CBC Spends $59,000 in Legal Fees to Hide Secret Gem Subscriber Numbers

The CBC doesn’t want you to know how many people use its Gem streaming service, and it’s spending your money to keep it that way.

According to access-to-information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the public broadcaster has racked up $59,000 in legal fees fighting a federal order to release its subscriber numbers. The whole thing started when the Information Commissioner of Canada, Caroline Maynard, ordered the CBC to hand over the data after transparency advocate Matt Malone filed a request for it.

CBC CEO Marie-Philippe Bouchard has defended keeping the numbers under wraps, calling subscriber counts “sensitive commercial information” that needs to stay confidential for competitive reasons. The Information Commissioner wasn’t buying it. Maynard ruled that the CBC failed to show any actual harm to its competitive position and said the data relates to general administration, meaning it should be publicly available.

While streamers like Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube all regularly disclose subscriber metrics in their financial reports, the CBC, funded by more than $1 billion in taxpayer money annually, apparently feels no similar obligation.

“As a matter of principle, the CBC owes taxpayers transparency,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the CTF. “Instead of being transparent, it’s wasting more money on legal bills trying to keep Canadians in the dark.”

It’s also a bit awkward given that former CBC CEO Catherine Tait told Members of Parliament in 2024 that “millions” of Canadians were using Gem. If the numbers were that impressive, you’d think they’d want to share them.

This isn’t the first time the CTF has had to drag transparency out of the CBC. A previous legal challenge was needed just to find out what its executives were being paid, which eventually revealed that seven senior staff collected a combined $3.7 million in total compensation.

The case is now before Federal Court, where the CBC is trying to get the disclosure order thrown out.

As it stands, CBC Gem has a free tier powered by ads, but the premium subscription without ads costs $5.99 per month.