From Ingest to Air: A Blueprint for Authenticity in the Newsroom with CBC/Radio-Canada and OpenOrigins
Oct 24, 2025
Pioneering Technology to Restore Content Trust: CBC/Radio-Canada’s project for rapid content verification in newsrooms
Every piece of content entering CBC’s still image digital asset management (DAM) software needs to carry verifiable chain‑of‑custody data. OpenOrigins and CBC/Radio-Canada have engaged in a project in which OpenOrigins provided a digital fingerprint for every piece of content produced by the broadcaster. This showcased that a complex, multi‑system newsroom can deploy end‑to‑end provenance in weeks, not months, and do so without upending the workflows and habits of journalists racing toward a deadline.
In an era when audiences are primed to question every frame, the project offers a blueprint for media organisations everywhere: build trust into the tools you already use, surface it in a language editors can understand, and let the technology worry about the math under the hood.
CBC/Radio-Canada x OpenOrigins by the Numbers
The implementation of new workflows provided the following outcomes:
Verification workflow decreased from several minutes (manual approach) to under 30 seconds.
Chain of custody displayed for 100% of unique files.
Provenance and C2PA information made visible in <2 seconds.
Blockchain information made easily discoverable without the need for third-party lookups.
Capacity provided to secure thousands of media files daily.
The Challenge: Authenticity at Broadcast Scale
Today, audience trust has plummeted, with 85% of people reporting that they have become less likely to trust photos or videos online due to deepfakes [1]. The capacity for generative AI tools to create convincing visual fakes is bringing an end to "seeing is believing". Given this shift, it is essential that each image is instantly and irrefutably proven before it airs on television and online.
CBC/Radio-Canada serves 38 million Canadians with an archive of over 930,000 photographs, which grows by 40,000 new images per year.
"As public media, our fundamental commitment is to serve the public trust with accurate and reliable information,” says Tessa Sproule, CBC’s Director of Information and Metadata Management.
“In an age of sophisticated synthetic media, our proactive stance on content provenance is not just a technical initiative, it is a core pillar of our information integrity,” she adds. “Our journey has included a valuable proof-of-concept with OpenOrigins, demonstrating a compelling approach for other publishers to consider. By embracing standards like C2PA, we are asserting the authentic origins of our content and empowering audiences to help combat mis- and disinformation."
CBC/Radio-Canada’s first publication of an image with C2PA. Credit: Salimah Shivji/CBC
What the team lacked was a single, tamper‑proof way to:
Provide every media asset with a method to verify it in seconds within the DAM
Guarantee that trust survives every hand‑off during ingest into CBC’s DAM
Reliably and automatically sign every image with C2PA
CBC/Radio-Canada uses a DAM to organise its archive of still images. OpenOrigins provided a tamper-proof approach to retaining and protecting the provenance information that entered the DAM, which fit into existing workflows. Rather than requiring users to forensically track specific images using costly, time-intensive methods, editors could access the information they needed to clear images within seconds. Working with verified media elevates credibility and minimises the risk of losing viewer trust.
How OpenOrigins Closed the Gap - Provenance in Seconds
Blockchain anchoring on ingest: Each file was hashed and immutably logged, creating an indelible receipt that CBC/Radio-Canada can query in seconds.
Automated C2PA Signing: Every media asset entering CBC/Radio-Canada’s DAM was signed with a C2PA manifest. Should this manifest get stripped from the media file, it remains associated with OpenOrigins' digital fingerprint, improving the robustness of the manifest.
Zero‑friction integration: The trust layer lives inside the DAM’s UI, so librarians and editors never leave their usual workflow.
A Seamless Workflow - Trust Built In
To ensure there was no disruption of CBC/Radio-Canada’s existing workflows, OpenOrigins built an API directly into their DAM.
CBC/Radio-Canada’s DAM environment
Each time an image entered CBC/Radio-Canada’s system, the file was hashed and secured on OpenOrigins’ proprietary blockchain, whilst simultaneously being signed with C2PA - a growing standard for metadata associated with content trust.
CBC/Radio-Canada’s workflow with OpenOrigins
OpenOrigins’ provenance receipts appear in CBC/Radio-Canada’s DAM under metadata details
Why the OpenOrigins Blockchain Mattered
OpenOrigins’ blockchain is a lightweight, private ledger that provides immutable proof for every asset secured. As it is only necessary to store a cryptographic fingerprint of the media on the OpenOrigins blockchain, each file can be verified as authentic without the need to store and expose the original media file. This means that CBC/Radio-Canada's assets remain within their own environment. It is also impossible to recreate an image from the cryptographic fingerprint, and so the risk of unveiling the secured content is zero. This joint trial demonstrated how publishers can benefit from advanced content provenance without exfiltrating any data or incurring significant data transfer costs.
OpenOrigins’ core product architecture for securing historic and recorded content
“Growing up in Canada, CBC/Radio-Canada was a journalistic and trust standard. It’s amazing to know that they are spearheading the innovation and adoption of novel technologies. We are reaching a tipping point, where historic content will lose trust without a fossil record. It’s the goal of OpenOrigins to ensure we can enable our global news ecosystems to continue doing what they do best, telling our stories. If your newsroom wants to prove trust at this same pace and scale, we’d love to show you how.” - Ari Abelson, Co-Founder and Chief Strategic Officer, OpenOrigins.