‘Golden Rule’ – treating everyone with dignity, fairness and respect, always,” it added. “For the last several months, a small team has been working on refining our language to better capture McDonald’s commitment to inclusion.”

McDonald’s cited the “shifting legal landscape” after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-based affirmative action was unconstitutional in 2023 as contributing to the changes. Conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who has successfully pressured other companies to reverse woke policies, said he had informed McDonald’s he planned to release a report on them as well.

 

McDonald’s joins WalmartJack Daniel’sJohn DeereTractor SupplyLowe’sToyota, and Coors, all of which have dropped “woke” corporate policies over the past several months in response to public pressure.

In recent years, left-wing activists have used DEI and “environmental, social, & governance” (ESG) standards to encourage major U.S. corporations to take favorable stands on political and cultural issues such as homosexuality, transgenderism, race relations, the environment, and abortion.

Political and customer backlashes to such activism has translated to business woes for companies such as DisneyBud Light, and Target. Former President Donald Trump’s defeat in November outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris for the White House has also been seen by many as further evidence of the general public rejecting woke ideology, further signaling to corporations and activists alike the lack of popular receptiveness to such projects.

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