The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and its Cozy Relationship with the Trudeau Government

Canadians of all ages have grown up under the tutelage of the nation's public radio and television broadcaster, the CBC (aka Radio-Canada) which has been funded by taxpayers since its founding as the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission in 1932 with a name change to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in November 1936.

 

Let's look at how the CBC is funded from its 2019 - 2020 annual report:

 

Here are the CBC's sources of funding from 2018 - 2019:

 

 

As you can see, the CBC receives roughly 70 percent of its total revenue from government funding thanks to the generosity of Canadian taxpayers.

 

Since the CBC has not yet provided the annual report for the full year 2020 - 2021, we can only look at the results for the first nine months of the year as shown on this table:

 

 

Government funding for the first nine months of 2020 - 2021 increased by $27.063 million or 3.1 percent while revenue fell by $30.55 million or 8.2 percent for the following reasons:

 

"Revenue decreased...mainly due to the pandemic’s adverse impacts on Canadian TV advertising and on the declining demand for our facilities and production services from third parties.

 

We continue to observe lower advertising and subscription revenues from our traditional platforms, partially offset by higher digital revenue as audiences migrate to our digital platforms." 

 

Let's look at the results for the first quarter of 2021:

 

Government funding dropped by $10 million from the same quarter in the previous fiscal years At the same time, revenue from advertising rose from $99 million in Q1 2020-2021 to $118 million in Q1 2021- 2022, an increase of 19.2 percent.  The CBC does note this:

 

"TV advertising revenue remains adversely impacted by the market’s shift to digital platforms. As such, it is uncertain whether or not TV advertising revenue can or will return to pre-pandemic levels in the current year."

 

So, as you can see, advertising revenue over the past year has actually risen on a year-over-year basis for the first quarter of 2021 but the CBC is still a money-losing proposition, forcing the CBC to admit that its television advertising revenue may never return to previous levels.

 

Any Canadian who has been paying attention over the past year has come to the realization that the CBC (known by some since March 2020 as the Coronavirus Brainwashing Corporation) is pretty much functioning as the Trudeau government's mouthpiece.  This left-leaning political stance is not unique to the past 18 months; prior to the Trudeau II government which was elected in 2015, the CBC's management has at least had the appearance of favouring the Liberals over the Conservatives.  Thanks to that political choice, the CBC finds itself benefitting from even more Canadian taxpayer funding as shown on this excerpt from the Liberal Party's "Forward. For Everyone" 2021 campaign as shown here:

 

So, there you go.  Do Justin Trudeau and the Liberals a big favour and you get more taxpayers' money in return!  And, as an added benefit, the CBC will get even more money than it lost as a result of the pandemic!

  

In sharp contrast, here's what the Conservative Party of Canada has to say about the CBC in their platform:

 

The management of the CBC must be quaking in their boots at the very thought of a Conservative government.  The gravy train may be coming into the station for a final stop.