A Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) cameraman works at an event in Ottawa on Tuesday.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
The Cable Public Affairs Channel cancelled two shows on Tuesday, citing “accelerating revenue decline” caused by fewer households subscribing to cable and long delays in implementing the Online Streaming Act.
PrimeTime Politics, CPAC’s nightly English-language political roundup hosted by Michael Serapio, and L’Essentiel, its French-language counterpart hosted by Marc-André Cossette, have both been taken off the air and online, chief executive Christa Dickenson announced on social media on Tuesday.
CPAC, a national, non-profit bilingual network, is almost entirely funded by Canada’s cable, wireless and satellite companies on a per-subscriber basis – and a substitute framework for funding it has not yet come into effect.
“Subscriber erosion has nearly doubled since 2024,” Ms. Dickenson said in her statement. “Delays in modernizing the broadcasting system have prolonged the uncertainty around when predictable, reliable and stable long-term funding mechanisms will be in place.”
In total, 12 staff have been impacted by the shows ending, according to Ms. Dickenson – reflecting a combination of terminations, contracts not being extended and vacancies not being filled. Mr. Serapio is among the journalists who were laid off, while the bilingual Mr. Cossette will remain with the channel.
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Ms. Dickenson said the decision to shut down PrimeTime Politics and L’Essentiel came down to making lower-impact cuts, rather than taking action that would affect the channel’s bilingual live broadcasting and archiving of parliamentary proceedings and committee meetings, as well as political conventions.
“Mainstream media does analysis and daily evening shows,” Ms. Dickenson said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. “No one but CPAC does uncut, unfiltered, long-form coverage.”
CPAC currently gets $0.13 per cable subscriber per month toward its operations.
Earlier this month, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved an application from CPAC to increase that wholesale rate to $0.16 per subscriber, but the change will not take place until Sept. 1.
Last fall, Ms. Dickenson had warned that the CRTC deferring consideration of that request risked jeopardizing the service.
But even when the new rate applies, it will only be a stop-gap solution as cable subscription rates steadily decline and Canadian TV viewership moves online to mostly foreign streaming services.
“Since 2018 to today, we’ve lost nearly 25 per cent of our regular revenue,” Ms Dickenson said.
CPAC has been waiting for the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, which will see foreign streamers with more than $25-million in annual revenue financially contribute to various Canadian content funds. Some of that money is expected to flow to “services of exceptional importance” such as CPAC.
The act finally became law in 2023, but the CRTC is still developing the regulatory framework around it.
“My best guess is another three years,” Ms. Dickenson said about when she expects CPAC might see some of that money – if the act is not axed in the meantime because of political pressure from the United States.