CBC criticized for “competing with private enterprises” and “pilfering” journalistic talent
By Amanda Oye
OTTAWA – Australia’s news media bargaining code has changed the country’s journalism landscape from one of pessimism to one of optimism, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage heard today during the first meeting of its study on Bill C-18, the Online News Act.
“It’s transformed the journalism landscape,” said Rod Sims (above), a professor with the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University.
Sims, who appeared before the committee via videoconference to talk about Australia’s bargaining code, which C-18 is based on, explained “The Australian news media businesses who’ve done deals under the code are comfortable with them and these deals are yielding well over $200 million per annum to the news businesses.”
He further addressed two criticisms of the code.
The first is that only large media players got deals while the smaller players missed out. “This is just simply false,” he said, explaining that the country’s four major news organizations all got deals, all the medium-sized organizations got deals with Google and all but two got deals with Facebook. As for smaller media businesses, Sims said Australia has many such businesses, “especially small regional and rural newspapers and digital natives. Essentially all of them got a deal from Google and most of them got a deal from Facebook.”
The other criticism Sims addressed was that the code did not generate more jobs in journalism, which he said is also untrue. “You can see that everywhere,” he said, pointing to The Guardian Australia, which “increased its employment by 50% essentially because of payments under the code”, as an example.
A controversial aspect of Canada’s proposed legislation that was also discussed during the meeting is the inclusion of the CBC.
Conservative John Nater asked University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist about his thoughts on it.
Geist argued many local and digital-first operators would say the CBC competes with them in their communities, “and to provide them with additional revenue, effectively forces their hand – even if those smaller independent players don’t want the money, they’ve got little choice but to participate in this system.”
Kevin Waugh, another Conservative committee member brought up the CBC again later in the meeting, asking about the Corporation “pilfering” talent – a problem he says “will continue even more” if C-18 is passed.
Paul Deegan, president and CEO of News Media Canada, agreed this is a huge problem, but said he believes the legislation will put them “on a more firm commercial footing.”
He then called for advertising to be cut off on the CBC during news and current affairs programs. “I mean, we’re competing with them head-to-head. They’ve already got a $1.4 billion leg up on us and we’re competing with them for advertising – that’s not fair, that’s not right,” Deegan said.
“Don’t get me wrong, there’s a place for the public broadcaster in Canada, they do exceptional work, but they shouldn’t be competing with private enterprises for commercial advertising.”
In an emailed statement in response to a request for comment from Cartt.ca, a CBC spokesperson said they disagree with Deegan’s statements.
“With regard to advertising, Mr. Deegan could more accurately say that all Canadian media are competing with U.S.-based digital giants,” the spokesperson said. “According to a 2021 study, 80% of online advertising revenue goes to two U.S. companies: Google and Facebook. CBC/Radio-Canada’s share is just under one-half of one percent. Clearly, the national public broadcaster is not the problem. In fact we have been working with Mr. Deegan and other private media to help support a healthy media ecosystem in Canada.”
The CBC spokesperson also addressed the criticism raised at the committee meeting regarding the Corporation’s pilfering of talent by pointing out people in all industries change jobs for many reasons. “They move back and forth between public and private media, and between print, broadcast and digital,” the spokesperson said. “That is good for journalism. We’re proud to be a top employer that develops and attracts journalists, many of whom go on to successful careers with other Canadian media.”
The spokesperson added the CBC believes C-18 “is an important measure that will support a healthy media ecosystem in Canada. All Canadian news organizations should be able to receive fair compensation for the content they produce when that content is reused by digital companies to earn revenue for themselves.”
