The federal Heritage Minister says he'd consider allowing advertising on CBC Radio to help the broadcaster deal with revenue issues, but the CBC itself denies it has plans to place commercials on its radio services.
“Airing ads on CBC Radio is not being currently considered,” CBC corporate spokesman Marco Dubé said yesterday, adding the CBC expects to have a balanced budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year ending March 31.
However, speaking to the Heritage Subcommittee on Monday, Heritage Minister James Moore acknowledged during questioning that he isn't ruling out any option that could help the CBC or any other broadcasters, all of which are facing challenging economic times.
During the meeting, Moore appeared open to the idea of ads on CBC Radio if the CBC were to show interest, but he made it clear the issue has yet to be raised. “It has not been discussed with CBC and Radio Canada. It's not something that we are looking at doing but we are very conscious of the needs of the CBC, the pressures that they're facing and I would certainly work with them on any option that they think would work to best serve their mandate in serving Canadians,” Moore said.
NDP Heritage critic Charlie Angus, who raised the question about ads and CBC Radio during the committee meeting, said yesterday that he is surprised by Moore's comments.
“He revealed his government's inclination to support the introduction of commercials on CBC Radio.
But he also talked about the financial troubles that the CBC is in,” Angus said. “What are those financial troubles? We know that CBC English television has done some unusual program buying. They have purchased some very big name, very expensive American programs in the hopes of getting advertising return on those.”
Angus argued that the hoped-for “advertising golden egg has not panned out.” It's not a problem solely at the CBC. All broadcasters have suffered during the current economic downturn.
Speculation among Ottawa insiders is that the shortfall from costly programming and lower advertising revenue at CBC-TV could be as high as $100-million. On the flip side, the extra revenue which the CBC could gain from ads across all of its English and French radio services is estimated to be roughly $95-million. But the consensus among CBC watchers is that radio commercials would spark a listener outcry.
Angus noted that CBC had asked during its last license renewal for permission to at least look at the option to place advertisements on CBC Radio. According to Angus, the regulators rejected this, but the question now is whether the government could push regulators to approve this option if the CBC were to ask for it again.
“Given the kind of ideology behind the [Conservative government], given the massive drop in revenue that I think the CBC is going to have to admit to, because of the downturn, are they looking to move into commercial radio?” Angus asked.
As Heritage Minister, Moore has previously come under fire from Opposition MPs over the Conservatives' much-publicized $44.8-million in programs cut from the government's arts and culture portfolio last fall.
