The budget released last month by Mr. Jim Flaherty and the Conservatives has left out any word of financial appropriations for the CBC’s annual budget. This, coupled with a projected shortfall of $65 million in annual advertising revenue is leaving the CBC in a fiscal scramble.

Traditionally the CBC is given unspecific details about its total appropriation from the Federal Government. However, the CBC has regularly received an allocation of $60 million in government funds. The remainder of the $1 billion annual operating budget of the CBC is made up primarily from CBC Television advertising revenue.
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Recently, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced that it is considering a change to the scope of the upcoming television broadcast license hearings scheduled for April 2009.

Under the current Broadcasting Act, 1991, the CRTC can grant broadcast licenses for up to 7 years. There is also an option to grant licenses for shorter periods of time, but this is usually done in cases where there are compliancy issues.

However, there is now concern that the CRTC might reverse course and grant only temporary, one to two-year licenses – and no, this has nothing to do with compliance issues.
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