Why the CBC Should Leave the Content Game

And enter the delivery game.

It’s probably the most un-Canadian suggestion anyone could make, but I’m going to make it now:  get rid of the CBC as a content source and focus on the CBC as a delivery source.

Recent news about the CBC basically losing the NHL to Rogers spells instant ruin for the CBC.  Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC) is essential to the basic revenue stream of the CBC and now it will be functioning without a heart.

Good luck with that.

Moving forward, it’s the last item on the list when it comes to the Cons doing their best to eliminate the CBC and this is where we all really need to start thinking ahead.

Why don’t we turn the CBC into something more useful, like the Canadian Communications Company (CCC)?

The CCC would focus on delivery of content instead of the creation of content.  That is, the CCC would become Canada’s first fully publicly-owned Internet Service Provider (ISP) and become a viable alternative to the Big 3 private media companies in Canada.

This is important for so many reasons:

• Canadians want affordable and reliable access.
• We want investment in world-class digital infrastructure.
• We don’t want ads.
• We want any content on demand, with marginal cost.

Let’s start asking questions:

• Why don’t we have a public utility that delivers quality internet service (and other digital services) to all Canadians?
• Why don’t we own the infrastructure related to the most important industry of the 21st century?
• Why is our bandwidth always being choked by private companies, especially when it’s used to access non-cable/satellite services like Netflix?
• Why is content that we receive limited and protected by the CRTC?
• What are we doing to support creators of content in Canada besides bloated subsidies to the big media conglomerates in this country?
• Why are we paying hundreds of dollars per month for antiquated content delivery services?

And there are many more, but we need to start moving ahead with a mind-set that the CBC needs to shift gears so it can be useful to ALL Canadians and not just hockey-jocks.