The CBC’s commercial operations are undermining the news industry
Peter Menzies is a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a former publisher of the Calgary Herald and a previous vice-chair of theRegardless of where the dust settles on Canada’s tumultuous battle with Big Tech, the nation’s news industry won’t find stability until its playing field is levelled.
If Canada’s journalism businesses are to prosper, this distortion of the market, which would be unacceptable in any other industry and is only made worse by the contentious Online News Act, must end. Broadcasters have complained for decades about the bizarre reality of having their taxes used to support their largest competitor. Their concern has since spread to newspaper publishers, who first raised it publicly in 2016 before the House of Commons Heritage Committee. Unanimous in their condemnation of the CBC’s expansion beyond broadcasting, one described it then as a commercial “uber predator.
The removal of $400-million of advertising revenue from the CBC, much of which could then be reclaimed by private news organizations, is easily compensated through an offsetting increase in federal funding. And while this might prove to be politically controversial, it is well within the world view of the current government.
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