Since we absolutely want CBC/Radio-Canada to remain a general-interest television network rather than become the equivalent of ARTV, Télé-Québec or PBS, advertising must clearly be one of its components. The Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec absolutely does not advocate eliminating advertising. Radio-Canada's big mistake, at least in French-speaking Quebec, was to do away with hockey, which the CBC did not do. Thank God, the Ottawa team will be taking part in the finals, which I'm at least certain of seeing on CBC. I won't be seeing them in Montreal. It costs my son and me, who are sports fans, $700 a year to watch sports that used to be broadcast on Radio-Canada. We were able to start measuring the impact of this situation on Radio-Canada's airwaves last weekend.
I cite that example to emphasize the fact that Radio-Canada absolutely must not become dry and focus solely on ultimate forms of culture and art. Good taste is in everything, whether it be in sports or culture. But I mean “good taste”.
Earlier you asked how the CBC and Radio-Canada could determine whether the programs it broadcasts are good for the audience. I think it's obvious. When you work with the public, consult it and know its preferences, you can orient programming in such a way as to satisfy its good taste. Certain cooking programs broadcast on the advanced cultural networks such as PBS, Télé-Québec and Radio-Canada are really popular around the world. For my part, I watch them all.
We want a general-interest television network, but we must not fall into the area of bad taste. Good taste is hard to define, but we more or less know what it is. I'm going to cite some examples of the contrary. It would be easy to talk to you about specific channels or even certain CBC and Radio-Canada channels. That's bad taste and it doesn't work. It goes without saying that the people who do the programming at Radio-Canada or the CBC are competent and that they have to listen to their co-workers, who in turn have to listen to the public. By working in this way, the CBC and Radio-Canada will survive. This is one of the essential television networks in the history of the world.