I'm president of the Canadian Media Directors Council. As a point of reference for some of you who may not be aware, the Canadian Media Directors Council represents the bulk of the commercial purchasers of media time in Canada, which includes the purchase of television time from CBC and Radio-Canada. We represent 80% to 90% of all the purchases in Canada, which is roughly about $7 billion to $8 billion in media purchasing. I'm here today to represent the interests of the colleagues I work with in putting forward our point of view with respect to what we believe is the CBC's mandate.
I have about six or seven points, many of which are not inconsistent with statements I've briefly heard here. I'll be focusing on the television side of the equation, because radio is non-commercial. We don't really have an interest in that particular media, nor do we really have a role and a voice to add to that.
The Canadian Media Directors Council believes that a strong and healthy CBC TV is obviously of tremendous value to Canadian TV advertisers. In the context of what's happening today, with an increasing concentration and amalgamation of media owners in this country, ensuring there is a competitive environment in which there are many voices and opportunities is of tremendous value and interest to us as buyers. Therefore, a healthy CBC TV is something we wholeheartedly endorse.
We also believe that CBC TV represents a valued commercial outlet for advertisers, and it helps to contribute to an overall healthier commercial TV marketplace within Canada. If anything, I guess these comments reflect the notion that we clearly believe the advertising component--and I suppose the revenue portion of that--is certainly of importance to CBC TV, but it is important to us in terms of being an outlet in which to reach Canadians.
The CMDC strongly believes that CBC TV should emphasize the carriage and creation of quality programming of interest to a broad spectrum of Canadians. My colleague Pamela commented on the fact that TV revenues for CBC represent a substantial portion of its entire funding. As quality programming is ensured for CBC, its audiences will remain and potentially grow. There's an extremely direct correlation between audience growth or audience size and revenue. To give you an idea, if the average audiences for CBC TV rose by only 25%, that would add close to $100 million to the entire funding formula for the CBC. We strongly urge the creation and acquisition of quality programming, whether that is Canadian programming or other types of programming. We don't have a point of view there; it's the notion of quality programming that reaches a broad spectrum of Canadians.
The CMDC strongly believes that CBC TV should remain active in presenting top-rated sports programming in Canada. Canadians are extremely strong in many sports that are of somewhat minor interest to certainly our American counterparts. I think CBC has done a laudable job in representing that. Curling is one simple example. We believe CBC should maintain its position as a strong carrier of sports. Clearly that is of interest to Canadians, and it certainly reflects those sports in which Canada has a strong presence and standing.
CMDC strongly believes that CBC has the opportunity to reach unique audience segments, who may traditionally be very light TV viewers, with quality programming that is not readily available elsewhere in Canada. I'm probably supportive of the directors guild in stating that. There is programming that is uniquely Canadian and programming that is unique to the kinds of audiences that are attracted to CBC TV. Those audiences are of value to the advertisers in this country. We urge the CBC to continue to maintain initiatives in that programming arena.
The CMDC strongly believes that CBC TV should equally value the carriage and creation of top-rated programming. What we mean is that the value should be focused on quality programming and not necessarily exclusively focused on the source of that programming. Again, the source of that programming does not mean U.S. versus Canada. It means that it doesn't necessarily have to be produced by CBC. It could be produced by independent producers. It could be produced in other countries in the world perhaps. Basically, the focus should be on the quality of the programming in terms of equal value relative to where the source of that programming comes from.
Last but not least, and not perhaps surprisingly, the CMDC strongly believes in the continued commercial status of CBC TV.
And that's the end of mine.