CBC, in this sense, is Canada’s national public broadcaster: a television (and radio) company paid for, in large part, by the Canadian government, the way the BBC is paid for in Britain. The letters stand for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It runs news, drama, and sport in English; there is a French-language sister service for French-speaking Canada. Canadians say the name as everyday fact. Almost nobody else needs it unless the talk is about Canadian media. That is the tidy dictionary picture. Though actually, in a hospital, a lab, or a Taiwanese clinic, CBC is far more often a blood test (complete blood count). Same letters, different world — this entry is the Canadian one.