Historical dimensions of universalism at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation : Some implications for today

This chapter explores the ways in which the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has embraced the idea of universal service. While the CBC was not legislatively mandated to elements of universality until 1968, throughout its history, Canada’s public broadcaster has striven to provide what are seen today as key elements of this ideal. But the large size of the country, coupled with its small population, the regional, linguistic, and heritage diversity, the vagaries of funding, and relations with the private sector, have made meeting those goals challenging. Today, however, the shifting technologies and fragmenting audiences that characterise the digital media environment present perhaps the biggest challenge yet to the role of the CBC within the system and its pursuit of the principles associated with universalism. Understanding the lessons that past struggles in this regard may have for the challenges currently facing public broadcasting in Canada is the purpose of this work.
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