It's looking like Canada is creating the perfect storm for podcasting: their public TV and radio network's own locked-out workers could create the biggest podcast network as leverage in their labor dispute.

Tod Maffin reports that the locked out CBC reporters will create their own network, at least while the strike is ongoing. They will produce a daily newscast to be made available for download and in podcast form, and are talking about going local, and even producing video for distribution online. The CBCunplugged site has already been created.

CBC has already been on the leading edge when it comes to podcasting (and in Quebec, baladodiffusion), so they're not exactly pushing the envelope, as I recommended of the NHL. What's happening in this case, however, is even more advanced: these reporters are circumventing their own medium. And what an opportunity to do so: 5,500 producers, technicians, writers, and on-air personalities are on the picket lines.

This could be the first instance we will see of a professional newsgathering network springing up from nothing, using the podcast distribution method. It may also be the biggest move ever in terms of socializing the podcast, as millions of Canadians who choose CBC for news coverage will be looking for something to match the quality to which they are accustomed.

I can't help but wonder what would happen if the lockout goes longer than a month or two. With the Canadian Media Guild counting their volunteer work on this project as part of the labor action, this new entity could be Canada's largest news-gathering operation overnight. In only a couple weeks' time, they could organize their own labor against their current employer (as newspaper workers have done when they are locked out), and produce their own programming as they see fit. They would only get a fraction of the CBC's audience to begin with, but over time, the listeners' loyalty to a given host or show would accrue to this new network, not the CBC. They have an opportunity not only to endure a protracted labor dispute, but to come out on the other side having reprogrammed their former network. CBC management may not notice this now, but once they do, they could realize what kind of trouble they're in.