We sometimes think of Canada's media landscape as having really two monoliths that are sometimes in opposition to each other, one being commercial radio and the other being CBC/Radio-Canada. But the legislation that defines a broadcasting system in Canada actually defines three components: public, private, and community.
Private radio, as you know, is broadcasting for profit. The aim of commercial outlets is to provide popular programming that attracts an audience. Therefore, commercial broadcasters are often as answerable to the businesses that advertise with them as with audiences or regulators. Music and information programming of private radio is typically directed toward entertainment, and that makes economic sense for them.
Public radio, on the other hand, is a form of public service broadcasting and it's intended to serve diverse needs of a listening public on the national level. The competition in which CBC should be engaged is in good programming rather than numbers, with quality as a prime concern. Public broadcasting, particularly in Canada, is geographically universal. That means that broadcasts are available nationwide with no exceptions. While this creates a single consistent service for all Canadians, it is also inherently top-down. The criticism one often hears of the CBC—and it's a bit of a cliché at this point—is that there's too much decision-making taking place in Toronto and Montreal. But systemically the CBC will always do a better job of national programming than it will of local programming.
This is where local and community media, the third sector of the broadcasting system, powered by people, comes in. Community radio is inherently bottom-up. While having a mandate in many ways similar to public broadcasting, community radio is even more clearly a public service broadcaster, with a twofold mission of social and cultural development, while providing essential local information and entertainment programming. The Broadcasting Act speaks specifically of this community mandate when it talks about diversity, drawing upon local resources, educational and community programming, and reflecting particular needs of linguistic minorities across the country. We believe that each of these elements has a place in the broadcasting system and there are sound economic reasons to support non-commercial broadcasting in Canada.
While cooperation between companies within a single industry, such as commercial broadcasting, may be necessary for the health of that industry as a whole, the industry also benefits from an external environment that is competitive. Non-commercial broadcasting contributes to this environment by providing creative innovation and identifying new potential marketplaces. We believe that commercial and public radio are stronger if the community radio sector is also strong.