When you're pitching a project, if you have an idea for a series, you might take it to all three—the only three broadcasters that are out there—to pitch it. They have development people who listen to your idea. Two of them may love it and one of them may not.
It's very hard to get that development going without the belief that a broadcaster is committed. Producers rarely—almost never—develop something in isolation from at least a commitment from a broadcaster to partly fund the development.
The private sector, in fact, can't work in isolation from the broadcasters. In the case of the CBC—