Radio Canada to Cut TV Advertising

When I finished writing the previous post I sat down to read Le Devoir, only to find a Page One story on how Radio Canada will be reducing its television advertising to eight minutes an hour, at a time when other broadcasters are gearing up to increase the amount, following a CRTC decision in May. The allowed advertising time will rise from 12 to 15 minutes in the fall, and in 2009 the CRTC-imposed cap will disappear altogoether in 2009.

Radio Canada will charge more per minute, the French language service's Richard Portelance told Le Devoir. Whether the CBC will follow the same trajectory is unclear.

Why is Rad Can doing this? To dissuade people from zapping through advertising? Or is the idea that a better case can be made for more federal support when the public broadcaster is not competing so hard with private broadcasters for the advertising dollar?

To be continued, as they used to say...