Canadian Association of Broadcasters

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) is the national voice of Canada’s private broadcasters, representing the vast majority of Canadian programming services, including private radio and television stations, specialty, pay and pay-per-view services. The CAB was established by pioneers of Canadian broadcasting on January 28, 1926 with the primary objective of defending the interests of Canada’s private broadcasters especially in the area of Copyright.

In June 2010, after a two-year review of the CAB’s mandate including an assessment of the membership structure and its core activities, the members decided to affect a major restructuring of the organization to ensure that the CAB continues to meet the needs of its members in today’s rapidly evolving communications environment.

Accordingly, the CAB has continued without interruption to serve the interests of its members in four key areas: 1) Copyright Advocacy; 2) Oversight of the broadcast codes administered by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) and being majority funder of the CBSC; 3) Administrative functions related to various broadcast funds (including Radio Starmaker/Fonds Radiostar and the Small Market Local Programming Fund); and, 4) Oversight and administration of activities associated with accessibility issues such as closed-captioning and described video.

On April 23, 2012, the CAB’s Board of Directors approved the creation of the CAB CEO Radio Council to oversee various matters pertaining to the private radio industry. The CEO Radio Council began its activities in the fall of 2012 and operates in an advisory capacity to the CAB Board of Directors.