Article content continued

We have seen instances where CBC particularly on their digital sites, have pushed into the advertising market

Janet Yale, the panel’s chair, said on the scripted side of the CBC’s programming, eliminating the advertising dollars would free the CBC to take more risks and worry less about the commercial success of its programming.

She said the CBC is also an important backstop for news gathering in Canada, especially with the news industry under financial stress.

“We believe that the best way to address misinformation and fake news is to have accurate and reliable sources of news.”

Yale said the public broadcaster should be a leader in local, regional and national news. She said having to chase advertising dollars and commercial success forces the CBC to stray from those goals.

The CBC receives approximately $1.1 billion in government revenue, with approximately $250 million more coming in advertising. She stopped short of calling for a funding boost, but Yale said compared to other public broadcasters the CBC is underfunded.

“We did not make a specific recommendation but we were conscious of the fact that in other OECD countries the public media institution has higher funding on a dollars per capita basis.”

Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

John Hinds, president of News Media Canada, an industry lobby group of which the National Post is a member, said the CBC isn’t a player on the scale of Google and Facebook when it comes to digital ads, but it’s not a small player either.

“Nothing is going to be a silver bullet, but I think every little bit helps. We have seen instances where CBC particularly on their digital sites, have pushed into the advertising market and they have disrupted advertising markets.”