The BBC and similar public broadcasters have received cuts in funding since the 2008 financial crisis. The closest we have to such an organization in America is PBS, and they are very notable for their popular children's and documentary programming. They had quality fine arts and drama programming until the late 1990s, when it began to be cut from the network's schedule as a result of funding issues and replaced with imported content from the United Kingdom that is aired on either ITV or Channel 5. PBS is unlike other public broadcasters in that the stations pretty much act as the owner of the entire network. In addition, PBS relies heavily on donations from companies and individuals, which have been decreasing heavily in recent years, causing even further cuts to the network's programming budget. As a result, the network's stations have to hold pledge drives every few months.

CBC is a government-owned public broadcaster that has become more like an American commercial network (e.g. CBS) than the BBC outside of its children's programming ever since it received its first funding cuts under Chretien and later Harper. This fully accelerated with the CBC's loss of full rights of Hockey Night in Canada to the cable company known as Rogers after the end of the 2013-14 NHL season. Therefore, the only government-owned traditional public television stations in Canada are the stations that operate on British Columbia's Knowledge Network, Ontario's TVO and TFO, and Quebec's Tele-Quebec, which are all carried regionally and are not available nationally. Budget cuts to Tele-Quebec happened during the first two years of Chretien’s tenure as prime minister to address a monetary shortfall that affected the network since the collapse of Canada’s social safety net in the late 1980s.