Source : Halifax Chronicle Herald

WOLFVILLE — The CBC faces turbulent times because of chronic underfunding and a Conservative prime minister-designate who has not yet made clear his position on its future, says CBC television's Maritimes director.

The public broadcaster is already "seriously underfunded these days," Ron Crocker, a 20-year producer, news director and executive said in a speech to Acadia University business students Thursday night in Wolfville.

The CBC spends about $600 million per year, half of which comes from taxpayers and the rest mainly from TV commercials.

The budget of the BBC, Britain's public broadcaster, is four times larger, but with distribution and infrastructure costs much lower because of its smaller land mass.

"We (CBC insiders) know the CBC is not a sacred cow. People who work there know we are not 'entitled to our entitlements,'" Mr. Crocker said. The CBC knows it must "husband its resources efficiently."

But if it is to continue making Canadian programs while competing with cheap American content, it will have to be supported by taxpayers.

"We have a new government in office whose intentions for public broadcasting are not yet clear," Mr. Crocker said.

"I have not seen much evidence of outright hostility from prime minister-designate (Stephen) Harper," but he has displayed hints of a basic ideological aversion to public broadcasting, Mr. Crocker said.

Numerous attacks are being levelled at the CBC, "trumpeted in the pages of national newspapers which are owned by our direct competitors," Mr. Crocker said, noting the private networks resent that CBC eats up ad revenue while being supported by taxpayers.

The Globe and Mail and CTV Inc. are owned by Bell Globemedia. The National Post and Global Television are owned by CanWest Global Communications Corp.

CBC only commands between six and seven per cent of Canadian viewership during prime time, Mr. Crocker said, but most still regard the broadcaster as "essential."

Canadian-made CBC drama series like Shattered City, which Mr. Crocker helped develop, may get more than a million viewers, good ratings by Canadian standards, but still not be profitable the way a simulcast American program on CTV or Global would be.

The private networks can buy American shows for about $125,000 to $150,000 per broadcast hour, Mr. Crocker said, then make a cool $500,000 with the show from ad revenue.

American programs are often profitable south of the border, in part because of the size of U.S. audiences but also because shows are sold and resold around the world, he said.

Canadian-made shows, on the other hand, are rarely marketable overseas.

DaVinci's Inquest (now DaVinci's City Hall) is one of the few CBC programs being sold in U.S. markets and that generate revenue for the broadcaster.

"We can't give (the biographical drama series Trudeau) away in other countries or markets," Mr. Crocker said. "Whereas if the United States made a drama based on the life of Bill Clinton, it would sell the world over."

Canadians may not tune in to the CBC during prime time but many depend on the broadcaster being there during times of national importance, Mr. Crocker added.

© Halifax Chronicle Herald