The loss of the CBC Radio Orchestra last year looks to have been the first in a series of drastic changes to our public broadcaster, changes that could see  it shift  away from its mandate to “reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences” and “actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression"  toward a more commercial-style entity.  

With federal government support unforthcoming, the CBC is now considering selling assets, such as Radio 3, to cope with an advertising revenue shortfall of $65 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, according to reports from the Canadian Press and Reuters. The public broadcaster might also consider increasing American programming, its president Hubert Lacroix said today at a media scrum in Toronto.

“It costs 10 times more to make one hour of high-quality Canadian programming like ”˜The Border’ than it does to buy ”˜Wheel of Fortune’,” Hubert is quoted by CP as saying.

Lacroix said he had requested a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ask for “financial flexibility”, and insisted he was not looking for a government hand-out. Heritage Minister James Moore’s spokesperson Deirdra McCracken told the Globe and Mail the CBC was expected to tighten its belt, indicating that no new money would be forthcoming beyond the broadcaster’s $1 billion in annual public funds.

The recent federal budget made no mention of the public broadcaster, and it is not clear whether the annual $1-billion appropriation will remain in 2009-2010.

Other measures taken by the CBC could include the introduction of ads on Radio 1 and/or Radio 2, a move which Moore hinted earlier this month he could support.

If the essence of the CBC becomes diluted with American content and advertising, it’s possible a Conservative government could argue that it is no longer any different from a commercial broadcaster, and therefore question whether taxpayers should be funding such an entity at all.