Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Société Radio-Canada
Company typeCrown corporation
Industry
PredecessorCanadian Radio Broadcasting Commission
FoundedNovember 2, 1936; 88 years ago (1936-11-02) (radio)
September 6, 1952; 72 years ago (1952-09-06) (television)
HeadquartersCBC Ottawa Production Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Area served
National; available on terrestrial and cable systems in northern American border communities; available internationally via Internet, Sirius XM and on TV
Key people
Products
Services
RevenueDecrease CA$515.84 million ($1.907 billion including public funding) (2023) [1]
Decrease CA$-$127.608 million (2023)[2]
Decrease CA$-125.109 million (2023) [3]
Number of employees
9,429 (2023)[4]
Corporation overview
Minister responsible
Key document
Websitecbc.radio-canada.ca Edit this at Wikidata
Footnotes / references

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (French: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television.[5] It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its English-language and French-language service units known as CBC and Radio-Canada, respectively.

Although some local stations in Canada predate its founding, the CBC is the oldest continually-existing broadcasting network in Canada. The CBC was established on November 2, 1936.[6] The CBC operates four terrestrial radio networks: The English-language CBC Radio One and CBC Music, and the French-language Ici Radio-Canada Première and Ici Musique (international radio service Radio Canada International historically transmitted via shortwave radio, but since 2012 its content is only available as podcasts on its website). The CBC also operates two terrestrial television networks, the English-language CBC Television and the French-language Ici Radio-Canada Télé, along with the satellite/cable networks CBC News Network, Ici RDI, Ici Explora, Documentary Channel (partial ownership), and Ici ARTV. The CBC operates services for the Canadian Arctic under the names CBC North, and Radio-Canada Nord. The CBC also operates digital services including CBC.ca/Ici.Radio-Canada.ca, CBC Radio 3, CBC Music/ICI.mu, and Ici.TOU.TV.

CBC/Radio-Canada offers programming in English, French, and eight indigenous languages on its domestic radio service, and in five languages on its web-based international radio service, Radio Canada International (RCI).[7] However, budget cuts in the early 2010s have contributed to the corporation reducing its service via the airwaves, discontinuing RCI's shortwave broadcasts as well as terrestrial television broadcasts in all communities served by network-owned rebroadcast transmitters, including communities not subject to Canada's over-the-air digital television transition.

The CBC's funding is supplemented by revenue from commercial advertising on its television broadcasts. The radio service employed commercials from its inception to 1974, but since then its primary radio networks have been commercial-free. In 2013, the CBC's secondary radio networks, CBC Music and Ici Musique, introduced limited advertising of up to four minutes an hour, but this was discontinued in 2016.

  1. ^ "FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS" (PDF). CBC. August 1, 2024.
  2. ^ "FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS" (PDF). CBC. August 1, 2024.
  3. ^ "FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS" (PDF). CBC. August 1, 2024.
  4. ^ "Our Operations" (PDF). CBC. August 1, 2024.
  5. ^ McCausland, Tammy (June 1, 2010). "The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation". Maple Leaf Web. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  6. ^ Canadian Communications Foundation. Archived March 15, 2005, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ^ "Radio Canada International goes off-air, moving online-only after 67 years of shortwave service". J-Source. June 25, 2012. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved June 6, 2013.