OTTAWA—With the Conservative Party of Canada, and its “defund the CBC” slogan, intent on making public broadcast funding a federal election issue, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) shows the prime value this funding has.
The CCPA’s new report, Bang for our Buck: Comparing public service broadcasting funding in 19 countries, including Canada, examines government funding of public broadcasters in 18 countries and compares this to Canada. It finds that Canada’s national public broadcaster is Canadians’ most trusted news source and nearly the cheapest to fund. Indeed, of the 19 countries in the survey, only the U.S., New Zealand, and Portugal had lower per capita public spending than Canada.
“Canadians value their national public broadcaster,” says report author Geoff Bickerton. “Multiple surveys of Anglophones and Francophones show that CBC/Radio-Canada is their most trusted news source and the network many watch the most.”
Bang for our Buck shows the many ways that public broadcast funding in Canada is good value for Canadians:
Public broadcasting costs less in Canada: CBC/Radio-Canada receives much less revenue from government than most of the countries in the international sample—nearly 60 per cent less. In 2022, it received $32.43, on a per capita basis on average, while the average per capita public funding of public service broadcasters in the other 18 countries in the survey was $78.76.
There is less total public spending on CBC/Radio-Canada than on public broadcasters in other countries: The $32.43 spent annually on a per capita basis on average, by the government in Canada, is equal to only 10 cents per day. This amounts to 0.12 per cent of total government expenditures in Canada—50 per cent less than the international average of 0.242 per cent.
There is less reliance on government and more on commercial sources of funding: CBC/Radio-Canada relies more on revenue from commercial sources than most public broadcasters in other countries. Only three public broadcasters in the sample—Ireland, Italy, and New Zealand—relied on advertising and sponsorship revenues more than CBC/Radio Canada.
The public trusts public broadcasting:
- 78 per cent of Francophones in Canada say Radio-Canada is their most-trusted news source.
- 67 per cent of Anglophones in Canada say CBC is their most-trusted news source.
“CBC’s ability to provide such excellent programming at a per capita cost of 10 cents per day is remarkable—we get so much bang for our buck,” said Bickerton. “Given the need to address local, regional and national issues—in English and French—in a huge country with low population density, there is every reason to continue this funding and even to strengthen it.”
For more information and interviews please contact Amanda Klang, CCPA Senior Communications Specialist (Media & PR) at amanda@policyalternatives.ca
