A flurry of recent moves by CBC's current management call into question how much longer Canada will have a national 'public' broadcaster.
CBC's recent placement of advertising in company washrooms, a move as classy as fishing for pennies in a fountain, has been discussed pretty thoroughly. If you add that to a pair of announcements yesterday, it becomes questionable whether current management has any interest in being a public broadcaster any longer.
First came an email from the CMG stating that the CBC is "negotiating to outource national archive sales to a business unit of the BBC." While the BBC is a public broadcaster and partnerships between public broadcasters are common and generally acceptable, outsourcing the sales and marketing of Canadian History to another country is, to say the very least, questionable.
Next came the big one, from the Globe and Mail
AOL Canada Inc. has forged a partnership with CBC that will see the on-line giant sell advertising for the broadcaster's website and tap into its vast pool of video content.
The deal calls for AOL to become the exclusive seller of advertising to CBC's website, beyond the on-line business the broadcaster brings in through its own TV and radio operations.
AOL officials said the two operations will share the advertising revenue generated by the arrangement. Terms were not disclosed for the ad deal, which began in August but was only announced yesterday, along with the video-sharing strategy.
CBC joins a stable of sites that AOL Canada's parent company, America Online Inc., has the exclusive right to sell advertising for, including TimeCanada.com, CNN.com and SportsIllustrated.com.
This, to me, is a deal that falls squarely outside the bounds of public broadcasting and will make it terribly difficult for the task force, called for by the heritage committee to justify additional funds, or even maintain current funding for a broadcaster that is evidently intent on being commercial and competing with other commercial broadcasters.
I can only hope that Our Public Airwaves campaign for 'A New CBC' has some success. If Canadians want a national public broadcaster, dramatic changes will be needed.
5 comments:
i think the outsourcing of management of the archives is not so bad, as long as "management" means technical management of the project ... after all BBC has the technical expertise to do it well, they are leaders here and CBC clearly does not have the imagination or tech capacity to achieve it. if "management of the archives" means tech management of the files and distribution, doesn't necessarily mean BBC will control what happens, just how it happens. (but i have not read the article so not sure on the specifics)
the AOL announcement is another matter altogether. This is terrible news. really unbelievable. cbc content should belong to canadians, and financing America Online though ads on a CBC site is just, really, insane.
In the article, I see no mention of the BBC being in charge of 'management of the archives' or 'technical management' - it appears BBC will be in charge of sales and marketing and the CBC will remain in charge of 'technical management'.
indeed you are right, though the note from cmg is vague. and note also, when I say CBC does not have the imagination or tech capacity, I mean so far the cbc website is crap. what I want from that site is content, and there is very little for me there. compare with BBC, Aust. BC, NPR.
they are missing the whole point of what's happening in tech world right now, stuck with the WORST model in the world, AOL. god it makes my blood boil.
I understand. I can't figure out sometimes if they are trying to make the CBC into a commercial broadcaster or just kill it altogether. Even if you forget that it's supposed to be a public broadcaster and think of it as a regular company, some of their decisions are highly questionable.
I've been thinking this over for a while now since we last spoke about it. I don't think I even want to consider arguing against your latest comment on this thread right now, because you may be too close to the mark.
I'm not even sure that the government knew -- or knows -- what it collectively wants of CBC right now.
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