As Canada’s public broadcaster navigates the transition from broadcast to digital, CBC executives told INMA study tour participants the organisation is embracing what they describe as a “yes, and” strategy — balancing public service obligations with commercial realities in an increasingly fragmented platform environment.

CBC, or the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, operates television, radio, and digital news services across the country. During a Tuesday stop on the INMA Media Subscriptions Summit study tour, CBC leaders offered a behind-the-scenes look at how the broadcaster is rethinking distribution, audience relationships, and digital growth while maintaining its national public-service mission. 

The visit took place on the second day of the summit week in Toronto, where 25 news executives from around the world are participating in a two-day study tour of leading Canadian publishers before the two-day summit begins.

CBC redefines itself beyond broadcast

Richard Kanee, executive director of digital strategy and product at CBC, said the news company is working to redefine itself beyond its broadcast heritage.

“We’re CBC Radio Canada. We’re Canada's public service media company, right?” Kanee said, explaining the company increasingly avoids describing itself primarily as a broadcaster.

CBC operates with a blended funding model, with about 60% of its funding coming from government appropriation and about 40% from commercial activities such as advertising and subscriptions tied to certain products.

That structure creates ongoing tension in the Canadian market, particularly as CBC competes with both domestic publishers and global media platforms.

Kanee described Canada’s media environment as especially challenging because English-language audiences are directly exposed to U.S. content.

“There is no language or cultural moat that separates us from the largest cultural exporter in the world,” he said.

Digital growth remains the central challenge

At the same time, the shift from broadcast television to digital platforms is accelerating rapidly. Among Canadians under 34, Kanee said about 70% of video consumption is now digital while only 30% remains linear television.

For CBC, the challenge is translating reach into engagement and revenue on digital platforms. Kanee said the organisation’s digital reach is about 64% of television reach, but digital time spent remains far lower.

“This is our challenge: How do we move the needle faster?” he said.

A “yes and” strategy for distribution

To address that gap, CBC has shifted toward a broader distribution strategy that includes both owned platforms and third-party platforms.

“Our own products are critical,” Kanee said, pointing to CBC.ca, the CBC News app, and the streaming service CBC Gem. “But we also realised we needed to be much more intentional about our off-platform strategy.”

CBC now distributes content aggressively on YouTube, TikTok, FAST channels, and other platforms while still prioritising its own products for deeper audience engagement.

“We need both,” Kanee said. “Yes, and.”

Building direct audience relationships

The broadcaster also is building direct audience relationships, he said — something it historically lacked as a broadcast network.

“This was us for most of our life [as a] broadcaster. No relationship with the audience whatsoever,” Kanee said.

CBC is gradually introducing authentication across its digital products, with anonymous access still available on CBC.ca but login required for services such as CBC Gem.

“Anonymous mandate is access, but login is relevance,” Kanee said.

Behind the scenes of CBC’s Olympic coverage

The study tour also included a look inside CBC’s Olympic and Paralympic broadcast operations, highlighting how the broadcaster integrates digital and broadcast workflows during major events.

The organisation holds the Canadian English-language rights to the Olympic and Paralympic Games and operates a large production hub in Toronto that supports both broadcast and streaming coverage.

During the Games, approximately 175 staff across English and French operations contribute to the coverage. Many events are commentated remotely from Toronto rather than on site.

“We do voice most of the events live from this room,” one production leader explained during the tour. “So if you’re watching skiing or figure skating, it’s all called live from here.”

CBC streams nearly all Olympic events on its streaming platform CBC Gem, which remains free to users. AI plays a role in the production workflow, particularly in accessibility and content processing. One important use was closed captioning its live streams.

Human editorial oversight remains essential, however, a presenter said: “We did do some AI highlights for digital, which worked quite well actually, but it still takes humans to check it out.”

Accessibility and linguistic inclusion also form part of CBC’s public-service mandate. Olympic coverage included commentary in Indigenous languages as well as accessibility features such as sign-language interpretation, which including translating the hockey games in Inuktitut.

A complex strategy for a changing media landscape

Ultimately, Kanee said the complexity of operating across platforms, products, and mandates means there is no simple solution.

“Yes, and is complicated and messy and constantly changing,” he said. “And absolutely necessary for our relevance and survival into the future.”

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