Wade Rowland: The Private Industry Is As Rich As the CBC

Wade Rowland: The Private Industry Is As Rich As the CBC

As the financial plight of the CBC/Radio-Canada deepens, there are signs of a genuine debate emerging about how to restore the public broadcaster to health, and sort out the industry at large.

CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais announced later last month that the CRTC will begin consultations with citizens and media players this Fall: "It's time to ask if the assumptions that lie beneath our current regulatory policies still hold true," he told an audience in Banff.

And a week later, Kevin Crull, CEO of Bell Media, the nation's biggest media conglomerate, responded in print to a suggestion of mine that Ottawa sharply reduce or eliminate its lavish subsidies to private broadcasters, and instead channel more money to the CBC -- enough to allow CBC television to get out of the commercial sponsorship game and become a true public service broadcaster.