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The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian
public broadcaster Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
for both
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
and
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. The English- and French-language service units of the corporation are commonly known as CBC and Radio-Canada, respectively. Although some local stations in Canada predate the CBC's founding, CBC is the oldest existing broadcasting network in Canada. The CBC was established on November 2, 1936. The CBC operates four terrestrial radio networks: The English-language
CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Ca ...
and
CBC Music CBC Music (formerly known as CBC FM, CBC Stereo and CBC Radio 2) is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a ...
, and the French-language
Ici Radio-Canada Première Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) is a Canadian French language, French-language radio network, the news and information service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known as Société Radio-Canada in French), the Public ...
and
Ici Musique Ici Musique (stylized as ICI Musique) is the French-language music radio service of Canada's national public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (''Société Radio-Canada''). It is the French equivalent of the English CBC Music, al ...
. (International radio service
Radio Canada International Radio Canada International (RCI) is the international broadcasting service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Prior to 1970, RCI was known as the CBC International Service. The broadcasting service was also previously referred to as ...
historically transmitted via shortwave radio, but since 2012 its content is only available as podcasts on its website.) The CBC also operates two terrestrial television networks, the English-language
CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
and the French-language
Ici Radio-Canada Télé Ici Radio-Canada Télé (formerly known as Télévision de Radio-Canada) is a Canadian French-language free-to-air television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada), the national pub ...
, along with the satellite/cable networks
CBC News Network CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. As Canada's first all-news channel, it is th ...
,
Ici RDI Ici RDI (stylized ICI RDI) is a Canadian French-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada). The channel began broadcasting on January 1, 1995 as Réseau de l'informa ...
,
Ici Explora Ici Explora (stylized as ICI Explora) is a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada) that focuses on science, environment, nature, and health programming ...
,
Documentary Channel A documentary channel is a specialty channel which focuses on broadcasting documentaries. Some documentary channels further specialize by dedicating their television programming to specific types of documentaries or documentaries in a specific a ...
(partial ownership), and
Ici ARTV Ici ARTV (stylized as ICI artv) is a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada). The channel broadcasts the arts and culture including music, dance, thea ...
. The CBC operates services for the Canadian Arctic under the names
CBC North CBC North ( iu, ᓰᐲᓰ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ, lit=CBC Northwest, translit=, SiiPiiSii Ukiuqtaqtumi; cr, ᓰᐲᓰ ᒌᐌᑎᓅᑖᐦᒡ, label=cr, SiiPiiSii Chiiwetinuutaahch; french: Radio-Canada Nord) is the Canadian Broadcasting Corpora ...
and Radio-Canada Nord. The CBC also operates digital services including CBC.ca/Ici.Radio-Canada.ca,
CBC Radio 3 CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music. The service, which la ...
,
CBC Music CBC Music (formerly known as CBC FM, CBC Stereo and CBC Radio 2) is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a ...
/ICI.mu and Ici.TOU.TV, and owns 20.2% of
satellite radio Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a ''broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than ter ...
broadcaster
Sirius XM Canada Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. (commonly referred to as Sirius XM Canada) is a Canadian radio broadcasting company, which operates as a Canadian affiliate of Sirius XM Radio. The company received approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Te ...
, which carries several CBC-produced audio channels. CBC/Radio-Canada offers programming in English, French and eight aboriginal languages on its domestic radio service, and in five languages on its web-based international radio service,
Radio Canada International Radio Canada International (RCI) is the international broadcasting service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Prior to 1970, RCI was known as the CBC International Service. The broadcasting service was also previously referred to as ...
(RCI). However, budget cuts in the early 2010s have contributed to the corporation reducing its service via the airwaves, discontinuing RCI's shortwave broadcasts as well as terrestrial television broadcasts in all communities served by network-owned rebroadcast transmitters, including communities not subject to Canada's over-the-air digital television transition. The CBC's federal funding is supplemented by revenue from commercial advertising on its television broadcasts. The radio service employed commercials from its inception to 1974, but since then its primary radio networks have been commercial-free. In 2013, CBC's secondary radio networks, CBC Music and , introduced limited advertising of up to four minutes an hour, but this was discontinued in 2016.


History

In 1929, the Aird Commission on
public broadcasting Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
recommended the creation of a national radio broadcast network. A major concern was the growing influence of American radio broadcasting as U.S.-based networks began to expand into Canada. Meanwhile,
Canadian National Railways The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...
was making a radio network to keep its passengers entertained and give it an advantage over its rival, CP. This, the CNR Radio, is the forerunner of the CBC.
Graham Spry Graham Spry, CC (February 20, 1900 - November 24, 1983) was a Canadian broadcasting pioneer, business executive, diplomat and socialist. He was the husband of Irene Spry and father of Robin Spry, Richard Spry and Lib Spry. Life He was born ...
and Alan Plaunt lobbied intensely for the project on behalf of the
Canadian Radio League The Canadian Radio League was a public pressure group led by Graham Spry and Alan Plaunt to mobilize support for the establishment of public broadcasting in Canada. The League was founded in 1930 in order to lobby for the implementation of the 192 ...
. In 1932 the government of R. B. Bennett established the CBC's predecessor, the
Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC), also referred to as the Canadian Radio Commission (CRC), was Canada's first public broadcaster and the immediate precursor to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Origins The CRBC was establis ...
(CRBC). The CRBC took over a network of
radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
s formerly set up by a federal Crown corporation, the
Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...
. The network was used to broadcast programming to riders aboard its passenger trains, with coverage primarily in central and eastern Canada. On November 2, 1936, the CRBC was reorganized under its present name. While the CRBC was a state-owned company, the CBC was a
Crown corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...
on the model of the
British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
, which had been reformed from a private company into a statutory corporation in 1927.
Leonard Brockington Leonard Walter Brockington (6 April 1888 – 15 September 1966) was a Canadian lawyer, civil servant, public figure, and the first head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Born in Cardiff, Wales, one of seven children, Brockin ...
was the CBC's first chairman. For the next few decades, the CBC was responsible for all broadcasting innovation in Canada. This was in part because, until 1958, it was not only a broadcaster, but the chief regulator of Canadian broadcasting. It used this dual role to snap up most of the clear-channel licences in Canada. It began a separate French-language radio network in December 1937. It introduced
FM radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...
to Canada in 1946, though a distinct FM service was not launched until 1960. Television broadcasts from the CBC began on September 6, 1952, with the opening of a station in
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
,
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
(
CBFT CBFT-DT (channel 2) is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the French-language service of Ici Radio-Canada Télé. It is owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in Fren ...
), and a station in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
(
CBLT CBLT-DT (channel 5) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the English-language service of CBC Television. It is part of a twinstick with Ici Radio-Canada Télé outlet CBLFT-DT (channel 25). B ...
) opening two days later. The CBC's first privately owned affiliate television station, CKSO in Sudbury, Ontario, launched in October 1953. At the time, all private stations were expected to affiliate with the CBC, a condition that relaxed in 1960–61 with the launch of CTV. From 1944 to 1962, the CBC split its English-language radio network into two services known as the
Trans-Canada Network The Trans-Canada Network was the name assigned to the main English-language radio network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to distinguish it from the CBC's second network, the Dominion Network. Today, it is known as CBC Radio One. The Tra ...
and the Dominion Network. The latter, carrying lighter programs including American radio shows, was dissolved in 1962, while the former became known as CBC Radio. (In the late 1990s, CBC Radio was rebranded as
CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Ca ...
and CBC Stereo as CBC Radio Two. The latter was rebranded slightly in 2007 as
CBC Radio 2 CBC Music (formerly known as CBC FM, CBC Stereo and CBC Radio 2) is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a ...
.) On July 1, 1958, CBC's television signal was extended from coast to coast. The first Canadian television show shot in colour was the CBC's own '' The Forest Rangers'' in 1963. Colour television broadcasts commenced on July 1, 1966, and full-colour service began in 1974. In 1978, CBC became the first broadcaster in the world to use an orbiting satellite for television service, linking Canada "from east to west to north". The mission of CBC is contribution to the "moral economy of the nation".


Frontier Coverage Package

Starting in 1967 and continuing until the mid-1970s, the CBC provided limited television service to remote and northern communities. Transmitters were built in a few locations and carried a four-hour selection of black-and-white videotaped programs each day. The tapes were flown into communities to be shown, then transported to other communities, often by the "bicycle" method used in
television syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...
. Transportation delays ranged from one week for larger centres to almost a month for small communities. The first FCP stations were started in
Yellowknife Yellowknife (; Dogrib: ) is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the ...
, Northwest Territories,
Lynn Lake Lynn Lake is a town in the northwest region of Manitoba, Canada, approximately from Winnipeg. The town is the fourth-largest town in Manitoba in terms of land area. It is centred on the original urban community of Lynn Lake. The town was named ...
, Manitoba, and
Havre-Saint-Pierre Havre-Saint-Pierre is a town on Pointe-aux-Esquimaux, which is on the Quebec north shore (Côte-Nord) of the Saint Lawrence River in Canada. Located along Route 138 some east of Sept-Îles, it is the largest town and seat of the Minganie RCM, ...
, Quebec, in 1967. Another station began operating in
Whitehorse Whitehorse () is the capital of Yukon, and the largest city in Northern Canada. It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1426 (Historic Mile 918) on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas ...
in November 1968. Additional stations were added from 1969 to 1972. Most of the FCP stations were fitted for the Anik satellite signal during 1973, carrying 12 hours of colour programming. Those serving the largest centres signed on with colour broadcasts on February 5, 1973, and most of the others were added before spring. Broadcasts were geared to either the Atlantic time zone (UTC−4 or −3) or the Pacific time zone (UTC−8 or −7) even though the audience resided in communities in time zones varying from UTC−5 to UTC−8; the reason for this was that the CBC originated its programs for the Atlantic time zone, and a key station in each time zone would record the broadcast for the appropriate delay of one, two or three hours; the programs were originated again for the Pacific zone. The northern stations picked up one of these two feeds, with the western NWT stations picking up the Pacific feed. Some in northern areas of the provinces were connected by microwave to their own provincial broadcast centre. Some of these stations used non-CBC
callsign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
s such as
CFWH-TV CFWH-TV was the television call sign for the CBC's television station in Whitehorse, Yukon. Commencing transmissions on November 26, 1968, it was one of ultimately six Frontier Coverage Package stations in the Yukon; satellite delivery of colou ...
in Whitehorse, CFYK in Yellowknife, CFFB in Frobisher Bay and CHAK in Inuvik, while some others used the standard CB_T callsign but with five letters (e.g. CBDHT). Uplinks in the North were usually a temporary unit brought in from the south. A permanent uplink was established in Yellowknife, and later in Whitehorse and Iqaluit. Television programs originating in the north without the help of the south began with one half-hour per week in the 1980s with ''Focus North'' and graduating to a daily half-hour newscast, ''Northbeat'', in the late 1990s. Until then, there were occasional temporary uplinks for such things as territorial election returns coverage; Yukon had the first such coverage in 1985, though because it happened during the Stanley Cup playoffs, equipment was already spoken for, so CBC rented the equipment of
CITV-TV CITV-DT (channel 13) is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. The station is owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, and maintains studios on Allard Way Northwest in the Pl ...
Edmonton to use in Whitehorse that evening.


2011 transition to digital television

The CRTC ordered that in 28 "mandatory markets", full power over-the-air analogue television transmitters had to cease transmitting by August 31, 2011. Broadcasters could either continue serving those markets by transitioning analogue transmitters to digital or cease broadcasting over-the-air. Cable, IPTV, and satellite services are not involved or affected by this digital transition deadline. While its fellow Canadian broadcasters converted most of their transmitters to digital by the Canadian digital television transition deadline of August 31, 2011, CBC converted only about half of the analogue transmitters in mandatory to digital (15 of 28 markets with CBC TV, and 14 of 28 markets with SRC). Due to financial difficulties reported by the corporation, the corporation published a plan whereby communities that receive analogue signals by re-broadcast transmitters in mandatory markets would lose their over-the-air (OTA) signals as of the deadline. Rebroadcast transmitters account for 23 of the 48 CBC and SRC transmitters in mandatory markets. Mandatory markets losing both CBC and SRC over-the-air signals include
London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...
(metropolitan area population 457,000) and
Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
,
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
(metro area 257,000). In both of those markets, the corporation's television transmitters are the only ones that were not converted to digital. On July 31, 2012, CBC shut down all of its approximately 620 analogue television transmitters, following an announcement of these plans on April 4, 2012. This reduced the total number of the corporation's television transmitters across the country to 27. According to the CBC, this would reduce the corporation's yearly costs by $10 million. No plans have been announced to use subchannels to maintain over-the-air signals for both CBC and SRC in markets where the corporation has one digital transmitter. In fact, in its CRTC application to shut down all of its analogue television transmitters, the CBC communicated its opposition to use of subchannels, citing, amongst other reasons, costs. CBC/R-C claims that only 1.7 percent of Canadian viewers actually lost access to CBC and Radio-Canada programming due to the very high penetration of cable and satellite. In some areas (particularly remote and rural regions), cable or satellite have long been essential for acceptable television.


Fallout over the Ghomeshi affair

In 2015, after allegations that CBC Radio host
Jian Ghomeshi Jian Ghomeshi (born June 9, 1967) is a British-born Persian-Canadian broadcaster, writer, musician, producer and former CBC personality. From 1990 to 2000, he was a vocalist and drummer in the Thornhill-based folk-pop band Moxy Früvous. In ...
had harassed colleagues, Ghomeshi was placed on leave; his employment was terminated in October when the CBC indicated that they had "graphic evidence" that he had injured a female employee. The corporation commissioned an independent investigation. The resulting report by
Janice Rubin Janice may refer to: * Janice (given name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) * ''Janice & Abbey'', a reality TV series * Processor codename of the Samsung Galaxy S Advance Android smartphone * Janice, Łódź Voivodes ...
, a partner at law firm
Rubin Thomlinson LLP Rubin is both a surname and a given name. Rubins is a Latvian-language form of the name. As a Jewish name, it derives from the biblical name Reuben. The choice is also influenced by the word ''rubin'' meaning "ruby" is some languages.
, discussed employee complaints about Ghomeshi that were not seriously considered by the CBC. Rubin concluded that CBC management had "failed to take adequate steps" when it became aware of Ghomeshi's "problematic behaviour." Ghomeshi was charged by police on multiple counts of sexual assault but was found not guilty of all but one of these in March 2016. He was to be tried in June on the last remaining charge, relating to a complainant who had also worked at CBC; her name was later revealed to be
Kathryn Borel Kathryn Borel (born June 23, 1979) is a Canadian writer, editor and radio producer. She was a founding producer of the CBC Radio One show '' Q''. Borel is the author of ''Corked: A Memoir'' (2009). The CBC apologized to Borel publicly on May 11 in a statement by the head of public affairs Chuck Thompson. "What Ms. Borel experienced in our workplace should never have happened and we sincerely apologize...," he stated. The corporation has also maintained that it had accepted Rubin's report and had "since made significant progress" on a revised policy of improved training and methods for handling bullying and harassment complaints. The Rubin report "contained several recommendations on how the CBC can change its workplace culture. One of those recommendations included the creation of a work and human rights ombudsperson who employees could use to raise concerns about the workplace." The CBC also severed its relationship "with two top executives, Chris Boyce, the former head of CBC Radio, and Todd Spencer, the head of human resources for English services." In a ''
Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'' article by Jacques Gallant from May 11, 2016, public relations expert Martin Waxman spoke of a "damning indictment" of the CBC which included the following comment. "Yes, they did their inquiry, but if I were the CBC, I would think strongly about what is wrong with the culture and what they can do to repair it," he said. ''The Star'' also quoted employment lawyer Howard Levitt stating that "harassment has not been fully addressed at the CBC," in his estimation. Levitt called the Rubin report a "whitewash" and reiterated his suggestion that a federal commission should conduct a more detailed inquiry into workplace issues at the public broadcaster.


Federal elections and copyright claims


42nd Canadian Parliament: lawsuit threats

During the
2015 Canadian federal election The 2015 Canadian federal election held on October 19, 2015, saw the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, win 184 seats, allowing it to form a majority government with Trudeau becoming the next prime minister. The election was held to elect m ...
campaign, the CBC issued
cease-and-desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not disc ...
letters to the
Broadbent Institute Broadbent Institute is a Canadian progressive and social democratic think tank founded by Ed Broadbent. History Broadbent Institute is a Canadian progressive and social democratic think tank. It was founded by Ed Broadbent, the leader of the ...
, the
Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...
(CPC), the
Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (french: Parti libéral du Canada, region=CA) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' ...
, and the
New Democratic Party of Canada The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * th ...
, accusing them of using
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
ed footage from CBC news programming in their campaign advertising without permission. The Liberals and NDP complied with the letters, pulling the ads in question, while the Broadbent Institute and the Conservatives persisted. Eventually, however, rather than go to court, the Broadbent Institute and the Conservatives agreed to remove the offending material, and as such, the CBC did not pursue them further for these alleged infractions in 2015.


43rd Canadian Parliament: trial of suit

In October 2019, two weeks before the
2019 Canadian federal election The 2019 Canadian federal election was held on October 21, 2019. Member of Parliament (Canada), Members of the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons were elected to the 43rd Canadian Parliament. In keeping with the Fixed election dates in ...
, the CBC sued the CPC for using excerpts from its leaders' debates in campaign material. The CBC petitioned for an
injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...
against the CPC continuing to use the excerpts as well as seeking an acknowledgement from the CPC and its executive director,
Dustin Van Vugt Dustin may refer to: Places in the United States * Dustin, Nebraska * Dustin Township, Holt County, Nebraska * Dustin, Oklahoma Other uses * Dustin (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * Dustin ...
, that the party had "engaged in the unauthorized use of copyright-protected material." Furthermore, the CBC indicated that the clips in question were "taken out of context and are edited and relied on to make partisan points for the benefit" of the CPC. In response, the CPC stated that 17 seconds of footage had been used and the video in question had been removed before the lawsuit was filed, and expressed "grave concern that this decision was made on the eve of an election that CBC is to be covering fairly and objectively." Intellectual property academic
Michael Geist Michael Allen Geist (born July 11, 1968) is a Canadian academic, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa and a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society. Geist was educated at the Univers ...
stated that the use of the footage was likely covered by
fair dealing Fair dealing is a limitation and exception to the exclusive rights granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. Fair dealing is found in many of the common law jurisdictions of the Commonwealth of Nations. Fair dealing is an en ...
provisions. CBC President and CEO
Catherine Tait Catherine Tait (born 1958) is a Canadian business executive who currently serves as the president and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She succeeded Hubert Lacroix for the position after being appointed on April 3, 2018, and begi ...
contends that she does not believe that the use of journalistic material for partisan ads is covered by the "fair dealing" exemption of the Copyright Act.


Resolution: court allows "fair dealing"

On May 13, 2021, the CPC lawsuit was dismissed in the
Federal Court of Canada The Federal Court of Canada, which succeeded the Exchequer Court of Canada in 1971, was a national court of Canada that had limited jurisdiction to hear certain types of disputes arising under the federal government's legislative jurisdiction. ...
, with
Justice Phelan Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
's clarification that the CPC's use was fair and allowable. The decision made precedent. "Prior to this decision, Canadian jurisprudence held that to meet the requirements of criticism and review, the copyrighted work in use must be critiqued and analyzed. Furthermore, the Court held that for attribution of the source and author, the inclusion of the CBC's logo was sufficient" to meet Copyright Act requirements.


Logos and slogans

The original logo of the CBC, designed by
École des Beaux Arts École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région ...
student Hortense Binette and used between 1940 and 1958, featured a map of Canada (and from 1940 to 1949,
Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
) and a thunderbolt design used to symbolize broadcasting. In 1958, the CBC adopted a new logo for use at the end of network programs. Designed by scale model artist Jean-Paul Boileau, it consisted of the legends "CBC" and "Radio-Canada" overlaid on a map of Canada. For French programming, the "Radio-Canada" was placed on top. The "Butterfly" logo was designed for the CBC by Hubert Tison in 1966 to mark the network's progressing transition from black-and-white to colour television, much in the manner of the NBC peacock logo. It was used at the beginning of programs broadcast in colour and was used until all CBC television programs had switched to colour. A sketch on the CBC Television program '' Wayne & Shuster'' once referred to this as the logo of the "Cosmic Butterfly Corporation." The fourth logo, known internally as "the gem", was designed for the CBC by graphic artist Burton Kramer in December 1974, and it is the most widely recognised symbol of the corporation. The main on-air identification featured the logo kaleidoscopically morphing into its form while radiating outward from the centre of the screen on a blue background. This animated version, which went to air in December 1974, is also known colloquially as "The Exploding Pizza". The appearance of this logo marked the arrival of full-colour network television service. The large shape in the middle is the letter C, which stands for Canada; the radiating parts of the C symbolize broadcasting, and the blue circle the logo was placed in represented the world, so the entire logo, according to Kramer, represented the idea of "Canada broadcasting to the world". The original theme music for the 1974 CBC ident was a three-note woodwind orchestral fanfare accompanied by the voiceover "This is CBC" or "Ici Radio-Canada". This was later replaced by a different, and more familiar 11-note woodwind orchestral jingle, which was used until December 31, 1985. The updated one-colour version of the gem/pizza logo, created by Hubert Tison and Robert Innes, was introduced on January 1, 1986, and with it was introduced a new series of computer graphic-generated television idents for CBC and Radio-Canada. These idents consisted of different background colours corresponding to the time of day behind a translucent CBC gem logo, accompanied by different arrangements of the CBC's new, synthesized five-note jingle. The logo was changed to one colour, generally dark blue on white, or white on dark blue, in 1986. Print ads and most television promos, however, have always used a single-colour version of this logo since 1974. In 1992, CBC updated its logo design to make it simpler and more red (or white on a red background). The new logo design, created by Swiss-Canadian design firm Gottschalk + Ash, reduces the number of geometric sections in the logo to 13 instead of the previous logo's 25, and the "C" in the centre of the logo became a simple red circle. According to graphic designer Todd Falkowsky, the logo's red colour also represents Canada in a symbolic way. With the launch of the current design, new television idents were introduced in November that year, also using CGI. Since the early 2000s, it has also appeared in white (sometimes red) on a textured or coloured background. It is now CBC/Radio-Canada's longest-used logo, surpassing the original incarnation of the Gem logo and the CBC's 1940 logo. CBC television slogans have been periodically updated: * 1966: "Television is CBC" * 1970: "When you watch, watch the best" * 1977: "Bringing Canadians Together" * 1980: "We Are the CBC" * 1984: "Look to us for good things" (general) / "Good to Know" (news and public affairs) * 1986–1989: "The Best on the Box" * 1989–1992: "CBC and You" * 1992–1994: "Go Public" / "CBC: Public Broadcasting" (to emphasize that CBC is a public broadcaster) * 1995–2001: "Television to Call Our Own" and "Radio to Call Our Own" * 2001–2007: "Canada's Own" * 2007–2014: "Canada Lives Here" * 2009–present: "Mon monde est à Radio-Canada, SRC" (English translation: My world is on Radio-Canada) * 2011 and 2016: "Yours to Celebrate" (French: "Un monde à célébrer") (for the CBC's 75th and 80th anniversaries) * 2014–present: "Love CBC" / "Fall for CBC"


Personalities

Notable CBC alumni have included future Governors General of Canada
Jeanne Sauvé Jeanne Mathilde Sauvé (; April 26, 1922 – January 26, 1993) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as Governor General of Canada, the 23rd since Canadian Confederation. Sauvé was born in Prud'homme, Saskatchewan, and educate ...
,
Adrienne Clarkson Adrienne Louise Clarkson (; ; born February 10, 1939) is a British Hong Kong, Hong Kong-born Canadian journalist who served from 1999 to 2005 as Governor General of Canada, the List of Governors General of Canada#Governors General of Canada, 1 ...
, and
Michaëlle Jean Michaëlle Jean (; born September 6, 1957) is a Canadian stateswoman and former journalist who served from 2005 to 2010 as governor general of Canada, the 27th since Canadian Confederation. She is the first Haitian Canadian and black person ...
, as well as future
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
René Lévesque René Lévesque (; August 24, 1922 – November 1, 1987) was a Québécois politician and journalist who served as the 23rd premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985. He was the first Québécois political leader since Confederation to attempt ...
.
Knowlton Nash Cyril Knowlton Nash (November 18, 1927 – May 24, 2014) was a Canadian journalist, author and news anchor. He was senior anchor of CBC Television's flagship news program, '' The National'' from 1978 until his retirement in 1988. He began his care ...
, whose career at the CBC spanned the years between 1965 and 1992, was a beloved and trusted news anchor for the news programme '' The National''.
Peter Mansbridge Peter Mansbridge (born July 6, 1948) is a British-born Canadian retired news anchor. From 1988 to 2017, he was chief correspondent for CBC News and anchor of '' The National,'' CBC Television's flagship nightly newscast. He was also host of CB ...
then took over the reins at the premiere Canadian news broadcast until July 1, 2017. For a time Mansbridge shared the anchor position with
Wendy Mesley Wendy is a given name now generally given to girls in English-speaking countries. In Britain, Wendy appeared as a masculine name in a parish record in 1615. It was also used as a surname in Britain from at least the 17th century. Its popularity ...
, who was forced to retire after a 38-year career under a cloud for inappropriate use of language in two closed editorial meetings. A staple in Canadian living rooms since 1952 is the weekly Saturday night broadcast ''
Hockey Night in Canada CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its hi ...
''. Personalities like
Foster Hewitt Foster William Hewitt, (November 21, 1902 – April 21, 1985) was a Canadian radio broadcaster most famous for his play-by-play calls for ''Hockey Night in Canada''. He was the son of W. A. Hewitt, and the father of Bill Hewitt. Biography ...
,
Dick Irvin James Dickinson "Dick" Irvin Jr. (or II) (July 19, 1892 – May 16, 1957) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. He played for professional teams in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, the Western Canada Hockey League, and th ...
,
Harry Neale Harold Watson Neale (born March 9, 1937) is a Canadian retired NCAA, NHL and WHA coach and general manager, and ice hockey broadcaster. Coaching career Following his playing career, Neale got his head coaching start at Hill Park Secondary Schoo ...
were amongst the light-blue jacketed commentators of the 20th century. Ron MacLean had many great moments with
Don Cherry Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...
in the second intermission '' Coach's Corner'' until a slip of the tongue caused the latter's fall from grace in the aftermath of a broadcast on
Remembrance Day Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces members who have died in t ...
2019.


Organization


Mandate

The 1991 ''Broadcasting Act'' states that:Mandate
" ''CBC/Radio-Canada''.
In June 2018, the
Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...
launched a review of the ''Broadcasting Act'' as well as the '' Telecommunications Act'', and the CBC mandate is subject to updating following the review's completion. CBC also submitted a paper to the Review Panel entitled "Our Culture, Our Democracy: Canada in the Digital World", which included various recommendations regarding the strengthening of
public broadcasting Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
within the global broadcasting market. The Review Panel submitted its final report and recommendations on January 29, 2020.


Management

As a
crown corporation A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...
, the CBC operates at
arm's length The arm's length principle (ALP) is the condition or the fact that the parties of a transaction are independent and on an equal footing. Such a transaction is known as an "arm's-length transaction". It is used specifically in contract law to ar ...
(autonomously) from the government in its day-to-day business. The corporation is governed by the ''Broadcasting Act'' of 1991, under a board of directors and is directly responsible to
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
through the
Department of Canadian Heritage The Department of Canadian Heritage, or simply Canadian Heritage (french: Patrimoine canadien), is the department of the Government of Canada that has roles and responsibilities related to initiatives that promote and support "Canadian identity ...
. General management of the organization is in the hands of a president, who is appointed by the
Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, t ...
in Council, on the
advice Advice (noun) or advise (verb) may refer to: * Advice (opinion), an opinion or recommendation offered as a guide to action, conduct * Advice (constitutional law) a frequently binding instruction issued to a constitutional office-holder * Advice (p ...
of the Prime Minister. According to ''
The Hill Times ''The Hill Times'' is a Canadian twice-weekly newspaper and daily news website, published in Ottawa, Ontario, which covers the Parliament of Canada, the federal government, and other federal political news. Founded in 1989 by Ross Dickson and Jim ...
'', a clause in
Bill C-60 ''An Act to amend the Copyright Act'' (Bill C-60) was a proposed law to amend the '' Copyright Act'' initiated by the Government of Canada in the First Session of the Thirty-Eighth Parliament. Introduced by the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Mi ...
—an omnibus budget implementation bill introduced by the government of
Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
in 2013—"appears to contradict a longstanding arm's-length relationship between the independent CBC and any government in power." The clause allows the "prime minister's cabinet to approve salaries, working conditions and collective bargaining positions for the CBC."


Board of directors

In accordance with the '' Broadcasting Act'', a board of directors is responsible for the management of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The board is made up of 12 members, including the chair and the president and CEO. A current list of directors is available from the Canadian
Governor in Council The King-in-Council or the Queen-in-Council, depending on the gender of the reigning monarch, is a constitutional term in a number of states. In a general sense, it would mean the monarch exercising executive authority, usually in the form of a ...
here. , the CBC's board of directors page lists: *
Michael Goldbloom Michael Goldbloom (born 1953) is a Canadian lawyer, publisher, and academic administrator. He is the former publisher of the ''Toronto Star'', Canada's largest newspaper by circulation. Early life and education Born in Montreal, Quebec, as th ...
*
Catherine Tait Catherine Tait (born 1958) is a Canadian business executive who currently serves as the president and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She succeeded Hubert Lacroix for the position after being appointed on April 3, 2018, and begi ...
(president and CEO) * Guillaume Aniorté * Suzanne Guèvremont * René Légère * Sandra Mason * Jennifer Moore Rattray * François R. Roy * Rita Shelton Deverell * Sandra Singh * Bill Tam * Marie Wilson


Presidents

* 1936–1939:
Leonard Brockington Leonard Walter Brockington (6 April 1888 – 15 September 1966) was a Canadian lawyer, civil servant, public figure, and the first head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Born in Cardiff, Wales, one of seven children, Brockin ...
* 1940–1944:
René Morin Louis-Simon-René Morin (July 27, 1883 – July 16, 1955) was head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during World War II from 1940 to 1944, and was the first francophone and native-born Canadian to head the CBC. Born in Saint-Hyacint ...
* 1944–1945: Howard B. Chase * 1945–1958: A. Davidson Dunton * 1958–1967: J. Alphonse Ouimet * 1968–1972: George F. Davidson * 1972–1975: Laurent A. Picard * 1975–1982:
A.W. Johnson Albert Wesley "Al" Johnson (October 18, 1923 – November 9, 2010) was a Canadian civil servant, former president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, professor in the department of political science at the University of Toronto, and a ...
* 1982–1989:
Pierre Juneau Pierre Juneau, , (October 17, 1922 – February 21, 2012) was a Canadian film and broadcast executive, a one-time member of the Canadian Cabinet, the first chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and ...
* 1989:
William T. Armstrong William T. (Bill) Armstrong (1929 – March 25, 2005) was president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from August to October 1989 following the retirement of Pierre Juneau Pierre Juneau, , (October 17, 1922 – February 21, 2012) was a ...
* 1989–1994:
Gérard Veilleux Gérard Veilleux, OC (born 1942) was president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1989 to 1993. He became president of Power Communications in 1994. Born in East Broughton, Quebec, he received a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1963 fr ...
* 1994–1995:
Anthony S. Manera Anthony (Tony) Manera was President of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1993 to 1995. He joined the CBC as Vice-President of Human Resources in 1985 and was appointed Senior Vice President in 1986. He resigned from the Presidency of the C ...
* 1995–1999:
Perrin Beatty Henry Perrin Beatty (born June 1, 1950) is a Canadian corporate executive and former politician, who served as a Progressive Conservative of the House of Commons from 1972 to 1993, and as a cabinet minister from 1979 to 1980 and again from 1984 ...
* 1999–2007:
Robert Rabinovitch Robert Rabinovitch (born March 1, 1943) is a Canadian public servant and businessman who was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
* 2008–2018:
Hubert T. Lacroix Hubert T. Lacroix (born July 13, 1955) is a Canadian lawyer who last served as the President and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the national public radio and television broadcaster, from 2008 until 2018. Born in Montreal, Qu ...
* 2018–present:
Catherine Tait Catherine Tait (born 1958) is a Canadian business executive who currently serves as the president and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She succeeded Hubert Lacroix for the position after being appointed on April 3, 2018, and begi ...


Ombudsmen

English (CBC) * William Morgan * David Bazay (1995 – October 30, 2005) *
Vince Carlin Vincent A. Carlin is a retired Canadian journalist. He was the ombudsman of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from January 2006 to December 2010, serving a five-year term with the corporation. Carlin has since been succeeded by Mr. Kirk Lap ...
(January 2006 – December 2010) *
Kirk LaPointe Kirk LaPointe (born December 12, 1957) is a Canadian journalist. Early life LaPointe was born in Toronto, where he was raised by a single mother in what he describes as poverty conditions. He was educated at New Toronto Secondary School and Ryer ...
(November 2010 – 2012) *
Esther Enkin Esther is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. In the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, is deposed for disobeying him. Hadassah, a Jewess who goes by the name of Esther, is chose ...
(January 1, 2013 – December 2018) *
Jack Nagler Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, i ...
(January 2019 – present) French (Radio-Canada) *
Bruno Gauron Bruno may refer to: People and fictional characters *Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname * Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880) * Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne, ...
(1992) *
Mario Cardinal is a character (arts), character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in ...
(1993–1997) *
Marcel Pépin Marcel may refer to: People * Marcel (given name), people with the given name Marcel * Marcel (footballer, born August 1981), Marcel Silva Andrade, Brazilian midfielder * Marcel (footballer, born November 1981), Marcel Augusto Ortolan, Brazilian ...
(1997–1999) * Renaud Gilbert (2000–2007) *
Julie Miville-Dechêne Julie Miville-Dechêne (born July 10, 1959) is a Canadian senator and former journalist. She is a former journalist and broadcaster with Radio-Canada and spent 25 years as a public affairs correspondent for the network in Washington, D.C., Toron ...
(April 1, 2007 – July 2011) * Pierre Tourangeau (November 14, 2011 – April 2016) * Guy Gendron (April 1, 2016 – 2021)


Financing

For the fiscal year 2006, the CBC received a total of $1.53 billion from all revenue sources, including government funding via taxpayers, subscription fees, advertising revenue, and other revenue (e.g., real estate). Expenditures for the year included $616 million for English television, $402 million for French television, $126 million for specialty channels, a total of $348 million for radio services in both languages, $88 million for management and technical costs, and $124 million for "
amortization Amortization or amortisation may refer to: * The process by which loan principal decreases over the life of an amortizing loan * Amortization (accounting), the expensing of acquisition cost minus the residual value of intangible assets in a system ...
of property and equipment." Some of this spending was derived from amortization of funding from previous years. Among its revenue sources for the year ending March 31, 2006, the CBC received $946 million in its annual funding from the federal government, as well as $60 million in "one-time" supplementary funding for programming. However, this supplementary funding has been repeated annually for a number of years. This combined total is just over a billion dollars annually and is a source of heated debate. To supplement this funding, the CBC's television networks and websites sell advertising, while cable/satellite-only services such as CBC News Network additionally collect subscriber fees, in line with their privately owned counterparts. CBC's radio services do not sell advertising except when required by law (for example, to political parties during federal elections). CBC's funding differs from that of the public broadcasters of many European nations, which collect a
licence fee A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts, or the possession of a television set where some broadcasts are funded in full or in part by the licence f ...
, or those in the United States, such as
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
and
NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
, which receive some public funding but rely to a large extent on voluntary contributions from individual viewers and listeners. A Nanos Research poll from August 2014 conducted for Asper Media (''National Post'', ''Financial Post'') showed 41% of Canadians wanted funding increased, 46% wanted it maintained at current levels, and only 10% wanted to see it cut. The network's defenders note that the CBC's mandate differs from private media's, particularly in its focus on Canadian content; that much of the public funding actually goes to the radio networks; and that the CBC is responsible for the full cost of most of its prime-time programming, while private networks can fill up most of their prime-time schedules with American series acquired for a fraction of their production cost. CBC supporters also point out that additional, long-term funding is required to provide better Canadian dramas and improved local programming to attract and sustain a strong viewership. According to the Canadian Media Guild, the $115-million deficit reduction action plan cuts to CBC which started with the 2012 budget and were fully realized in 2014, amounted to "one of the biggest layoffs of content creators and journalists in Canadian history." The 2014 cuts combined with earlier ones totalled "3,600 jobs lost at CBC since 2008. The CMG asked the federal government to reverse the cuts and to repeal Clause 17 of omnibus budget bill C-60 "to remove government's interference in CBC's day-to-day operations." In September 2015, the Canadian Media Guild announced that the CBC planned to sell all of its properties across Canada to gain a temporary increase in available funds. Media relations manager Alexandra Fortier denied this and stated that the corporation planned to sell only half of its assets. In September 2015, Hubert Lacroix, then-president of CBC/Radio-Canada, spoke at the international public broadcasters' conference in Munich, Munich, Germany. He claimed for the first time that public broadcasters were "at risk of extinction." The Canadian Media Guild responded that Lacroix had "made a career of shredding" the CBC by cutting one quarter of its staff—approximately 2,000 jobs since 2010 under Lacroix's tenure. More than 600 jobs were cut in 2014 in order "to plug a $130-million budget shortfall." Isabelle Montpetit, president of Syndicat des communications de Radio-Canada (SCRC), observed that Lacroix was hand-picked by Stephen Harper for the job as president of the CBC. For the fiscal year 2015, the CBC received $1.036 billion from government funding and took 5% funding cuts from the previous year. In 2015, the Liberal Party was returned to power. As part of its election platform, it promised to restore the $115 million of funding to the CBC that was cut by the Harper Government, over three years, and add $35 million, for a total extra funding of $150 million. On November 28, 2016, the CBC issued a request for $400 million in additional funding, which it planned to use towards removing advertising from its television services, production and acquisition of Canadian content, and "additional funding of new investments to face consumer and technology disruption". The broadcaster argued that it had operated "[under] a business model and cultural policy framework that is profoundly broken," while other countries "[reaped] the benefits of strong, stable, well-funded public broadcasters."


Services


News

CBC News is the largest broadcast newsgathering operation in Canada, providing services to CBC radio as well as
CBC News Network CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. As Canada's first all-news channel, it is th ...
, local supper-hour newscasts, CBC News Online, and Air Canada's in-flight entertainment. Recent CBC News services are also proving popular, such as news alerts to mobile phones and Personal digital assistant, PDAs. Desktop news alerts, e-mail alerts, and digital television alerts are also available.


Radio

CBC Radio has five separate services: three in English, known as
CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Ca ...
,
CBC Music CBC Music (formerly known as CBC FM, CBC Stereo and CBC Radio 2) is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a ...
, and
CBC Radio 3 CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music. The service, which la ...
; and two in French, known as ''
Ici Radio-Canada Première Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) is a Canadian French language, French-language radio network, the news and information service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known as Société Radio-Canada in French), the Public ...
'' and ''
Ici Musique Ici Musique (stylized as ICI Musique) is the French-language music radio service of Canada's national public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (''Société Radio-Canada''). It is the French equivalent of the English CBC Music, al ...
''. Over the years, a number of CBC radio transmitters, with a majority of them on the AM radio, AM band, have either moved to FM radio, FM or have shut down completely. The CBC plans to phase out more CBC AM transmitters across Canada. This goal however remains to be seen in light of the CBC budget cutbacks. CBC Radio One and Première focus on news and information programming, though they also air some music programs, variety shows, and comedy; in the past, they aired some sports programming as well. Both of these services used to broadcast primarily on the AM band, but many stations have moved over to FM. CBC Music and ''Ici musique'' is found exclusively on FM, airing arts and cultural programming, with a focus on music. CBC Radio 3, found only online and on
satellite radio Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a ''broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than ter ...
, airs exclusively-independent Canadian music. CBC Radio also operated two shortwave services. The first, Radio Nord Québec#Shortwave service, Radio Nord Québec, broadcast domestically to Northern Quebec on a static frequency of 9.625 Megahertz, MHz; and the other,
Radio Canada International Radio Canada International (RCI) is the international broadcasting service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Prior to 1970, RCI was known as the CBC International Service. The broadcasting service was also previously referred to as ...
, provided broadcasts to the United States and around the world in eight languages. Both shortwave services were shut down in 2012 due to Radio Canada International#Budget cuts and the end of shortwave broadcasting (2012), budget cuts; the CKCX, Sackville transmitter site was dismantled in 2014. Additionally, the Radio One stations in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's and Vancouver operated Shortwave relay station, shortwave relay transmitters, broadcasting at 6.16 MHz. Some have suggested that CBC/Radio-Canada create a new high-power shortwave Digital Radio Mondiale, digital radio service for more effective coverage of isolated areas. In November 2004, the CBC, in partnership with Standard Broadcasting and Sirius Satellite Radio, applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for a licence to introduce satellite radio service to Canada. The CRTC approved the subscription radio application, as well as two others for satellite radio service, on June 16, 2005. Sirius Canada launched on December 1, 2005, with a number of CBC Radio channels, including the new services
CBC Radio 3 CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music. The service, which la ...
and ''Bande à part (radio), Bande à part''. In some areas, especially national or provincial parks, the CBC also operates an AM or FM transmitter rebroadcasting weather alerts from the Meteorological Service of Canada's Weatheradio Canada service.


Long-range radio plan

The CBC's long-range radio plan (LRRP) was developed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in collaboration with the CBC to identify those FM broadcasting, FM frequencies that would likely be required to deliver the CBC's radio services to the maximum number of Canadians. The CBC is not subject to any conditions or expectations concerning its LRRP. The CBC noted that Première Chaîne (now
Ici Radio-Canada Première Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) is a Canadian French language, French-language radio network, the news and information service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known as Société Radio-Canada in French), the Public ...
) and
CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Ca ...
were available to about 99% of the Canadian population. The CBC stated that it plans to maintain its radio service but has no plans to grow the coverage area. It described the LRRP as a planning vehicle and indicated that it would no longer use it. Given reductions in public funding to the CBC and given that Première Chaîne and Radio One are available to the vast majority of Canadians, the Commission considers that the CBC's plan to maintain current coverage and discontinue the LRRP is reasonable. Accordingly, the Commission accepted the CBC's proposal to discontinue the LRRP.


''Radio Guide''

Beginning in 1981, CBC radio launched the monthly magazine ''Radio Guide'', which included CBC Radio program listings alongside feature content, such as profiles of musicians and writers and behind the scenes looks at CBC programs. The magazine was released both by subscription and as a newsstand title. In 1984, due to budgetary pressures at the CBC, the magazine began accepting paid advertising from outside clients; in 1985, due to further budget cuts, the magazine was discontinued as a standalone title, and instead became a supplement in ''Saturday Night (magazine), Saturday Night''. In 1988, the magazine was sold to Core Group Publishers of Vancouver, and continued in this format until 1997, when it was discontinued due to a declining subscriber base.


Television

The CBC operates two national broadcast television networks:
CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
in English, and
Ici Radio-Canada Télé Ici Radio-Canada Télé (formerly known as Télévision de Radio-Canada) is a Canadian French-language free-to-air television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada), the national pub ...
in French. Like private broadcasters, both of these networks sell advertising, but offer more Canadian-produced programming. All CBC television stations are owned and operated by the CBC itself and carry a common schedule, aside from local programming and other regional variation (such as the
CBC North CBC North ( iu, ᓰᐲᓰ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ, lit=CBC Northwest, translit=, SiiPiiSii Ukiuqtaqtumi; cr, ᓰᐲᓰ ᒌᐌᑎᓅᑖᐦᒡ, label=cr, SiiPiiSii Chiiwetinuutaahch; french: Radio-Canada Nord) is the Canadian Broadcasting Corpora ...
stations in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon carrying an additional newscast in the Inuktitut language and a weekly Cree language, Cree program), and CBET-DT in Windsor amending its non-primetime schedule at various points due to program rights conflicts with Detroit stations. Both CBC's English and French networks previously had a number of private affiliates owned by third-party owners. However, the majority of them have either been bought by the CBC and subsequently shut down during the transition to digital television, or have switched to other networks and program services. The only remaining privately owned affiliate of any CBC-owned network is Ici Radio-Canada Télé affiliate CKRT-DT in Rivière-du-Loup (which is part of a Duopoly (broadcasting), triplestick also containing private affiliates for Quebec's two private networks). One of the most popular shows is the weekly Saturday night broadcast of National Hockey League, NHL Ice hockey, hockey games. In English, the program is known as ''
Hockey Night in Canada CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its hi ...
'', and in French, it was called ''La Soirée du hockey''. Both shows began in 1952. The French edition was discontinued in 2004, though Radio-Canada stations outside of Quebec simulcast some Saturday night games produced by Réseau des sports, RDS until 2006. The network suffered considerable public embarrassment when it lost the rights to the show's The Hockey Theme, theme music following a protracted lawsuit launched by the song's composer and publishers. In 2013, the exclusive national media rights to the NHL were acquired by Rogers Media, although Rogers would reach an agreement with the CBC to license the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' brand for use in its NHL on Sportsnet, coverage of Saturday-night games, and Brokered programming, broker a version of the broadcasts to CBC at no charge. The CBC also wholly owns and operates three specialty television channels—the news channels
CBC News Network CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. As Canada's first all-news channel, it is th ...
and
Ici RDI Ici RDI (stylized ICI RDI) is a Canadian French-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada). The channel began broadcasting on January 1, 1995 as Réseau de l'informa ...
, and the French-language network
Ici Explora Ici Explora (stylized as ICI Explora) is a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada) that focuses on science, environment, nature, and health programming ...
. It also owns a managing interest in the Francophone arts service ARTV, and Documentary Channel (Canadian TV channel), Documentary Channel. CBC provides viewers with interactive on-demand television programs every year through digital cable, digital-cable services like Rogers Cable. Children's programming air under the commercial-free preschool programming block called CBC Kids. In French, the children's programming block is ''Zone Jeunesse'' on ICI Radio-Canada Télé.


Online

The CBC has two main websites: ''CBC.ca'' is in English and was established in 1996; and ''Radio-Canada.ca'' is in French. The websites allow the CBC to produce sections that complement the various programs on television and radio. In May 2012, as part of an initiative to improve its service in "underserved" markets, the CBC launched a CBC Hamilton news operation for Hamilton, Ontario. With the Hamilton area already within the broadcast range of CBC Radio and CBC Television's services in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, the outlet focuses exclusively on digital content, including a section of the CBC News website oriented towards the market. CBC Hamilton reporters have occasionally filed reports for the CBC's television news output, in the event of major stories centred upon the city. Also in 2012, the corporation launched
CBC Music CBC Music (formerly known as CBC FM, CBC Stereo and CBC Radio 2) is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It used to concentrate on classical and jazz. In 2007 and 2008, the network transitioned towards a ...
, an internet radio service that produces and distributes 40 music-related channels, including the existing audio streams of CBC Radio 2 and
CBC Radio 3 CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music. The service, which la ...
."CBC launches free digital music service"
''Ottawa Citizen'', February 13, 2012.
In October 2019, the CBC launched a successor to the CBC Music platform known as CBC Listen, which encompasses the CBC's radio, music, as well as podcast output. CBC offers feature-length documentary films through the , a Digital television stations in Canada, digital television station.


Merchandising

Established in 2002, CBC Merchandising operates retail locations and ''CBCshop.ca''; its educational sales department, CBC Learning, sells CBC content and media to educational institutions; as well as Brand licensing, licensing brands such as ''
Hockey Night in Canada CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its hi ...
'' (whose branding is still owned by the CBC) and ''Coronation Street'' (as a Canadian licensee under arrangement from ITV Studios).


Miscellaneous

CBC Records is a Canadian record label that distributes CBC programming, including live concert performances and album transcripts of news and information programming such as the Massey Lectures, in album format. Music albums on the label, predominantly in the classical and jazz genres, are distributed across Canada in commercial record stores, while albums containing spoken word programming are predominantly distributed by the CBC's own retail merchandising operations. CBC provides news, business, weather and sports information on Air Canada's inflight entertainment as ''Enroute Journal''.


Unions

Unions representing employees at CBC/Radio-Canada include: * Canadian Media Guild (CMG) represents on-air, production, technical, administrative and support staff outside of Québec and Moncton. * Association of Professionals and Supervisors (APS)* * American Federation of Musicians, American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM)* * Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (performers; ACTRA) * International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (stagehands; IATSE) * Writers Guild of Canada (WGC)* * ''Association des réalisateurs'' (AR) * ''Syndicat des communications de Radio-Canada'' (SCRC) * ''Société des auteurs de la radio, de la télévision et du cinéma'' (SARTeC). * ''Syndicat Canadien de la fonction publique, Conseil des sections locales, Groupe des employé(e)s de bureau et professionnel(le)s'' (SCFP). * ''Société professionnelle des auteurs-compositeurs du Québec'' (SPACQ) * ''Syndicat des technicien(ne)s et des artisan(e)s du réseau français'' (STARF). * ''Union des artistes'' (UDA)


Labour issues

During the summer of 1981 there was a major disruption of CBC programming as the technicians union, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, went on strike. Local newscasts were cut back to the bare minimum. This had the effect of delaying the debut of ''The Journal (Canadian TV show), The Journal'', which had to wait until January 1982. The CBC has been affected by a number of other labour disputes since the late 1990s: * In early 1999, CBC English- and French-network technicians in all locations outside
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
and Moncton, members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, went on strike. The Canadian Media Guild was set to strike as well, but the CBC settled with both unions. * A similar dispute, again involving all technicians outside Quebec and Moncton, occurred in late 2001 and concluded by the end of the year. * In spring 2002, on-air staff in Quebec and Moncton (again, on both English and French networks) were locked out by local management, leaving, among other things, NHL playoff games without commentary on French television.


2005 lock-out

On August 15, 2005, 5,500 employees of the CBC (about 90%) were lockout (industry), locked out by CBC CEO
Robert Rabinovitch Robert Rabinovitch (born March 1, 1943) is a Canadian public servant and businessman who was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
in a dispute over future hiring practices. At issue were the rules governing the hiring of contract workers in preference to full-time hires. The locked-out employees were members of the Canadian Media Guild, representing all production, journalistic and on-air personnel outside Quebec and Moncton, including several foreign correspondents. While CBC services continued during the lock-out, they were primarily made up of repeats, with news programming from the BBC and newswires. Major CBC programs such as '' The National'' and ''Royal Canadian Air Farce (TV series), Royal Canadian Air Farce'' were not produced during the lock-out; some non-CBC-owned programs seen on the network, such as ''The Red Green Show'', shifted to other studios. Meanwhile, the locked-out employees produced podcasts and websites such as ''CBCunplugged.com''. After a hiatus, talks re-opened. On September 23, Joe Fontana, the federal minister of labour, called Rabinovitch and Arnold Amber—the president of the CBC branch of the Canadian Media Guild—to his office for talks aimed at ending the dispute. Late in the evening of October 2, 2005, it was announced that the CBC management and staff had reached a tentative deal which resulted in the CBC returning to normal operations on October 11. Some speculated that the looming October 8 start date for the network's most important television property, ''
Hockey Night in Canada CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its hi ...
'', had acted as an additional incentive to resolve the dispute. While all labour disputes resulted in cut-back programming and numerous repeat airings, the 2005 lock-out may have been the most damaging to CBC. All local programming in the affected regions was cancelled and replaced by abbreviated national newscasts and national radio morning shows. BBC World (television) and BBC World Service, World Service (radio), as well as Broadcast News (Canada), Broadcast News feeds, were used to provide the remainder of original news content, and the CBC website consisted mainly of rewritten wire copy. Some BBC staff protested against their material being used during the CBC lock-out. "The National Union of Journalists, NUJ and Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union, BECTU will not tolerate their members' work being used against colleagues in Canada," said a joint statement by BBC unions. The CMG questioned whether, with its limited Canadian news content, the CBC was meeting its legal requirements under the ''Broadcasting Act (1991)#Broadcasting Act, 1958 & 1968, Broadcasting Act'' and its CRTC licences. Galaxie (radio), Galaxie (which CBC owned at the time) supplied some music content for the radio networks. Tapes of aired or produced documentaries, interviews and entertainment programs were also aired widely. Selected television sports coverage, including that of the Canadian Football League, continued, but without commentary. As before, French-language staff outside of Quebec were also affected by the 2005 lock-out, although with Quebec producing the bulk of the French networks' programming, those networks were not as visibly affected by the dispute apart from local programs.


International broadcasts

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
,
Ici Radio-Canada Télé Ici Radio-Canada Télé (formerly known as Télévision de Radio-Canada) is a Canadian French-language free-to-air television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada), the national pub ...
,
CBC News Network CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. As Canada's first all-news channel, it is th ...
, and all other CBC channels can be received through cable and satellite TV channel providers across Canada, such as Bell Satellite TV, Telus Optik TV, Rogers Cable, Videotron, Cogeco, and other smaller TV providers. The CBC and Radio-Canada channel signals can also be obtained free of charge, Over the air broadcasting, over-the-air, through antenna receivers in Canada's largest markets as well as in some border states along the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. border; however, CBC is not obtainable as a "free-to-air" (FTA) channel on FTA satellites (signals are encrypted on the Anik (satellite), Anik space satellites and require a dedicated satellite receiver).


Caribbean

Several Caribbean Countries carry feeds of CBC TV, including in: * Bahamas, on the coral wave (Cable Bahamas) television system in the Northern Bahamas (Channel 8). * Barbados, **on the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation-owned cable system ''Multi-Choice TV'' (Channel 703); and **on the Columbus Communications-owned cable system ''FLOW Barbados'' (Channel 132). * Bermuda, on the CableVision digital cable service. * Grenada, carried on Columbus Communications-owned cable system Flow (brand), ''FLOW'' ''Grenada''. * Jamaica, distributed in areas served by ''FLOW Jamaica''. * Trinidad and Tobago, on the Columbus Communications Trinidad Ltd. (CCTL) television system.


United States

CBC radio and television stations can be received terrestrial television, over-the-air and have a significant audience in Canada–United States border, U.S. border communities such as Bellingham, Washington, Bellingham and Seattle, Washington; Buffalo, New York; Detroit, Detroit, Michigan; and Burlington, Vermont. Farther from the border, some American fans of the network have acquired Canadian IP addresses to stream its sports broadcasts. Some CBC programming is also Rebroadcaster, rebroadcast on local public radio, such as New Hampshire Public Radio, Vermont Public Radio and the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. CBC television channels are available on cable systems located near the Canada–U.S. border. For example, CBET-DT, CBET Windsor, Ontario, Windsor is available on cable systems in the Detroit, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio, areas; much of the rest of the state of Michigan receives CBMT-DT, CBMT Montreal on cable. CBUT-DT, CBUT Vancouver is broadcast on Comcast in the Seattle area. At night, the AM radio transmissions of both CBC and Radio-Canada services can be received over much of the northern portion of the United States, from stations such as CBW (AM), CBW in Winnipeg, CBK (AM), CBK in
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
, and CJBC (AM), CJBC in
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. On September 11, 2001, several American broadcasters without their own news operations, including C-SPAN, carried the CBC's coverage of the September 11 attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. In the days after September 11, C-SPAN carried CBC's nightly newscast, ''The National (CBC), The National'', anchored by
Peter Mansbridge Peter Mansbridge (born July 6, 1948) is a British-born Canadian retired news anchor. From 1988 to 2017, he was chief correspondent for CBC News and anchor of '' The National,'' CBC Television's flagship nightly newscast. He was also host of CB ...
. The quality of this coverage was recognised specifically by the Canadian Journalism Foundation; editor-in-chief Tony Burman later accepted the Excellence in Journalism Award (2004), for "rigorous professional practice, accuracy, originality and public accountability," on behalf of the service. C-SPAN has also carried CBC's coverage of major events affecting Canadians, including: Canadian federal elections, key proceedings in Parliament of Canada, Six days in September 2000 that marked the death and state funeral of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the 2003 North America blackout, power outage crisis in summer 2003, U.S. presidential elections (e.g. in 2004 U.S. presidential election, 2004, C-SPAN picked up ''The National'' the day after the election for the view from Canadians), state visits and official visits of President of United States, American presidents to Canada, and First inauguration of Barack Obama, Barack Obama inauguration in 2009. Several
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
stations also air some CBC programming. However, these programs are syndicated by independent distributors, and are not governed by the PBS "common carriage" policy. Other American broadcast networks sometimes air CBC reports, especially for Canadian events of international significance. For example, in the early hours after the Swissair Flight 111 disaster, CNN aired CBC's live coverage of the event. Also in the late 1990s, CNN Headline News aired a few CBC reports of events that were not significant outside Canada.


Newsworld International and Trio

From 1994 to 2000, the CBC, in a venture with Power Corporation of Canada, Power Broadcasting (former owner of CKWS-TV, CKWS in Kingston, Ontario, Kingston), jointly owned two networks: # Newsworld International (NWI), an American cable channel that rebroadcast much of the programming of CBC Newsworld (now known as
CBC News Network CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. As Canada's first all-news channel, it is th ...
). # Trio channel, Trio, an arts and entertainment channel. In 2000, CBC and Power Broadcasting sold these channels to Barry Diller's USA Networks. Diller's company was later acquired by Vivendi Universal, which in turn was partially acquired by NBC to form NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal still owns the Trio brand, which no longer has any association with the CBC (and became an Internet-only broadband channel which was later folded into Bravo (U.S. TV channel), Bravo.) The channel was shut down and was replaced with the NBCUniversal channel Sleuth (later known as Cloo). However, the CBC continued to program NWI, with much of its programming simulcast on the domestic Newsworld service. In late 2004, as a result of a further change in NWI's ownership to the INdTV consortium (including Joel Hyatt and former Vice-President of the United States, U.S. Vice-President Al Gore), NWI ceased airing CBC programming on August 1, 2005, when it became Current TV. Current later folded and became Al Jazeera America on August 20, 2013.


International broadcast of radio programs

Some CBC Radio One programs, such as ''Definitely Not the Opera'', ''WireTap'', ''Q (radio show), Q'', and ''As It Happens'', also air on some stations associated with American Public Media or Public Radio International. Some of the CBC's radio networks are available to Sirius XM Holdings, SiriusXM subscribers in the United States, including CBC Radio One (a special feed that exclusively contains CBC-produced content and no regional programs) and Première (a simulcast of its Montreal flagship CBF-FM), CBC Radio 3, and music-oriented services exclusive to SiriusXM.


Controversies


Allegations of bias

Several outlets and politicians over many years have accused CBC News of bias. Surveys have found the Canadian public perceives a centre-left/Liberal Party bias in CBC News coverage.


Falun Gong and ''Beyond the Red Wall''

In November 2007, the CBC replaced its documentary about persecution of Falun Gong members in China, ''Beyond the Red Wall: Persecution of Falun Gong'', at the last minute with a rerun episode regarding President Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. The broadcaster had said to the press that "the crisis in Pakistan was considered more urgent and much more newsworthy," but sources from within the network itself had stated that the Chinese government had called the Canadian Embassy and demanded repeatedly that the program be taken off the air. The documentary in question was to air on Tuesday, November 6, 2007, on CBC Newsworld, but was replaced. The documentary aired two weeks later on November 20, 2007,Beyond the Red Wall: The Persecution of Falun Gong
''Cbc.ca,'' November 20, 2007.
after editing.


CBC President's comparison of Netflix's influence to colonialism

In January 2019 CBC President
Catherine Tait Catherine Tait (born 1958) is a Canadian business executive who currently serves as the president and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She succeeded Hubert Lacroix for the position after being appointed on April 3, 2018, and begi ...
came under fire for comparing Netflix to colonial imperialism in Western imperialism in Asia, India and parts of Imperialism in Africa, Africa. Tait did not offer an apology and Heather Mallick defended her comparison. Tait's comments made American headlines with J.J. McCullough of ''The Washington Post'' suggesting that "the state-sponsored" corporation shielded her from criticism and that the Canadian industry "was built in part as a bulwark against American influence." Canadian TV critic John Doyle (critic), John Doyle, who has long criticized what he perceives as the low standards of Canadian programming, claimed that CBC had a problem of complacency rather than imperialism.


Closed captioning

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
was an early leader in broadcasting programming with closed captioning for the Hearing-impaired, hearing impaired, airing its first captioned programming in 1981. Captioned programming in Canada began with the airing of ''Clown White'' in English-language and French-language versions on CBC Television and Radio-Canada, respectively. Most sources list that event as occurring in 1981, while others list the year as 1982. In 1997, Henry Vlug, a deaf lawyer in Vancouver, filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) alleging that an absence of captioning on some programming on CBC Television and Newsworld infringed on his rights as a person with a disability. A ruling in 2000 by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, which later heard the case, sided with Vlug and found that an absence of captioning constituted disability discrimination, discrimination on the basis of disability. The Tribunal ordered CBC Television and Newsworld to caption the entirety of their broadcast days, "including television shows, commercials, promos and unscheduled news flashes, from sign on until sign off." The ruling recognized that "there will inevitably be glitches with respect to the delivery of captioning," but that "the rule should be full captioning." In a negotiated settlement to avoid appealing the ruling to the
Federal Court of Canada The Federal Court of Canada, which succeeded the Exchequer Court of Canada in 1971, was a national court of Canada that had limited jurisdiction to hear certain types of disputes arising under the federal government's legislative jurisdiction. ...
, CBC agreed to commence 100% captioning on CBC Television and Newsworld beginning November 1, 2002. CBC Television and Newsworld are apparently the only broadcasters in the world required to caption the entire broadcast day. However, published evidence asserts that CBC is not providing the 100% captioning ordered by the Tribunal. In 2004, Canadian retired senator Jean-Robert Gauthier, a hard-of-hearing person, filed a complaint with the CHRC against Radio-Canada concerning captioning, particularly the absence of real-time captioning on newscasts and other live programming. As part of the settlement process, Radio-Canada agreed to submit a report on the state of captioning, especially real-time captioning, on Radio-Canada and Réseau de l'information, RDI. The report, which was the subject of some criticism, proposed an arrangement with La Cité collégiale, Cité Collégiale, a college in Ottawa, to train more French-language real-time captioners. English-language List of Canadian specialty services, specialty networks owned or co-owned by CBC, including Documentary (TV channel), documentary, have the lower captioning requirements typical of larger Canadian broadcasters (90% of the broadcast day by the end of both networks' licence terms). ARTV, the French-language specialty network co-owned by CBC, has a minimum captioning requirement of 53%.


2013 Radio-Canada rebranding

On June 5, 2013, the CBC announced that it would be phasing out the Radio-Canada brand from its French-language broadcast properties, and unifying them under names prefixed with "''Ici''" ('this is' or literally 'here'). For instance, the CBC planned to re-brand ''Télévision de Radio-Canada'' as "''Ici Télé''", ''Première Chaîne'' as "''Ici Première''", and move its French-language website from ''Radio-Canada.ca'' to ''ici.ca''. Radio-Canada vice-president Louis Lalande stated that the new name complemented its multi-platform operations, while also serving as an homage to the broadcaster's historic station identification slogan since the 1930s, "''ici Radio-Canada''" ('this is Radio-Canada'). The announcement was criticized by politicians (such as Minister of Canadian Heritage James Moore (Canadian politician), James Moore), who felt that the new "Ici" brand was too confusing, and that the CBC was diminishing the value of the Radio-Canada name through its plans to downplay it. The re-branding was also criticized for being unnecessary spending, reportedly costing $400,000, in the midst of budget cuts at the CBC. On June 10, in response to the criticism, Hubert Lacroix apologized for the decision and announced that the new brands for its main radio and television networks would be revised to restore the Radio-Canada name alongside Ici, such as "''Ici Radio-Canada Première''". In March 2013, the CBC also filed a trademark lawsuit against Sam Norouzi, founder of CFHD-DT—a new multicultural station in Montreal—seeking to have Norouzi's registration on the name "ICI" (as an abbreviation of "International Channel/Canal International") cancelled because it was too similar to its own "Ici"-related trademarks. Despite Norouzi's trademark having been registered prior to the registration of CBC's, the corporation argued that Norouzi's application contained incorrect information surrounding his first use of the name in commerce, and also asserted the long-time use of "Ici Radio-Canada" as part of its imaging. Norouzi stated that he planned to fight the CBC in court.


Suspension of local newscasts during the COVID-19 pandemic

On March 18, 2020, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, COVID-19 pandemic, CBC News suspended all of its English-language CBC Television local newscasts, local newscasts (excluding those carried by
CBC North CBC North ( iu, ᓰᐲᓰ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ, lit=CBC Northwest, translit=, SiiPiiSii Ukiuqtaqtumi; cr, ᓰᐲᓰ ᒌᐌᑎᓅᑖᐦᒡ, label=cr, SiiPiiSii Chiiwetinuutaahch; french: Radio-Canada Nord) is the Canadian Broadcasting Corpora ...
, which include an English-language newscast and a second in Inuktitut), replacing them in their time slots with simulcasts of
CBC News Network CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. As Canada's first all-news channel, it is th ...
. The CBC stated that this was done in order to pool its local resources to CBC News Network as a "core news offering." An employee memo suggested that a lack of staff at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre and "much stricter newsgathering protocols" were another factor in the decision. CBC News editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon similarly stated that the broadcaster had decided to consolidate news production because their outbreak had "place[d] incredible demands on our staff and our infrastructure", and not all jobs associated with television production were capable of being done remotely. These consolidations only affect news programming on CBC Television; CBC Radio and
Ici Radio-Canada Télé Ici Radio-Canada Télé (formerly known as Télévision de Radio-Canada) is a Canadian French-language free-to-air television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada), the national pub ...
have continued to carry local content. The CBC's decision faced criticism for its lack of clear justification, and resulting reduction of local news coverage during a major news event—especially in markets where CBC's local newscasts are the only news programming specific to the region (such as Prince Edward Island, which resulted in criticism of the move by Premier of Prince Edward Island, Premier Dennis King (politician), Dennis King). The Canadian Media Guild stated that the decision "flies in the face of past experience which has proven time and again that in times of significant events, Canadians trust and rely on CBC news coverage, particularly for its widespread coverage of regional and local impact, something no other Canadian network can match." ''Montreal Gazette'' media writer Steve Faguy questioned whether this change was in compliance with the individual stations' CRTC licences, as all CBC stations are required to produce local newscasts daily, and a minimum amount of local programming per-week. In an editorial for ''The Globe and Mail'', former CTV News president Robert Hurst (broadcaster), Robert Hurst stated that it was unusual for a journalistic operation to cut back on its operations during a crisis, and suggested that decision was the culmination of "decades of CBC News mismanagement" and low ratings in comparison to competitors (such as CTV, Global, and Citytv) in most markets. The ''Toronto Star'' similarly wrote that the CBC had "decided to bail on local communities across the country". On March 24, the CBC announced that it would introduce "an expanded 30-minute local news segment on CBC News Network" beginning March 25, and would "make every effort to have all of the dedicated local shows back up on the main network".


CBC Tandem and branded content

Since 2016, the CBC has utilized branded content, publishing advertisements that are designed to look, read or sound similarly to news produced by the CBC itself. In 2020 the CBC formally launched a division called Tandem that focused its branded content marketing efforts, promising corporate clients they can "leverage" the CBC's reputation by aligning their message with the "trust Canadians have in our brand". Over 500 current and former employees called on CBC management to end Tandem, saying "in an era of 'fake news,' where misinformation is already rife, it undermines trust...what's worse, it uses [Canadians'] tax dollars to do it." In November 2020 former employees requested that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission investigate Tandem as part of the public broadcaster's upcoming licence renewal, concerned the content blurs the lines between advertising and news, adding that "Canadians have a right to a national public broadcaster that puts their news and information needs ahead of the desires of corporate clients." Private sector media criticized the CBC's ability to dominate the Canadian advertising market, using taxpayer-funded subsidies to unfairly compete with local newspapers and broadcasters, driving them out of business. CBC President and CEO Catherine Tait states that the CBC has since put "guardrails" in place that will ensure there is no confusion between CBC journalism and commercial advertising. The CRTC integrated its investigation of Tandem into its hearings on the renewal of CBC's federal broadcast licences, ultimately renewing the CBC's licence from 2022 to 2027 and approving the Tandem program. The CRTC required that the CBC must establish, maintain, and publicize their guidelines on branded content as well as measure whether branded content is confusing to Canadians. The CRTC decision has been criticized as allowing the CBC to disregard its mandate as a public broadcaster, transforming into a "publicly funded commercial broadcaster."


Kenneth Muzik verdict

On December 15, 2021, Manitoba Bench Justice Herbert Rempel ordered the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to pay investment advisor Kenneth Wayne Muzik nearly $1.7 million in damages for a story it had aired in June 2012 featuring a former client, William Worthington, who complained about the performance of his investment portfolio. Muzik was represented by William Gange of Gange Collins Holloway. In March 2022, Rempel ordered CBC to pay nearly $300 thousand to cover Muzik's legal fees.


See also

* * *CBC Museum *Concentration of media ownership *List of public broadcasters by country *List of public service radio stations *Media in Canada *Public Francophone Radios *Réseau de l'information


References


Further reading

* Allen, Gene, and Daniel J. Robinson, eds. ''Communicating in Canada's Past: Essays in Media History'' (University of Toronto Press, 2009) * Graham, Sean. "A Canadian Network? The CBC and Television, 1936–1939." ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television'' (2014) pp: 1–19. * Ménard, Marion. ''CBC/Radio-Canada: Overview and Key Issues'' (Library of Parliament publication No. 2013-92; 2013
online
11 pages * Murray, Gil. ''Nothing on but the radio: a look back at radio in Canada and how it changed the world'' (Dundurn, 2003); Popular history * Peers, Frank W. ''The politics of Canadian broadcasting, 1920–1951'' (University of Toronto Press, 1969) * Taras, David. ''Digital Mosaic: Media, Power, and Identity in Canada'' (University of Toronto Press, 2015) * Teer-Tomaselli, Ruth. "Empire and broadcasting in the interwar years: towards a consideration of public broadcasting in the British dominions." ''Critical Arts'' (2015) 29#1 pp: 77–93. * Weir, Earnest Austin. ''The struggle for national broadcasting in Canada'' (McClelland and Stewart, 1965)


Primary sources

*


In French

* Bergeron, Raymonde, and Marcelle Ouellette. ''Voix, visages et legends: Radio-Canada 1936–1986''. Montreal, Que.: Entreprises Radio-Canada, 1986. ''N.B''.: The subtitle appears on front cover. 256 p., ill. with b&w ports. * Witmer, Glenn Edward, and Jacques Chaput, eds. ''50 [i.e. Cinquante] ans de radio: Radio-Canada, 1936–1986''. Montreal, Que.: Entreprises Radio-Canada, 1986. 47 p., amply ill., chiefly with b&w photos.


External links

*
CBC News site

Archival papers held at University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services


{{Authority control Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Federal departments and agencies of Canada Canadian federal Crown corporations Department of Canadian Heritage Canadian brands Companies based in Ottawa Publicly funded broadcasters Multilingual broadcasters Government agencies established in 1936 1936 establishments in Ontario Television broadcasting companies of Canada Canadian companies established in 1936