There was a time when the CBC was necessary to ensure that Canadians had cultural representation, and that time as 20 years ago.
Please spare me the CBC is a "cultural icon" or a "canadian institution" pleas. Those arguments are baseless. What the CBC has done in the past has surely made an impact on Candian culture and values, however at this point its cultural impact is non-existent. Candian Culture has indeed changed, and the delivery of content in Canada no longer requires a public broadcaster for people to find Canadian content. They can go on the internet and find it themselves. The problem lies in that most Canadian content these days is of terrible quality, so intead of funding the CBC with $950M every year, the federal government should go to the PBS/NPR model of the states, maintain their radio footprint and divert that money to arts programs in Canada so we can produce some programming that is actually competitive in the Canadian and international markets.
Step 1 of this process will be when the NHL takes the truck full of money that CTV/Rogers (whoever wants it more) dumps in Gary's lap. It is going to happen, remember there was a time when people couldnt imagine the Olympics not being broadcast on the CBC. CTV would happily broadcast HNIC using TSN talent and branding every Saturday night, and when the playoffs roll around Sportsnet and TSN will be able able to offer better coverage using their multiple channel listings.
