Tweets Dealing with CBC Funding, Audience and Strategy

1. CBC’s obfuscation of audience performance:

Why has CBC for years touted the *monthly reach* of its internet service, https://t.co/kmTHZ9UzCc?

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

2. CBC misreading trends in the use of TV, radio, internet:

“Our commitment to radio and TV audiences remains strong. However younger audiences do not consume news and information on a traditional device. They live in a mobile world. It is increasingly a live and on-demand streaming world.” -CBC Memo to all news staff, March 3, 2023

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

3. Is CBC spending over $500 million annually on digital services, i.e., substantially more than on its radio services? The data from CBC’s annual report and CRTC financial data leads to this conclusion:

CBC is now spending much more on its digital services (which have a tiny average audience and share) than on CBC’s highly valued radio services. CBC justifies this by depending on vaporous audience metrics like monthly reach. https://t.co/puBWxTEhp5

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

4. CBC radio had a budget of $225 million ($298 million in today’s dollars) in 2009 and by 2022 this had shrunk to $186 million, a reduction of over $100 million and it is having effects on air:

When Peter Herrndorf died recently some commentators said he was disappointed in the direction of CBC. Another former VP and a famous program host wrote me recently expressing a similar view, a sadness that CBC was declining. (This thread refers to CBC English.)

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

5. CBC management have said traditional TV is dying but industry research, financially supported by CBC incidentally, contradicts this:

Here’s IAB-sponsored research that demonstrates CBC seems to have totally misunderstood the new TV environment. TV’s reach is almost universal and usage hours with streaming services counted, according to IAB, is far higher than all other media. https://t.co/RTjDmEg2Mm

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

CBC’s managers like to say traditional TV viewing has declined. Recently they published Numeris data showing *daily* audience reach was declining. They omitted data on *weekly/monthly* reach, which shows almost everyone watches traditional TV.

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

CBC’s MTM survey (which CRTC endorses) has updated its estimate of smartphone penetration in Canada. The latest survey puts smartphone adoption at 89%. OK, but does that mean TV is dying?

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

6. CBC has committed a lot of energy and presumably money to CBC Gem and its French equivalent but the revenue generated by these streaming services is very small:

CBC’s 21-22 annual report says, “Subscribers to our digital platforms are increasing” i.e., CBC Gem and https://t.co/KTZuP1sLpR, which are promoted on air every hour. Subscriber revenue increased modestly to $23.8 million, or only 4% of non-govt revenue and 1% of all CBC funding.

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

The $23.8 million CBC generates from CBC Gem/Ici https://t.co/WfathcIuHv equals ~350,000 paid subscribers. That’s ~2% of households but these numbers have never been made public. By comparison CRTC reports that MTM says 68% of Canadians have Netflix. (MTM is owned by CBC.)

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

7. CBC English TV is the wounded warrior and its efforts to generate commercial revenue have failed. Does this signal that English TV should reduce or eliminate commercials? Advertisers have already defunded English TV and it is slowly being de-audienced:

CRTC says CBC’s English TV audience share is well under 5%. In 2021 it was 4.2%, up yoy because it was an Olympic year. Without the Olympics and NHL hockey, CBC’s share would be <3%. Streaming’s still not included and if it were CBC’s share would be <2%. It’s been de-audienced.

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

Private broadcasters seem to doing OK, it’s CBC’s English TV having trouble attracting audiences and advertisers. Advertisers have already defunded the CBC. CTV/Global/Rogers had over $1 billion in ad revenue in 2021-22.

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

Even more surprising is CTV/Global outspending CBC on news programming so substantially, raising questions about the role the main CBC network plays today. Radio-Canada spends more on news programming than its beleaguered sister network, a complete reversal in the last 15 years.

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

8. CBC/RC news channels seem to have been spending the same or less the past few years on news according to CRTC data. 

This link takes you to CRTC’s web site where you can find financial data for CBC, CTV, Global, SRC, etc.:

Aggregate Annual Returns crtc.gc.ca

9. CBC has always been long on promises to make revenue from its digital and other new media ventures:

CBC’s says its strategy is to increase and find new sources of revenues. But its financial forecast says the opposite? Both documents from the CBC web site. Suggestion: strategy department meet with the finance department.

Barry Kiefl twitter.com

10. CBC contorts research data to make arguments for senior management. Here’s an example of surreptitiously presenting data that relates to all internet use, e-Mail, banking, searches, e-commerce, to argue that they should put resources into digital services:

First data appearing in CBC’s 2022 corporate plan shows audiences to digital “platforms” growing at the expense of radio/TV. But the plan didn’t reveal that “digital” included everything done on the web; banking, email, messaging, e-commerce, online learning, etc. @pablorodriguez

Barry Kiefl twitter.com