The year 2023 has been stormy for public broadcasters in the country. The Center for Media Studies reminds us of this, before delivering the results of its report on the consumption and perceptions of news from Radio-Canada and CBC, including ICI RDI and CBC News Network. Results that follow the decreasing trends that have begun: consumption of news from public broadcasters is down 13 percentage points among French-speaking people, and 9 percentage points among English-speaking people.
At the time the Study Center was carrying out its data collection, in February 2023, Pierre Poilievre once again promised to “defund” Radio-Canada and CBC, while accusing CBC of being a propaganda tool in the pay of the Liberals. Later in the spring, CBC was labeled a “government-funded media outlet” on Twitter. This was followed by the blocking of news on Facebook, and the standoff with Google.
A turbulent context, therefore, which can influence the ideas that users of news from public broadcasters have. And influence their use? If in 2022 “57% of French speakers claimed to have accessed news via the SRC online or offline during the week preceding the survey, this proportion drops to 44% in 2023,” we read in the study.
“Among English speakers, 40% said they had accessed news from the CBC in 2022, a proportion which is now 31%. »
Regular users, who consult three or more days per week, also reduce their consumption by 9 percentage points (pp) compared to last year on the French-speaking side and by 5 pp on the Anglo-phone side. A decline which follows the trends of other brands, including TVA Nouvelles, according to the report.
In terms of online news, ICI Radio-Canada’s digital information was consulted weekly in 2023 by a share of users similar to those of The Press (respectively 22% and 23%), and less than TVA Nouvelles (27%).
Public confidence also continues to decline. “40% of respondents say they trust most news [du diffuseur public], most of the time. » This is the lowest threshold since Canada participated in the survey, i.e. 2016. “Among French speakers, this confidence rate stands at 49% while among Anglophones, it is 37%. . »
Furthermore, young adults are less likely than their elders to obtain information from public broadcasters and traditional media, particularly among Francophones. A gap of 21 percentage points can be seen between access to news for those aged 35 and over (49%) via ICI Radio-Canada / ICI RDI and that of 18-34 year olds (28%).
Among other declining phenomena in Canada in 2023 are “payment for online news or access to paid online news services (-4 pp compared to 2022), interest in news (-6 pp), interaction with news on social media in the week preceding the survey (-11 pp compared to 2022 in the case of Facebook, measured before Meta’s boycott measures against news media) as well as the use of smartphones for information (-9 pp compared to 2022). »
41% of Canadian respondents say publicly funded news services are important to them personally and 46% to society in general, the study also found. In both cases, around 20% consider them to be of little or no importance.