Back shortly...

...with a review of Week 2 at the CRTC hearings. In the meantime, consider an article I wrote way back in 2007 for Geist magazine which suggested that, with its decision to draw inspiration from programs showcased on Canada's private broadcasters, CBC's television service was on the verge of self-destruction. The horrible economic conditions that are now crippling Canada's media industries (as well as those in other places) has simply exacerbated a problem that was going to bubble up eventually.

The argument wasn't that reality programs were bad television; the argument is the CBC doesn't do reality television all that well and that in a market characterized by abundance and choice, the public broadcaster could now free itself from having to be "everybody's broadcaster" and could focus on content that doesn't exist in the marketplace -- a perfect blending of niche marketing and the satisfaction of a public mandate.

Threatening to air more American programming isn't going to help its cause, either, not because that content isn't interesting but that, like its programming choices, the CBC's arguments for its continued existence are similar to those of the private broadcasters.

It also represents the CBC's biggest problem: It has become more and more difficult for the CBC to make the "distinctiveness" argument that it could once hang its hat on, leaving it twisting tenuously on the brink with few solid cases to justify its existence left in its arsenal. There are definitely good arguments to make for the continued presence of public broadcasting in Canada. However, they require more vision and creativity than that offered by the CBC's current management team.

One hopes they come up with something better to say -- and fast.