Web Wars: The Unfair Advantage of the CBC

The CBC is very pleased with itself.
It airs commercials declaring that CBC.CA is the number one web site in the country.
But like the Gemini Awards, there’s not much of a contest going on.

When CTV or Global/CanWest/Shaw sets up a web site, they have to compete with other sites for advertising dollars. They find themselves competing with local newspapers and radio stations for that still scarce ad revenue only a few companies devote to the web.
And they find themselves competing with their own government, who is already lavishing money on subsidizing a competitor, the CBC.

The CBC competes with all other media outlets, from The Vancouver Sun, radio station CJOR, Metro, Dose, Mondoville, all newspapers and radio stations and news websites in Canada.
But who asked them to become publishers?
Just how broad a mandate does the CBC have under the Broadcast Act?
Millions in government funds are used to prop up the digital evolution of the CBC.
CTV, on the other hand, along with everyone else, must find and allocate such funds from moneys already earned.
Why bother when you’re up against the government, and there’s so little return on investment?

The CBC knocks on the same door as everyone else when it goes looking for ad dollars.
But their service doesn’t rely on making a profit, and yet it can keep expanding forever.

Beyond the news readership and audience that it deprives newspapers and other broadcasters from, CBC.CA is most of all used to promote CBC programs to an extent that private broadcasters would be hard-pressed to do.
By allowing the CBC to devote millions of dollars to digital publishing, the government undermines similar efforts by those in private enterprise.
Recently, CBC services even began to prop up the National Post.
It also buys content intended exclusively for use in print.
As if it were on the same path as The New York Times.

There’s no excuse for the CBC to be involved in the publishing industry.
For everyone’s sake, get rid of CBC.CA, or limit it to the strict definition of a broadcast outlet.

51 Comments

  • Grow up Ghomeshi or who ever u are!? says:

    ..get your background info right before u point fingers ….u are a vile person!let me remind u anonymous @8:30am that anyone here that writes is considered a ’œTea Maker’ as they all are brewing with something about the CBC.Watch your dirty Lanauge and respect your peers as ’œyou’ have come here as a guest writer like most of us here.Our point here at the Tea Makers has been lost from the insults between writers.The Tea Makers are here to educate in a odd way via critiques,can you not try real hard anonymous @8:30am March 25 to understand that you are not here to berate the bloggers/Tea Maker

  • Grow up Ghomeshi or who ever u are!? says:

    ..get your background info right before u point fingers ….u are a vile person!let me remind u anonymous @8:30am that anyone here that writes is considered a ’œTea Maker’ as they all are brewing with something about the CBC.Watch your dirty Lanauge and respect your peers as ’œyou’ have come here as a guest writer like most of us here.Our point here at the Tea Makers has been lost from the insults between writers.The Tea Makers are here to educate in a odd way via critiques,can you not try real hard anonymous @8:30am March 25 to understand that you are not here to berate the bloggers/Tea Makers!your sole purpose here is to berate/critique the cbc and all its lovely workings!

    .Leave me alone find someone else to beatup verbally….you act like that looser poonghomeshi/….go away ghomeshi/poon spy!

  • CBC,Mirabilia VIsu! says:

    Omnia mutantur,nos et mutanur in illis [L]-(All things are changing,and we are changing with them.

    • Anonymous says:

      Congratulations to the new heir of this site, an unhinged former CBCer who can’t write well enough to disguise their multiple posts.

      Your writing style reminds me a lot of those un-communications savvy protesters you often see around Ottawa or other capitals. Some dude with a super long, complicated, cryptic placard that tells the story of how they got fucked over by the govt. Then they get all idignant when nobody understands or pays attention to their psychotic chicken scratch.

      And on that note, a hearty fuck you to the new pseudonymous. Engaging a cretin is dangerous, so I’m outta here.

      Have fun arguing with your multiple personae!

  • Sensitive;anonymous@8:35am has issues says:

    Wow I’m embarrassed that I try to put my input in,but let me remind u anonymous @8:35am that anyone here that writes is considered a “Tea Maker” as they all are brewing with something about the CBC.Watch your Lanauge and respect your peers as “you” have come here as a guest writer like most of us here.Our point here at the Tea Makers has been lost from the insults between writers.The Tea Makers are here to educate in a odd way via critiques,can you not try real hard anonymous @8:35am to understand that you are not here to berate the bloggers/Tea Makers,your sole purpose here is to berate/critique the cbc and all its lovely workings!

  • Here's Positivity 4u&CbC says:

    Before u berate me I know my previous copy has errors…forgive me oh high and holly spelling/grammar cop!now back to some positivity for the cbc…that we have spys here on Tea Makers,we all should feel proud as our ideas/negativity/constructive criticisms are keeping cbc and their Neanderthal employees afloat!

  • Here's Positivity 4u&CbC says:

    Us Tea Makers love to expose the *TRUTH about how the CBC continues to con its faithful viewer into a New World Order of mass manipulation to gain viewership!Another positive not “TEA MAKERS” I have worked for the cbc and got a lovely package from them in the first of the big lay-offs!Have a POSITIVE. day “Tea Makers”!!

    • Anonymous says:

      Nice to see that even after being away from CBC all these years that you’re still dead wood.

      • I smell a *RAT/ghomeshi/poon says:

        Anon@5:27pm sounds like another disgruntled. Cbc Neanderthal!”Nice to see that even after being with the CBC all these years you’™re still a dead wood Rat..

  • Vox Clamantis in Deserto says:

    ha ha ha

  • fawny says:

    ‘a voice crying in the wilderness’ is obviously Joe Clark.

  • a voice crying in the wilderness says:

    Oh CBC Hicksville you are so clever! So very witty and urbane! I am still waiting for one positive statement from any of you oh- so -highly educated educated smart arses!

  • a voice crying in the wilderness says:

    I challenge one, just one Teamaker to take ten minutes and post something positive; a plan to rescue the mother corp form her slow and steady decline and rebuild her into as true voice for Canadians. Just one, come on, just one positive post…

  • a voice crying in the wilderness says:

    Hmmn,
    Anonymous must be from Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver.

    The Net is not affordable for everyone and many rural communities still have only dial-up! The Net will not provide local content if you have no local producers and Blogs and Facebook do not count as local content!

    Without the CBC my better radio and rabbit ears would pick up only commercial signals from big cities far, far, away…

    Oh, and by the way I am typing this message on the internet.

    • CBC Hicksville says:

      Is the CBC using paid posters now? This “a voice crying in the wilderness” person sounds too stupid to be real.

      • Vox Clamantis in Deserto says:

        Yes I do get paid by the CBC because I actually work there! Wow!
        And I guess I am as stupid as any other CBC employee who wastes time on this pissing contest of a blog.

  • a voice crying in the wilderness says:

    It is all well and good for those of you living in Toronto or Vancouver to decry the CBC and call for it to be dismantled but for the rest of us in the hinterlands our local CBC is the ONLY local media outlet. Without the CBC we peasants in the country would have no local radio or television content. None.

    • Anonymous says:

      You might want to invest in a better radio and some rabbit ears for your TV. Or you could just learn to use the internet……..

    • Anonymous says:

      I don’t want it dismantled at all! I want it to be improved. I want less attitude & platitudes & “hipness” and more Canadian entertainment. I want to be treated like an adult by the CBC, not a teenager. Please & thank you.

  • is'nt the customer always right says:

    Oh yes the customer is always right,but in this purchase like most governmental purchases we have no rights and there is no return policy if u are not happy with the product.Lump it and leave it,guessing we Tea Makers should band together and create our own public broadcasting network.T.M.B.N (Tea Makers Broadcast Network) looks good eh,its all in the way it looks and we’ll have no problem we’ve learnt from the very best illusionists ever…The ever festering/seething CBC!

    • Anonymous says:

      Please don’t use the term ‘we Teamakers’ in your comments. Unless you wrote a piece for this blog or work(ed) at CBC, you ain’t no Teamaker. It’s an insult to real Teamakers everywhere.

      Try something more apt like ‘we trolls’, or ‘we fucking plants’.

      • Alan Misses Poon says:

        Tell us the picket line/french fry story again, Alan. You must be missing PoonGirl like you miss your old job at the CBC. You put so much effort into trolling her – you must feel like a part of yourself is gone.

  • CBC execs = highfalutin welfare recipients says:

    The problem with “the concept of a public broadcaster serving a public good”, is that it’s only a “concept” – not a “reality” – at the CBC. Or is being an “old boys club” somehow equivalent to “serving a public good”? :

    – Hockey Night in Canada (the only reason why government funding continues)
    – Peter Mansbridge (CBC blames his ratings on PPM wearers sleeping habits)
    – Kevin O’Leary (how many shows is this guy on now?)
    – Rick Mercer (never met a joke that he could make funny)
    – The Royal Canadian Air Farce (never met a joke that they could make funny)
    – This Hour Has No Laughs (see above)
    – Fonzie Strombolopolos (host of “The Hour” and WWII documentaries WTF?) – American game shows
    – Non Canadian movies and tv shows

    Are they serving the public good with all this schlock and tripe? And does the CBC ever hire someone for a show who isn’t already working for them?

    • Anonymous says:

      Don’t forget “Test the Nation” which was another CBC show that George hosted back in January…..and if you include the Haiti telethon that would make it 4 different shows that George has hosted on the CBC this year……and it’s only March!

  • cbc ottawa says:

    I just don’t get it. Once upon a time this blog was a forum for people who LOVED the CBC and were sad to see it used and abused by it’s management. If you have so little respect for the concept of a public broadcaster serving a public good why oh why do all you naysayers spend so much time writing about!

    Better yet why oh why do I keep coming back for a peek? It’s like roadkill…

    • Anonymous says:

      On the contrary, there is great respect here for the concept of a public broadcaster serving a public good. We are bemoaning the fact that some of its celebrated employees do not, and abuse their positions of “power”. The public would like to see a little more respect from them (and maybe a little value for their money; is that so wrong?)

  • Wowza dumb dumbs says:

    His Family could take action dumbass,or shall I say sue’d onymous goldstein!*What kid would be on this site are u on some BAD drugs?!Reminder this site is not to insult other bloggers,grow up and leave for good poon/jian or who ever you may be from the CBC!I can see you have a lot of time on your hands berating bloggers.CBC I can see is suffering with their employees,looks just like CBC programming not getting to the true point of venture..

    So here’s the proof Tea Makers,CBC has NO money tree,if they did they would not be meandering here like a pack of lemmings!

  • Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    You’re right. Lister is totally pissed about people using his name. From beyond the grave!

    Kid, do you even know how to operate a dial telephone, let alone know what a made for TV movie is?

  • Lister Sinclare jr Poo MISSED IT AGAIN! says:

    Sue’D Onymous or should i say poogirl,obviously you have no clue about using someones name without permission?!If spelling is that important to you be a school teacher our point here on tea makers is not spelling or demeaning a blogger but reading the point carefully and commenting on the point of the main story.POOR poogirl MISSED THE POINT AGAIN!Best of luck to you poogirl/jian douchbag!

  • Lister Sinclare jr. says:

    Just had a brainwave….put georgie and jianny on the same program and give them exclusively cbc radio one all day all night….that way we could save the other parts of cbc to TRUE broadcasters/journalists who actually are broadcasters with something of value!

  • Lister Sinclare jr. says:

    thanks to Jian Ghomeshi on March 14@2:43pm,Looks like Jian is stalking u Allen!???this statement looks like a Poon or jian statement…..”I encourage all other anonymes to tumbleweed all of Allan’™s future work. Not even worth the effort”.

    Looks like the apple cart has been more than turned over this week/eve between poon and her husband jians ill tempered dirty Fu*#ing posts.
    I say Good riddance to the ones who have small egos and small brain power on this site as it looks like they don’t realize this is a page to make things right with the ignorant CBC!!!!.
    And now a new favourite line to say when your gasping for air after Poon and ghomeshi write here together…”See you never!”Time to beat one another up poon and ghomeshi as were not taking your monkey business any longer.

    • Sue D'Onymous says:

      Your theory is as wrong as your spelling of Lister Sinclair.

      Guess we need to add

      Get well soon, douchebag

      to the list of Teamakers-isms.

  • saskboy says:

    I don’t want to be a journalist, I want them to be employed at many different places, including one paid for mostly by my tax dollars.

  • Allan says:

    CBC doesn’t have a money tree?
    Hmmm.
    Then how does it stay on the air?

    You speak of allocating money at the expense of radio and TV.
    Is that not what the CBC did?
    How many layoffs were there in the IT dept. compared to news and radio divisions?

    My point is that the CBC is messing in an area that can be well and sufficiently served by the private sector.
    CTV news is no less reliable than CBC news, and as I write this CTV is actually broadcasting news on its 24 hr.specialty channel while News Network is running one documentary and re-run of CBC programs from the main channel one after another.
    What good are they?
    CBC has seized on a media platform that is beyond the scope of their mandate. Publishing is different from broadcasting. Go ahead and put radio stations and TV programs on the internet, but don’t start paying people to write for the internet only, when that encroaches on an industry that is already well served.
    Who does the CBC think it is?
    The best and the brightest?
    That’s laughable.
    I’m all for having a public broadcaster, even if it is at the expense of private enterprise.
    But I question what the CBC is doing in their claim to serve the public out of the public purse.
    “Battle of the Blades” became a ratings winner, but is that something the country really needed?
    Look at Radio 2 and 3.
    How useless does something have to be before someone pulls the plug?
    Does anyone think the country really needs two more music stations because there just isn’t enough coming from the thousands of stations already operating in Canada?

    And if you question this waste of time and money and priorities you automatically become the enemy.
    Enemy of what?
    It’s saying that the CBC is too big to fail.
    It’s saying that it’s more important to have the CBC exist and be given carte blanche than whether it actually serves the country.
    If Radio 2 can be justified then just about anything can be justified in the name of Canadian content.
    From the point of view of ratings and public acceptance it’s clear that there’s no audience for or interest in what Radio 2 is doing, so why is it there?
    And how much is it costing?
    Why is Strombo doing radio for the CBC, and if it’s so important why isn’t it on the main channel?
    Is it on the air because the public wanted it, or because Strombo wanted it?
    So then who is the CBC serving?

  • iNudes says:

    This post makes it sound like cbc has a money tree it can just harvest as much as it likes and put it into .ca

    The reality is that like CTV or Global, the only way CBC will have more money is if it sells more advertising. Yest it can reallocate some of it’s appropriation but only at the expense of radio or tv. This is no different than CTV deciding to take money from elsewhere in its business in order to beef up its online presence. The only difference is any more money CBC raises is plowed back into programming not profits.

    If you had some serious critisisms about the CBC that made any sense we’d listen but this general unconstructive bitching is only fun if it’s filled with inside gossip and yours has zippo.

    • Allan says:

      “any more money CBC raises is plowed back into programming not profits”.
      That is one strange remark, iNudes.
      The CBC makes something called a “profit”?
      Since when? In what endeavour did they ever make a profit?
      There’s no such thing as a profit at the CBC, and if there were it would first go into executive bonuses and into programming last.
      And in what scenario do you see putting more money into a program that would result in making more money?
      You criticize me (a routine here) while making a statement like “the CBC plows money back into programming”.
      Give us an example, iNudes. Point us to where you got the information that led you to conclude such is the case.
      You’ve made a statement that I’m curious to know how you can support. So be our guest.
      Let’s hear it.
      And see if you can make the case without feeling the need to denigrate me in order to make yourself and your argument appear more credible, or authoritative.

  • Alexa says:

    Most popular websites in Canada :
    1 google (.ca)
    2 facebook
    3 google (.com)
    4 youtube
    5 live
    6 yahoo
    7 msn (.com)
    8 wikipedia
    9 msn (.ca)
    10 blogger
    11 twitter
    12 kijiji
    13 gc (Government of Canada website)
    14 bing
    15 craigslist
    16 sympatico
    17 ebay (.ca)
    18 vancouver2010
    19 wordpress
    20 linkedin
    21 microsoft
    22 imdb
    23 ctvolympics
    24 amazon
    25 ebay (.com)
    26 flickr
    27 tdcanadatrust
    28 livejasmin
    29 cbc.ca

    source : http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/CA

  • Kev says:

    “CTV, on the other hand, along with everyone else, must find and allocate such funds from moneys already earned.”

    Yeah, if only someone would set up some kind of Fund, for Media, in Canada, to help support their endeavors.

    • Allan says:

      These small public funds will help but not sustain an operation. They all eventually have to stand on their own. Except the CBC.
      You have CBC blinders on if you think everything the CBC does is acceptable.
      That’s like assuming that for thirty years there’s been no more capable news anchor in the country except Peter Mansbridge.
      If that we true, he must be quite a guy, and this must be some country, filled with second-rate anchors for nearly an entire generation.
      To believe that the CBC is right to do whatever it wants for as long as it wants, is to give up hoping, and to say that it alone is setting the bar for the rest of us.
      The CBC was not in the publishing business when I was growing up, and if it was going to pay money to Heather Mallick it was going to be for something that would be used on the air.
      It’s fine if the CBC wants to transition itself on to the net, where it can compete with newspapers and other television and radio stations. But no one gave it a license to compete with The Huffington Post using government funds not available to anyone but the CBC, to the tune of one billion dollars.
      If the National Post, unable to pay it’s own way just like the CBC, were to get government funding unavailable any other newspaper and decide that they were going to become a national television channel and radio station on the unregulated internet, the CBC would have a problem with that.

      The CBC is and has always been an instrument of the government, given the right to pretend it has a mind of its own.
      The more it controls, the more the government controls.

  • walt says:

    I think I liked it better when Crazy Joe was fulminating around here.

    You seem to be stuck.

    • Allan says:

      You just made Joe’s day, possibly year.

      The only thing that’s stuck is the CBC – after hockey, Mansbridge, George, Suzuki, Evan, they’ve got nothing.
      A limited and repetitive repertoire.
      Thank goodness for Kevin O’Leary and Amanda Lang.
      Name a CBC related topic that we’ve not discussed. Doesn’t exist.
      And since George & Jian still have more than 20 years to go with the CBC, because they’ll never get a better or easier job, they’ll probably be mentioned a few more times on this blog.
      In the meantime we wait patiently for the CBC to produce “Barely Legal Trailer Park Girls” starring Jennifer Hollitt so that we can into some serious philosophical debates.

  • Anony nony says:

    Obviously copied from the anti-BBC tirades in Blighty.
    And the BBC is considering halving the web prescence as a result.
    Of course 1/2 cbc.ca = 10^100 (CTV, Global, Star, Globe,Canoe,….Bourque)

    • Allan says:

      I voiced the same concern here on this blog years ago, so this Blighty thing and the more thoughtful people in Britain obviously copied it from me.

  • Anonymous says:

    You know what, Allan? Fuck you.

    This website is going the way of the old cbcwatch.ca. Not a place for critics of the CBC, but just a warehouse of bitching and moaning from CBC abolitionists and minimalists.

    Name me a public broadcaster that isn’t on the internet.

    • Allan says:

      You are not allowed to read Tea Makers any more. Now go away.
      This stuff is obviously over your head, and you seem to have an axe to grind with cbcwatchever.ca. Go and straighten them out.
      This post is not about having a web presence, and you seem to be obsessing with me.
      There are plenty of people who live productive, fulfilling lives without reading Tea Makers.
      You can be one of them.

      • Anonymous says:

        “For everyone’™s sake, get rid of CBC.CA…”

        “This post is not about having a web presence…”

        Keep back-peddling. You have a ways to go.

      • The Original Allan Denegrating Pseudonymous says:

        Disclaimer: This comment may or may not be fan fiction, so take it with a grain of salt

        Dear Web Persona Allan,

        Actually that person is copping *MY comment style.

        Flattering, I guess. It also shows that more than a few regulars around here are sick of your lousy work.

        Folks can also find out with just a small amount of Googling that web persona ‘Allan’ was actually married to a CBC personality-cum motivational type workshop speaker. And I’m not talking about Tod Maffin. When I found that out, I nearly died laughing. It explains so much about Allan’s work here and elsewhere.

        Web persona Allan, you looooove being in the shadow of CBC personailites-cum motivational type speakers as much as you love camping out at the Apple store to buy the next gadget they unveil.

        I know it’s bad Teamaking to mess around with people’s ‘identities’, but since Web Persona Allan has offered the world so many details by being a [web persona of a] dumb middle age guy who is a newbie on the internet, I just can’t resist connecting a few dots.

        You yourself have played the identity thing a few ways, depending on how drunk or high you were when you write stuff — like sometimes your Mr. Anonymous vigilante and other times you want ‘street cred’ for interviewing Johnny Cash and Lou Reed in your young days.

        You started your career as Apple Store guy, and you can find some posts in the early days of TM, where you slam this site and the CBC. So it should be no surprise to anyone about drawing in the cbcwatch crowd. Don’t pretend you don’t know about CBCwatch, web persona Allan!

        Don’t worry, I’m not a stalker – your trail only took about 15 minutes to unravel. Wonder how many hours you have spent dirt-mining Maffin. Honestly, I would hate nothing more than to be closer than 100 feet away from you in real life. I never want to meet you, know anything else about you or anything creepy like that.

        Keep up the lousy work, you former media worker-cum mediocre blogger. I disagree that you are worse than Joe was, but don’t shit on .CA ‘cos you haven’t got a clue.

        We’ve (figuratively) got your number, buddy!

        Oh and one last thing – this will be my last critique of you. I retire. Don’t go spinning this as if some big brass at CBC have it out for you, or falsely assume that I’m Tod the way you sometimes do when you get crticized. We are absolutely nobody you will ever know.

        I encourage all other anonymes to tumbleweed all of Allan’s future work. Not even worth the effort.

        See you never!

        • Allan says:

          So passionate.
          But it is after all just a blog.
          Try to contribute a bit more if you can than just what could be construed as a personal attack from an anonymous and excitable reader.
          Your grasp of dots leaves much to be desired, but I’ve no desperate need for a Wikipedia page to assist you.
          Criticism and a thumbs down review of any given post is to be expected, but it wastes time when your argument is simply to deny me the right to say anything.
          No matter what ammunition you choose, your aim seems to be to deny anyone who gripes about the CBC their right to free expression, regardless of merit.
          That’s a dumb approach when dealing with social media, and outdated in a country that proudly proclaims a Charter of Rights.
          Only a very few writers on the internet take the time to address issues relating to the CBC, but everyone is forced to hand over $34 to it every year. And if you have even one question, that’s another $5.
          Stursberg’s attitude is that a public broadcaster is worth more than that, easily double. But whatever the amount, forking over even $1 to prop up his $80,000 a year expense account entitles all of us to voice our opinions and observations.

          • Fake Clayton Ruby says:

            Oh boo hoo. Allan’s civil liberties are put in jeopardy by the Teamakers’ “balcony muppets”?!?!

            Puh-leeze.

            Seriously, who ever threatened you or stopped you from dropping 4 or 5 turds a week into this Tea-o-sphere?

            It’s not our fault that you can’t understand the nuanced argument of documenting fucked up shit in the world of CBC (no, you DON’T have to work there either) with a mind to making it better, more useful and more vital, not scrapping it.

            It would be awesome to have some different discussions about the world of CBC going on here, but instead you’re stuck content-wise, and you bring a lot of knuckle draggers to the discussion.

            I officially un-retire to call you on your bullshit hypocrisy!

  • saskboy says:

    Thank goodness for cbc.ca it’s one of the best sites on the Internet, despite the relative lack of intelligent commenters, and frequent story errors. It’s often the only source for online local news, and it has excellent coverage of national and international stories too. With Adblock installed, I never notice advertising on any website anyway. It’s tax money well spent on a corporate-independent media.

    • Allan says:

      The only online source for local news?
      Wow, the situation in Saskatchewan is bleaker than I thought.
      You had me right to where you said “corporate-independent media”.
      You view the CBC as corporate-independent?
      You do know that Hockey Night In Canada is wholly owned by a beer company, right?
      I suspected you had the makings of a stand-up comedian, saskboy.
      [this comment is brought to you by Canada Trust, where we have at least one chair to sit on in every bank. It’s green, like A Million Acts of Green, powered by Cisco. Visit one of our branches soon. You might run into a film crew from Being Erica]
      (just messin’ with you, saskboy. You want to be a journalist, right? – go for it. Local media needs you!)

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