Canadian Heritage committee  There is an enormous residual desire on the part of Canadian audiences to see their own stories, as we have seen. When the CBC put enough marketing power behind Little Mosque on the Prairie, people knew about it. They came in droves. From people everywhere who see our programs, when they find out about them, when we are able to reach out and give them our programming at a time that suits them, etc., there is fantastic response.

Canadian Heritage committee  Boy, that's the big question. I think in the area of youth programming I am encouraged by the fewer restrictions on CBC online than on CBC television in terms of how they can derive revenue. I'm also encouraged by the people they are hiring within the online world who think differently, who aren't long-time CBC television people.

Canadian Heritage committee  The last, very short point I would like to make is that the regional office here in Vancouver is scarcely relevant to a larger production company like us because they do not have financial authority. All of our conversations regarding programming, commissioning, etc., are with Toronto, but their role is to help those producers who cannot afford a plane ticket or who have not dealt with the corporation before to allow them an entree.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. Just to back up Trish's point about sports, from the last year that statistics are available, the figures are that 48% of CBC viewing was for sports. One genre that is very close to our hearts is children and youth. We made the series Make Some Noise, and it was a resounding success.

Canadian Heritage committee  Omni works for all the main broadcasters, and we also treasure our relationship with CBC. We believe that as a broadcaster, through its mandate, it should carve out its own unique identity and niche. That's a challenge, and it's certainly part of what it's looking to this committee for in terms of guidance.

Canadian Heritage committee  Good afternoon. I'm Brian Hamilton. I'm on the B.C. board of the CFTPA. I'm the vice-president of a company called Omni Film Productions, which is one of B.C.'s busiest independent producers. We've been in business for 27 years. I think we're one of CBC's most prolific production partners.