Canadian Heritage committee  From our point of view, 5%, based on our budget, is a minimum of $50 million, and could be, if they include as well our revenues--we're a $1.7 billion corporation--$85 million. That would be devastating, because either we would have to turn off transmitters or we would have to cut back on programming and definitely cut back on taking risk.

Canadian Heritage committee  My understanding is that the government is undertaking a cycle of reviews of about 25% of agencies and programs every year. We have not been reviewed this year from that point of view. We've been reviewed from others, but we have not been reviewed this year, and we have not been told if it's going to be next year or the year after or the year after, if at all.

Canadian Heritage committee  The report was tabled first with the government. I believe the government sent it to this committee, and their response to us has been that it's now in the hands of the committee, who are in the midst of doing a mandate review.

Canadian Heritage committee  We're waiting for you.

Canadian Heritage committee  No, they haven't given us a yes or a no.

Canadian Heritage committee  They haven't given us a yes or a no. They've said we'll wait for the committee and see if it fits into the mandate review.

Canadian Heritage committee  We'd all like to jump in, so I'll just say a bit and then ask Richard and Sylvain to respond. The bottom line, from our point of view, is that in today's world of cable delivery and satellite delivery, it is not as expensive to build a specialty service as it once was. On top of that, the public is more and more looking at their specialty service first.

Canadian Heritage committee  From our point of view, a cut by any other name is a cut.

Canadian Heritage committee  First of all, in fairness to the government, we have been told that over the next four years, in a cycle, all government programs and all agencies will be reviewed with a view towards what they call a 5% reallocation. We'll have to see what that means.

Canadian Heritage committee  Over 50% of our funding on the English side and over 40% of our funding on the French television side is from commercial undertakings--a combination of advertising, product placement, sale of content, subscription fees, etc. Therefore we must be conscious of the market at all times.

Canadian Heritage committee  First, let me react to the beginning of your statement, that you cannot have a public broadcaster without the public. That message comes out very clearly if you talk to France Télévisions or the BBC, that you cannot be an elitist organization. You have to have a mix of programming.

Canadian Heritage committee  If I may, I use it in my speech. The term can be abused, but the way in which we see the term is very much in relation to an enlightened public. Our job is to enlighten the public, make sure they get the facts, and treat them as intelligent, thinking people who want to know more.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can try to answer from the point of view of the company. We do collect statistics on demographics. We don't skew as old as some of the commercial networks do, but we do skew older in general. What we have learned, which is fascinating, is that young people are using iPods to download some of our most sophisticated radio programs, like Ideas and Quirks & Quarks.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's a million downloads a month. We believe that it is going up quite significantly, and it is growing. Radio does skew 50-plus in terms of people who listen to it regularly, and there's no question there's been a significant drop-off among teenagers, as they have other sources of music.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.