Thank you very much for your questions.
First of all, on the role of the CBC and whether it should be restricted or all-encompassing, I would say that the answer to that question has to be broken down into the two main components of the official languages, because there may be differences in the role, the way, the type of programming, or whatever Radio-Canada can do versus what the CBC can do. This is recognized in the act.
There was a deliberate policy in this country 20 and more years ago to restrict the CBC to small platforms. The CBC applied in the late 1970s for
CBC-2, if I remember correctly, or Télé-2,
and was turned down by the CRTC at the time. Then when speciality services appeared throughout the 1980s, the CBC was time and again rejected by the CRTC and discouraged from getting into speciality services. The purpose was to create--as was the purpose of other policies later on, actually, like the CTF, for example--a private sector. This private sector, this variety of voices outside the national broadcaster, is now, by the way, being consolidated more and more, and the environment has changed. Maybe we should look at the CBC role with that in mind, as well, because particularly in English Canada....
In French Canada, one of the long-used arguments is to say that Radio-Canada should be in variety, in drama, and in everything and should not leave the place entirely to Quebecor Inc. and TQS, to a much lesser extent--TVA, I should have said, but with Quebecor, it's all the same, isn't it? The arguments that were used, and that I think are still valid, were that the CBC should be a litmus test, a quality test.
Sport is another issue, quite frankly, that I'm not ready to tackle with you at this point, because I'm not sure that what we would say would be really meaningful to the debate at this point. It needs to be looked at more specifically.
Drama is definitely, on the English side, a place where the CBC should be. Absolutely. That's one place in this country where we can really nurture, develop, and create. And that's why the money the CBC accesses indirectly through the CTF is so important. And that's why we say that it should remain and that the CTF should keep, if not increase, the share that goes to independent producers who have deals with the CBC for distribution. That's most important. There are all sorts of issues related to that--rights issues and everything--and it's very complex.
I'm sorry, I'm eating up your time.