The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a Canadian crown corporation, is the country's national public radio and television broadcaster. In French, it is called la Société Radio-Canada (Radio-Canada or SRC). The umbrella corporate brand is CBC/Radio-Canada.

CBC is the oldest existing broadcasting service in Canada, first established in its present form on November 2, 1936. Radio services include CBC Radio One, CBC Radio 2, CBC Radio 3, Première Chaîne, Espace musique and the international radio service Radio Canada International. Television operations include CBC Television, Télévision de Radio-Canada, CBC Newsworld, le Réseau de l'information, ARTV (part ownership), Documentary and Bold. The CBC operates services for the Canadian Arctic under the names CBC North and Radio Nord Québec. The CBC also operates digital audio service Galaxie and two main websites, one in either official language; it owns 40% of satellite radio broadcaster Sirius Canada, which airs additional CBC services including CBC Radio 3 and Bande à part.

CBC/Radio-Canada offers programming in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages on its domestic radio service; in nine languages on its international radio service, Radio Canada International; and in eight languages on its Web-based radio service RCI Viva, a service for recent and aspiring immigrants to Canada.

The financial structure and the nature of the CBC often place it in the same category as other high-end national broadcasters, such as the British broadcaster BBC, although it should be noted that unlike the BBC, the CBC employs commercial advertising to supplement its federal funding.

History

The CRBC took over a network of radio stations formerly set up by a federal Crown corporation, the Canadian National Railway. The network was used to broadcast programming to riders aboard its passenger trains, with coverage primarily in central and eastern Canada. On November 2, 1936, the CRBC became a full Crown corporation and gained its present name. Leonard Brockington was the CBC's first chairman.

For the next few decades, the CBC was responsible for all broadcasting innovation in Canada. It introduced FM radio to Canada in 1946. Television broadcasts from the CBC began on September 6, 1952, with the opening of a station in Montreal, Quebec (CBFT), and a station in Toronto, Ontario (CBLT) opening two days later. The CBC's first privately owned affiliate television station, CKSO in Sudbury, Ontario, launched in October 1953. (At the time, all private stations were expected to affiliate with the CBC, a condition that relaxed in 1960–61 with the launch of CTV.)