A Conservative MP in the region is saying the CBC’s online efforts and advertising sales are harming local newspapers like the Review.
Kelly Block, who represents Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, has sent out a flyer to her constituents that states the “CBC has become print media’s #1 competitor” and that “with its $1.1 billion subsidy, the CBC can’t lose.”
The MP said there were a few reasons she sent out the flyer. The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage is studying the Canadian media and a recurring theme is the financial impact CBC has on both large and small publications.
“As a member representing a rural riding with a number of small publications, this is concerning to me,” she wrote in an email, adding the CBC, with its large radio and television presence, needed to be held accountable on how its funding is used.
“Finally, the Minister of Canadian Heritage is in the process of holding consultations on new media and I wanted to solicit the opinions of my constituents on this issue and the role that the single largest cultural entity in Canada should play over the next decade,” she wrote.
The CBC denied that it’s having a negative effect on local newspapers.
“The challenges facing media in Canada are many but they are not being caused by the public broadcaster,” wrote CBC spokesperson Marie-Eve Desaulniers in an email. “Large newspaper companies responded to their challenges by merging and reducing the content offered by their smaller papers. This has made CBC’s presence more important than ever.”
Desaulniers said the CBC exists to serve all Canadians on every platform they use, including online. She also said that at a time where media are struggling to adapt to tremendous change and with global digital companies like Google and Facebook crowding the online Canadian market, media needs to be focused on how Canadians get information about their community and the world.
“Limiting what public broadcasting does will only mean fewer services for Canadians,” she wrote. “It won’t help private companies become more profitable. It won’t increase news coverage or the diversity of views, especially in smaller communities.”
Block said Conservative policy supports CBC’s role in radio and television, but it’s concerned about its online expansion.
“Over the past year, the public broadcaster’s increasing expansion of its online presence, which has traditionally been the domain of private news organizations, warrants a discussion on its mandate.”
Desaulniers said the CBC is expected to generate some of its own revenue. It made $600 million last year, with $253 million coming from advertising. Ten per cent of that, $25 million, came from digital advertising. In Canada, total digital advertising revenues are $4.6 million a year, with three-quarters of that going to Google, Facebook and Yellow Pages.
“It is difficult to believe, as some media have suggested, that if only CBC was prevented from earning $25 million, their problems would be solved,” she wrote.
The spokesperson added that CBC would stop all advertising if its per-person funding was increased by $12 to $46 per year. The public broadcaster estimates that $158 million dollars in advertising would go to other Canadian media if that were to happen.
Block had no specific suggestions as to what could be done to even the playing field for digital advertisements so that local newspapers could compete against the U.S.-based Google and Facebook. Newspaper publishers have suggested that advertising from foreign owned and operated media companies shouldn’t be able to be written off as a tax-deductible expense.
“A Conservative government would lower the small business tax rate to nine per cent and would be opposed to additional payroll taxes like increased CPP contributions,” she wrote. “Anything that could be done to reduce the financial burden that businesses, including local newspapers, face would be considered.”
