Public broadcasting in a changing world

CBC/Radio-Canada serves the second largest and one of the most diverse countries in the world. Our new five-year strategy, 2015: Everyone, Every way, recognises that the public broadcaster can't be all things to all people. But, in its scope, it stakes the claim that we can be something for, and mean something to, every Canadian. Whether it's connecting them to this country, to their communities, or to each other as individuals with their own realities and interests, CBC/Radio-Canada will be there — for everyone, every way.

An opportunity to evolve

Whether through demographic shifts, fewer and more powerful media empires, new technologies, platforms and social networks, more content choices or changes in how people interact with each other, the broadcasting landscape around us is changing rapidly.

We realise that. We are in the middle of it.

In 2000, for example, we had 12 services. Today we have almost 30. So, CBC/Radio-Canada is changing too. The challenges are many, and they are fascinating. In them, we see opportunity. We see the chance to evolve, to build on a strong foundation to better deliver on our mandate — pronounced 20 years ago in the Broadcasting Act — in the world Canadians will experience tomorrow.

Our roadmap to the future

Everyone, Every way is our roadmap to the future. It's where we need to be and what we need to do to succeed in serving Canadians over the next five years. In it, we commit to deepening our relationship with, and engaging with, Canadians in new ways and to providing a publicly owned, publicly minded space where Canadians can meet and exchange with each other and with the country.

It's our promise to this country and to its people, and it's the measure by which we want to be judged.

This is our vision for Canada's national public broadcaster.

Expressing culture, enriching democracy

Culture and democratic life have, since 1936, been at the heart of our mission. Culture, we express. Democratic life, we enrich. Over the next five years, we aspire to be recognised by Canadians as the leader in doing both on their behalf.

A strategy tailored to the wants and needs of Canadians

Everyone, Every way brings CBC and Radio-Canada together into a single definition of the role of the national public broadcaster. But it also respects the reality that execution of the strategy needs to be tailored to the uniqueness of their respective markets.

The goals set out in our strategy relate to three realms in which Canadians will experience the outcomes and impact of our evolution: the national spaces in which we share the Canadian experience, the regional spaces that knit communities together; and, the digital spaces where Canadians as individuals can pursue their personal interests and engage in the public debate.

Network programming and national public spaces

Stories by, for and about Canadians: on a nationwide scale, fulfilling our aspirations means being the home of high-quality content that expresses and enriches the Canadian experience from coast-to-coast-to-coast. It means telling and sharing the stories that showcase not only the marvels of Canadian diversity, but also the values and ties that unite us.

Over the next five years, we will continue to produce programming that plays a part in shaping a shared national identity. We will complete the renewal of our news in both English and French services. We will offer more original, innovative and entertaining homegrown stories. Our prime times on all services will be overwhelmingly Canadian.

We will bring a greater diversity of voices to our airwaves and reflect more of the country's diversity in the stories we tell. And, we will produce and air at least ten signature events per year on both our English and French networks — events that bring Canadians together in large numbers — programs, events and initiatives of cultural consequence that leave their mark.

Regional presence and community spaces

Canadians have told us time and again that the regions rank among our foremost priorities in their minds, but that they don't feel we live up to our potential. For different reasons, we haven't always been everywhere we need to be, or able to do everything we need to do. We will reverse that trend, bridge that perception gap and strengthen our presence in the regions.

While execution will vary by market and between English and French services, the strategy commits us to launching new stations (primarily radio), expanding others and modifying services on still others. We're not looking to exit any existing locations, but we may change the way we deliver our services in some. We will introduce new local and hyperlocal websites and services, new formats on radio, and increased regional news on television during the day.

Over the next five years, we will become — by way of multimedia services — a leader in all the markets we serve. We will expand service in select underserved markets to address gaps in coverage. We will adjust across markets with new delivery models. We will expand regional programming genres beyond news to reflect local communities. And, we will pursue new partnerships to enhance both our reach and our impact.

New platforms and digital spaces

New digital platforms and spaces, including social networks, have made tremendous inroads over the last decade and have fundamentally changed the media environment. They enable Canadians to personalise their experience where, when and how they want to. And, in turn, they enable us to reach Canadians and engage with them in new ways, and to encourage participation, interaction and co-creation. In that sense, we can't be only about content. We have to be more than that.

Over the next five years, we will extend our leadership in creating and nurturing Canadian digital spaces. We will strengthen the competitive position of our existing multiplatform offering. We will judiciously expand our specialty channel offering. We will build a full multiplatform suite of branded Canadian destinations.

We will experiment with new platforms and new ways of doing things to better engage with Canadians and allow them to personalise their experience of our content. We will aggressively pursue new partnerships. And, most significantly, we will double our current level of digital investment to at least five per cent of our programming budget by 2015.

Making it happen

Our people are the foundation of our success.

Our work environment will foster creativity and a culture of excellence. We will build on our pride and passion for all that we do to serve Canadians every day. We will modernise our production methods, make better use of new and emerging technologies, and enhance training and development of our people.

Over the next five years, we will become more financially flexible and agile in order to fund the core elements that will translate this strategy into action. We will make this happen, but not without disruption — innovative disruption — by introducing new ways and ideas in places where the old ones simply don't or won't work anymore.

We will pursue new revenues and savings. We will optimise our investments in infrastructure and platforms so that we can maximise our investment in content. We will modernise our production methods. We will pursue revenue growth initiatives, cost improvements, resource redirections, and we will pour over our existing assets to extract as much value as we can.

As a corporation, we will have to adjust our size to the ways in which we deliver our services. We will embrace innovative disruption. Our environment will continue to change, and we will need to continuously review what services we provide, and adapt and adjust to new realities as we go.

Let's embrace the future

Over the next five years, Canadians can expect more of us. They can expect a public broadcaster that is more nimble, distinctive, regional, and interactive than it is today. Canadians will come to recognise us as the leader in expressing culture and enriching democratic life on their behalf — where, when and how they choose. And they will come to know us as a listener, a partner as well as a broadcaster. We will seek to serve Canadians, Everyone, and to serve them Every way. This is our commitment.