Richard Canfield argues that Canadian TV's reliance on government subsidies proves the market doesn't want homegrown content. He points to the U.S., where more networks thrive without subsidy, and says the CBC produces poor-quality programming that can't survive on its own.
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What degree do we need to subsidize the marketplace of things like the news and Canadian programming? Like, if Canadian programming can't survive because it's so amazingly unique, but we need it to maintain our identity somehow, shouldn't it be able to do that on its own merit? The free market is telling you that this content isn't good enough to be able to support itself. There's thousands of different networks and television stations in the United States. In Canada, we've got less. We watch. Why do we know so much about our American counterparts? It's because we watch all of their programming. We're effectively very similar in nature between the two nations. But Canada's own broadcasting corporation, in my opinion, it's spitting on an awful lot of drivel and wasted energy and effort.