TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2020) Canada's public broadcaster continued to incur ratings and revenue losses in 2019, despite a rise in government funding, according to the CBC's annual report.
"Net results under [International Financial Reporting Standards] for the year were a loss of 54.4 million Canadian Dollars ($41.7 million), compared to a loss of 12.6 million Canadian dollars last year," the public broadcaster said in the report.
CBC's prime-time audience share fell from 7.6% to 5.0%, a 34% drop.
English advertising revenues fell year-over-year by 37%, while overall, the advertising revenue fell from 318,282 to 248,752 Canadian dollars, a 22% drop. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation attributed this to the larger revenues generated by the Winter Olympic Games in 2018.
However, declining revenues are part of a worrying long-term trend. Since 2015, another non-Olympic year, television revenues have dropped by 25% and overall revenue by 18%.
Despite this, government funding increased by 0.5% since 2018 and 17% since 2015 to 1.2 million Canadian dollars.
This year the Gustavson Brand Trust Index found the CBC to be the most trusted news source in Canada, something reflected in the statements of the Chair, Michael Goldbloom, and the President and CEO Catherine Tait.
Despite this, critics often say that the CBC has a left-wing bias. During the Federal election campaign, the CBC was slammed for suing the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) for unauthorized use of CBC material in political ads, which were later deleted. Conservative pundits pointed out that Liberal candidates engaged in a similar activity without facing the same consequences.
