CBC's five-year plan leans on young people, new Canadians to build audience

OTTAWA - CBC/Radio-Canada says it wants to expand its audience by pitching itself to Canadians who "under-value" its services — or don’t watch, listen to or read its offerings at all.

In its new five-year strategic plan, released Tuesday evening, the public broadcaster says it can’t "afford to rely solely on existing users and fans as confirmation of its value to the public."

The strategy calls on CBC/Radio-Canada to build up its audience by reaching out to children and youth, newcomers and "non-users or dissatisfied users."

That last category poses the biggest challenge, the plan says, "in large part" because this audience believes it is "under-served and forgotten" by the CBC. The plan document doesn’t explain who makes up this audience.

Prioritizing those three audience segments, th