CBC/Radio-Canada CEO Catherine Tait made headlines twice rather than once this week in the other solitude.
Mme Tait responded to attacks by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who wants to end public funding of CBC/Radio-Canada. We totally disagree with this proposal from the Conservatives: as disinformation gains momentum, a strong public broadcaster is essential for our society.
That said, the reply of Mme Tait, who said that the Conservatives’ proposal was intended to seduce a certain electorate to boost donations to the party, was clumsy and ill-timed. The CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada must defend the journalistic integrity of the public broadcaster. But it is not its role to think aloud about the election financing strategies of political parties.
This unnecessary tangle with Mr. Poilievre was not his most important statement of the week, however.
According to Mme Tait, Radio-Canada is preparing to go fully digital, but likely not for another 10 years, she told the Globe and Mail. Faced with the outcry they caused, Mme Tait had to clarify his remarks the next day: the public broadcaster will not abandon its listeners on traditional platforms.
That CBC/Radio-Canada devotes more and more energy to digital programming is understandable. This is where audiences migrate. At the same time, we must not neglect traditional platforms, which are still very popular. Radio-Canada must be able to reach Canadians on these two types of platforms.
However, there is a big problem with Radio-Canada’s digital strategy. A problem that is little talked about: in digital, the public broadcaster behaves more and more like a private broadcaster on the commercial level, forgetting the free aspect of its mandate.
The most striking example: ICI Tou.TV’s Extra, the paid version at $6.99 per month that gives you access to most of the best Radio-Canada series first.
That Radio-Canada wants to have a paid offer on its digital platform, that can certainly be discussed.
The problem is that during Mr.me Tait (which ends in July), Radio-Canada has done everything to encourage you to pay for the ICI Tou.TV Extra. Many of Radio-Canada’s best series are presented there, which we will later see for free on TV. Sometimes months later.
However, CBC does not charge to watch its best series. Neither does the BBC in the UK.
Through their taxes, Canadians are already paying for Radio-Canada television programs for the first time. You don’t have to pay a second time. There are always limits to stretching the elastic!
In addition, Radio-Canada’s digital strategy does not seem to be working very well. ICI Tou.TV’s Extra is the least popular digital service in Quebec. Only 8% of Internet users subscribe to it, compared to 51% for Netflix, 34% for Amazon Prime Video, 24% for Disney+, and 14% for Club illico and Crave1.
Radio-Canada is much more successful on traditional platforms: in 2021-2022, ICI Télé achieved 25% of prime-time ratings, and its two radio channels achieved viewing shares of 22 % (full day). These are excellent numbers.
We understand that Radio-Canada wants to offer a paid component to its digital offering. But there is a dosing problem. A reasonable solution: do like CBC Gem and offer a $4.99/month package without advertising and with RDI. The citizen then has a choice: either he watches the programs for free with advertising, or he watches them without advertising, but pays to compensate for the loss of advertising revenue.
The bar must be straightened out immediately, because the public broadcaster is in the process of adopting other bad digital business habits. We broadcast ads on OHdio, whereas there are no ads on traditional radio. We do advertising content (texts, podcasts, TV shows) with Tandem. All this does not respect the spirit of the mandate.
In exchange for a few advertising dollars, Radio-Canada is in the process of losing an important part of its identity in digital technology: free content. It must stop.
1. Digital Transformation Academy, Digital portrait of Quebec householdsJanuary 2023
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- 1.24 billion
- In 2021-2022, CBC/Radio-Canada received $1.24 billion in federal public funding, or 66% of its budget. The rest of the budget comes from commercial income (including advertising).