The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (French: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation funded by the government. The English- and French-language service units of the corporation are commonly known as CBC and Radio-Canada, respectively.
Although some local stations in Canada predate the CBC's founding, CBC is the oldest existing broadcasting network in Canada. The CBC was established on November 2, 1936. The CBC operates four terrestrial radio networks: The English-language CBC Radio One and CBC Music, and the French-language Ici Radio-Canada Première and Ici Musique. (International radio service Radio Canada International historically transmitted via shortwave radio, but since 2012 its content is only available as podcasts on its website.) The CBC also operates two terrestrial television networks, the English-language CBC Television and the French-language Ici Radio-Canada Télé, along with the satellite/cable networks CBC News Network, Ici RDI, Ici Explora, Documentary Channel (partial ownership), and Ici ARTV. The CBC operates services for the Canadian Arctic under the names CBC North and Radio-Canada Nord. The CBC also operates digital services including CBC.ca/Ici.Radio-Canada.ca, CBC Radio 3, CBC Music/ICI.mu and Ici.TOU.TV, and owns 20.2% of satellite radio broadcaster Sirius XM Canada, which carries several CBC-produced audio channels.
CBC/Radio-Canada offers programming in English, French and eight aboriginal languages on its domestic radio service, and in five languages on its web-based international radio service, Radio Canada International (RCI). However, budget cuts in the early 2010s have contributed to the corporation reducing its service via the airwaves, discontinuing RCI's shortwave broadcasts as well as terrestrial television broadcasts in all communities served by network-owned rebroadcast transmitters, including communities not subject to Canada's over-the-air digital television transition.
The CBC's federal funding is supplemented by revenue from commercial advertising on its television broadcasts. The radio service employed commercials from its inception to 1974, but since its primary radio networks have been commercial-free. In 2013, CBC's secondary radio networks, CBC Music and Ici Musique, introduced limited advertising of up to four minutes an hour, but this was discontinued in 2016.