On August 4, 2022, the CAB submitted a petition to the Governor in Council requesting that the federal cabinet set aside and revisit certain aspects of the CRTC’s Broadcasting Decision 2022-165 concerning the CBC and Radio-Canada’s licence renewals.
CAB’s petition relates solely to the CBC’s ability to solicit and accept advertising, including sponsored or branded content, despite its access to more than a billion dollars in Government funding annually.
Specifically, we have requested:
- the phasing out of the CBC’s ability to accept advertising on its services, whether on its licensed programming undertakings or exempt digital media broadcasting undertakings; and
- that the Corporation’s Tandem branded content service cease operations immediately due to it being inconsistent with its mandate.
We believe the CRTC fundamentally erred in this decision as it fails to consider the public broadcaster’s mandate to focus on its public service to Canadians, regardless of popularity or profitability. In doing so, the Commission’s decision creates greater incentive for the CBC/Radio-Canada to use their significant government funding to compete directly with private broadcasters for popular and commercially viable programming as well as for advertisers.
View the full petition here.