Dump TV

In which I stage an intervention with my ex. Apologies to Rick Mercer:

The way we watch is changing. Mobile technology and social media have shifted our priorities. Word of mouth means more than a network schedule.

The CBC creates all sorts of compelling, well-produced visual content - and then fires it off into the ether. For all the hard work and resources that go into programming, CBC's prime time TV audience share sits at 9.3% - and that's the highest it's been in a decade. The only way to pull in more eyeballs, it seems, is with more reality TV, flashy graphics, and fluff.

The television market is in a race to the bottom. Right now, TV manufacturers are slashing prices as decades of steady sales are finally stalling and starting to drop. Meanwhile, takeovers and mergers have left a handful of big companies fighting over this shrinking audience.

Aside from watching out for its big private competitors, the CBC is now planning for budget cuts. And with the Corp's budget still not balanced, another recession denting ad revenues would spell serious trouble. It costs a lot to keep a TV network running.

Across Canada, media companies are fiddling with their revenue models, trying to monetize online content. But nobody can afford to go first - to take the initiative on a game-changing shift like walking away from television. That's where the CBC is different. Its competitors have a mandate: generate ever-growing profits for shareholders. That's nowhere in the CBC's mandate, and that's a good thing.

The Broadcasting Act says the CBC is there to "actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression," "contribute to shared national consciousness and identity, and "be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose".

Those words were written back in 1991. As far as "resources becoming available," the last two decades are unrivalled in human history. I think it's time for the CBC to look again at television and ask if that's the most "appropriate and efficient means" to serve Canadians.