So what would it really be like if the ABC
took up advertising? Well, it’s impossible to say. But to help our imaginations
along, let’s look at what’s happened in Canada.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC),
the nation’s largest public broadcaster, is funded primarily by federal
statutory grants (about two-thirds of its budget), but also derives considerable revenues
from commercial sponsorship.

While responsible to Parliament for its overall
conduct, the CBC is independent of government control in its day-to-day operations. Like
the ABC, its mandate is to provide Canadians
with a broad range of high-quality indigenous information and entertainment
programming, although critics continue to lobby to abolish its government funding
and level the playing field for all broadcasters.

Of the 23
public broadcasters around the world, 17 of them support themselves with some
advertising. But does it work?
Despite his public broadcaster’s
reliance on advertsing revenue, CBC’s
current President and CEO Robert Rabinovitchsaid back in 2000 that “CBC needs to become a true public
broadcaster with fewer commercials, credible, independent journalism,
high
quality distinctive programming, and excellent children’s programming.”

This is also the general finding of the BBC commissioned McKinsey Report (1999), which examined
broadcasting companies around the world and concluded that an increased
reliance on advertising leads to less distinctive programming. According
to McKinsey (summarised here), the most effective public broadcasting services
are the ARD and ZDF in Germany, SVT in Sweden and the
BBC in the UK – all supported by licence fees. Their more
reliable and substantial funding underwrites broader schedules
of programs that generate much larger audiences.

Meanwhile, the CBC’s ratings have declined in recent years, which some have put down to an increased focus on
Canadian content, which rarely does well in English Canada against
sleeker American productions.