Have your say on the future of our CBC

As mentioned last week, the CBC’s radio and TV licences are up for renewal and our voices as citizens that value public broadcasting need to be heard.

For the first time this century, the public has been invited by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to comment on CBC’s plans for the next five years – including Radio One, Radio 2, the CBC Television Network and CBC News Network.

After considering all the evidence, the CRTC will issue licence renewals with a new set of conditions of licence and expectations that CBC will be required to fulfill.

This invitation provides a unique opportunity for you to speak up about why our national public broadcaster is so important for Canada’s cultural sovereignty and a vibrant democracy, and to influence CBC’s future policies and programs.

Take advantage of this opportunity by writing a personal submission to the CRTC now.

FRIENDS has designed an online system to make it easy for you to share your opinions and advice with the CRTC about CBC’s future.

If you have time,  review some background information before writing your comments to the CRTC.

Take into account the following issues which FRIENDS considers to be very important for CBC’s future performance:

The Broadcasting Act states that the programming provided by the CBC should “reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions”. We believe the Commission needs to hear from you why this is so important – in your own words. What do you think of CBC’s decision to cut back classical music programming on Radio 2? CBC Television has proposed a condition of licence that it devote 75% of its broadcast day and 80% of prime time (7 to 11 pm) to Canadian programming averaged over a full year. Is this a sufficient minimum commitment to Canadian shows? Half the audience CBC Television attracts each year watches professional sports programs, mostly Hockey Night in Canada. Is this an appropriate balance for the national public broadcaster? How is CBC doing in airing children’s programming?

If you feel you will need more that 45 min to compose your comments, first write them in a word processor, then paste your submission into the Friends of the CBC system.