By Clare Marie Merkowsky
The news comes just weeks after the CBC announced it must lay off about 600 workers, approximately 10 percent of its staff, as it faces a $125 million budget shortfall.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) television ad revenues plummeted by 16 percent in the first half of this year, a further indication that mainstream media is struggling to keep pace in the independent era.
According to information obtained December 19 by Blacklock’s Reporter, CBC, Canada’s public radio and television broadcaster, published their Second Quarter Financial Report which revealed that television ad revenues decreased from $95.7 million to $80.6 million in the first six months of 2023.
“There is much to do to prepare CBC for an uncertain future,” President and CEO Catherine Tait said. “We are experiencing the same challenges as other media in Canada and around the world.”
The news comes after Tait failed to mention the reduced ad revenues at the November 2 Commons heritage committee. It is also just weeks after the CBC announced that it must lay off about 600 workers, approximately 10 percent of its staff, as it faces a $125 million budget shortfall.
According to the report, from the beginning of the year until September 30, the CBC lost 16 percent of its television ad revenues for both English and French programming. The report further states that it does not expect a recovery from the loss for years.
“In response to the federal Budget 2023 announcement to reduce spending by three percent and in light of both the softening of the TV advertising market and the current economic environment we are developing an analysis of the revised financial context that presents an updated version of our financial pressures including the adverse revenue outlook for the next three years,” it said.
“We occupy an important place in the Canadian broadcasting system and face a unique set of risks,” the report stated. “Like all broadcasters we must adapt to accelerated technological changes, shifts in demographics, evolving consumer demands, increasing regulatory scrutiny and structural changes in the media ecosystem.”
Despite its revenue “tracking below target,” the CBC receives major funding from the Liberal government under the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The government subsidies make up CBC’s largest single source of income, a fact that has become a point of contention among taxpayers who see the propping up of the outlet as unnecessary.
On November 2, Tait claimed that the CBC requires further government funding, saying “To be clear over the last 30 years CBC has not had a real increase in its budget, real dollars aside.”
“When I started at CBC the number of people watching traditional television was at about 28 percent,” she added. “It has now dropped to 14 percent.”
Tait’s comment seems unfounded considering the CBC was set to receive increased funding as a result of mandated deals signed with Big Tech under Trudeau’s Online News Act.
The deal was finalized in early December. Under the new agreement, Google will pay legacy media outlets $100 million to publish links to their content on both the Google search engine and YouTube.
As a result of the recent subsidies and the Google agreement, roughly half the salary of a journalist earning $85,000 is estimated to be paid by the combined contributions of the Trudeau government and Google.
Furthermore, Trudeau recently announced increased payouts for legacy media outlets ahead of the 2025 election. The subsidies are expected to cost taxpayers $129 million over the next five years.
Beginning in 2019, Parliament changed the Income Tax Act to give yearly rebates of 25 percent for each news employee in cabinet-approved media outlets earning up to $55,000 a year, to a maximum of $13,750.
However, the Canadian Heritage Department has since admitted that the payouts are not sufficient to keep legacy media outlets running. Accordingly, the Trudeau government doubled the rebates to a maximum of $29,750 annually, up to 35 percent of a journalist’s salary.
Furthermore, despite being nominally unaffiliated with either political party in Canada, the CBC receives massive funding from the Trudeau government. According to its 2020-2021 annual report, the CBC takes in about $1.24 billion in public funding every year, which is roughly 70 percent of its operating budget.
However, the massive payouts are apparently insufficient to keep CBC afloat amid growing distrust in mainstream media.
According to a recent study by Canada’s Public Health Agency, less than a third of Canadians displayed “high trust” in the federal government, with “large media organizations” as well as celebrities getting even lower scores.
Large mainstream media outlets and “journalists” working for them scored a “high trust” rating of only 18 percent. This was followed by only 12 percent of people saying they trusted “ordinary people,” with celebrities receiving only an eight percent “trust” rating.
Related
