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But the experiment has mostly been a financial disappointment, at least when stacked up against the CBC’s initial expectations. Filings with the CRTC show that CBC Radio brought in just $1.1 million in ad revenue in 2014 and $1.3 million in 2015, well short of the $10 million the broadcaster originally told the CRTC it was hoping to make. According to the CRTC, $407 million in national radio ads were sold last year.

“There seems no good reason for CBC continue ads on radio,” Barry Kiefl, President of Canadian Media Research and a former Director of Research for the CBC, said in an interview. “The cost has to be greater than the revenue. When CBC was considering cutting ads on television years ago, there were staff who argued that the ads make us look like real broadcasters!”

The CBC acknowledges it is new to the radio advertising market.

Spokeswoman Alexandra Fortier said that being able to offer radio ads works as a function of the corporation’s advertising strategy across platforms.

“Advertisers want to be able to reach their audiences in the most efficient and effective ways possible, and across as many platforms as possible in order to implement coherent and impactful advertising strategies. This is why we offer cross-platform packages which include digital, TV and radio.

“It is important that we are able to retain the ability to offer advertisers a full suite of platforms, which includes radio, in order to continue to offer this flexibility because a loss of advertising flexibility could result in a loss of both radio and non-radio advertising.”