There is an enormous residual desire on the part of Canadian audiences to see their own stories, as we have seen. When the CBC put enough marketing power behind Little Mosque on the Prairie, people knew about it. They came in droves. From people everywhere who see our programs, when they find out about them, when we are able to reach out and give them our programming at a time that suits them, etc., there is fantastic response. We Canadians don't brag about our successes nearly enough, but our programs are world class.
There is a financial component, and marketing is extremely important. The paradox that CBC television has is they don't have too many programs that have two million viewers during which they can advertise the next show, or the show that's on tomorrow. What the private broadcasters use.... CTV uses American Idol to promote Corner Gas. Or our series, Robson Arms--we had three quarters of a million viewers on Monday night because we were promoted within other large programs. Global owns newspapers, and they put ads in their newspapers, for free, to promote their own programming.
So the CBC does have these disadvantages, but I think that online, they have an advantage.