Canadian Broadcast Standards Council Information

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) is an industry funded self-regulating organization created by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to administer standards established by its own members, Canada's private broadcasters. The council's membership includes more than 760 private sector radio and television stations, specialty services and networks from across Canada, programming in English, French and third languages. As such, the council allows the private broadcasting industry to be self-regulating; it acts as an intermediary in the regulatory process, which is governed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The CRTC itself generally hears complaints against only the few CBSC non-members (most notably public broadcasters such as the CBC), as well as reviews of CBSC decisions; the latter rarely lead to any additional action. Although first suggested by private broadcasters as early as 1968, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council was not created until 1990.