Microsoft on CBC web sites ?
p2pnet.net News Views:- Yesterday we revealed, for the first time, that Canada’s CBC web site could be gearing up to bring the pleasures of Microsoft online advertising to Canadians.
Whether they want them or not.
Microsoft is, “obviously positioning itself for the future when most content is delivered online – broadband and Wi-Fi – and it’s a critical time for the CBC on the web,” Simon Pole who first noticed the MSNCBC sites, told us.
“So far as I know, no regulation that bans advertising on the CBC outright, although they do have a self-imposed rule on radio and perhaps even one for Web site advertising,” says a Canadian media source.
“Certainly the CBC, at least as recently as the late 90s took in $300 million a year in ads, has policies in place about its advertising.
“And, as someone who covered broadcasting in Canada from the mid 70s and into the mid 80s I know that an advertising-free CBC is a frequent theme of CBC presidents, even if the ideal is never realized.
“Perrin Beatty, President and CEO, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in June, 1999: ‘In a perfect world, CBC’s main television services would be also be advertising-free. In a perfect world, not one person would go hungry.
” ‘But in the world we live in, advertising contributes $300 million to our programming each year. The reality is that the CBC faced, and continues to face, major financial challenges that threaten the very existence of the Corporation. We make no apologies for providing high quality Canadian programming that is attractive enough to Canadians to also be attractive enough to advertisers. To survive, we must be allowed to grow alongside our colleagues in the private sector. To flourish, we must have our hands untied. And unless we get more government funding we must continue to rely on advertising revenue. Any reduction in advertising revenue would result in a reduction of services. It is simple mathematics.
” ‘That said, we do not program to generate ad revenues but rather use the ad revenue to achieve our goals. This is not an isolated Canadian phenomenon. Of the 23 public broadcasters around the world, 17 of them support themselves with some advertising. Out of those 17, the CBC is one of the least dependent on the list. Advertising revenues allow us to provide the mandated programming we are responsible to provide on all of our main services. These revenues mean the difference between a major lack of operating funds and the ability to function normally. The CBC prefers the latter, as I am sure do all Canadians interested in hearing their own voices and their own stories, in their own words’.”
‘This story is completely ridiculous’
But, “This story is an example of why a lot of ‘mainstream’ media outlets don’t take blogs seriously,” says a p2pnet Reader’s Write.
“This story is completely ridiculous and anyone who took five minutes (like I did) would discover that there is nothing to this.
“I reside in Toronto and suspected the story was all just anti-Microsoft fear mongering (not that anyone should trust Gates & Co.) so I checked with a friend at CBC (who would prefer to remain anonymous) this morning who laughed and assured me it was nonsense.
“CBC News does have a deal in place to provide content to MSN/Sympatico, just as CTV does. The CBC News web site is not sponsored by Microsoft or anyone else. What was probably found was content intended for the MSN.ca portal generated as a news feed by CBC.
“The CBC supports all major streaming media standards and offers content in Windows Media, RealPlayer and Quicktime throughout their site. If you actually bother to read their web site they provide an explanation for their decision to use Windows Media for audio streaming at http://www.cbc.ca/listen/
“Please spend five minutes doing some fact checking before you write a story like this.”
‘Behind closed doors’
In the meanwhile, Pole will be watching with great interest.
“Will the CBC online go the way of CBC TV, full of ads and rebroadcasts of foreign content?” – he asks. “Or will it be more like CBC Radio, with a high standard of quality and universally admired announcers?
“The fact that this jockeying for position is going on behind closed doors is all the more reason for Canadians to get involved.
“The idea of ad revenue for CBC on the web is a red herring. Perhaps it applies to TV broadcasting with its enormous costs – but how much does it cost to serve up webpages?
“It also seems that the apparent partnership between the CBC and Microsoft goes beyond mere advertisement. I think you hit the nail on the head when you wondered if a CBC-Microsoft deal would be something like MSNBC in the US.
“A few discreet ads from various private concerns on the CBC webpage I could live with (though not necessarily like). But when this deal includes sponsorship, the exchange of content *and* the apparent exclusive use of the sponsoring party’s technology – there is a closeness that goes against the spirit, if not the letter, of the CBC’s mandate.
“Perhaps now is the time to ensure that independent culture is transferred to the internet. Because in the future, CBC radio will be accessed by most Canadians online, whether by broadband or Wi-Fi that will eventually blanket the country. If that access has to go through Microsoft, I think we will have made a grave error.
“We can see Microsoft has already gained control of the way in which the CBC streams audio (and their online archives too, which I believe are exclusively in mplayer2 format). In the future, will Canadians have to pay the Microsoft tax to listen to what they’ve already paid for through their taxes?
“Now’s the time to stop it.”
‘An interesting theory’
And on the comment post, “The original March 15 MSN ad page was accessed from the CBC’s main webpage, not from the MSN Sympatico, which I had never visited before,” says Pole.
“Viewing CBC’s content through Sympatico does not produce the tell-tale *www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN* directory link. The 3,000 plus links to CBC MSN ad pages Google generates must have been found in the same way – directly on CBC’s website itself.
“Your commentor suggests the *www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN* is used to generate content for MSN Sympatico.
“This is an interesting theory. If it’s true, its shows the danger of a CBC-MSN partnership. If these CBC-MSN pages were originally intended for the Sympatico portal, they have now migrated to the main CBC website.
“An ominous precedent.
“As for streaming audio, all live CBC audio streams, present and planned, are to be solely in the Microsoft format, as it says this clearly on the listen page (www.cbc.ca/listen/) your commentor references.
“Occasional “clips” will continue to be offered in Real Media, though one wonders how long this will last.
“The red flag was raised on this change because Canadians will be listening to live radio in the future over the internet, and as things stand now, that will be exclusively through a Microsoft-controlled format, with all the dangers that entails.”
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NOTE:- FYI, Rabble.ca has started a thread on this.
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See:-
Microsoft online advertising – Microsoft adverts on the CBC?, p2pnet, March 19, 2005
policies – Summary of CBC Advertising Standards, CBC
advertising – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) – Advertising Standards
world we live in – Putting the Public First, CBC, June 3, 1999
<-----As a computer, I find your faith in technology amusing---->
March 24th, 2005 at 2:18 pm
Actually they don’t just distribute their streaming media with WMP. Again, check your sources. CBC.ca has bravely started experimenting with OggVorbis, an open source codec, so that it can stop relying on WMP.