Should the CRTC add the branded-content issue to its proceeding to consider CBC’s applications to renew its conventional licences and for the CRTC to continue to exempt its online services from regulatory requirements? Many people are clearly concerned about the issue- on 25 November 2020 cartt.ca reported that nearly 10,000 people had signed a petition organized by Friends of Canadian Broadcasting to ask CBC’s Board of Directors to end the branded-content Tandem initiative.
For its part, the Forum wrote the CRTC at the end of October to ask that branded content – the ‘Tandem’ project – be added to its 2019-379 proceeding:
On 24 November the CBC wrote the CRTC, copying the Forum., indicating that it was replying to the Forum’s procedural requests: CBC did not oppose the Forum’s procedural requests, but included in its letter answers to ten questions addressed to the CBC by a group of former employees:
The Forum submitted an answer to the CBC’s 24 November 2020 letter, on 25 November 2020:
The twists and turns concerning the CRTC’s review of CBC’s application to renew its conventional licences and to have the CRTC maintain the regulatory exemption for CBC’s online services are set out here: