CBC/Radio Canada outlines strategy for the future

CBC/Radio-Canada yesterday outlined its strategy for the future. Over the next five years, CBC/Radio-Canada will strengthen its commitment to original, innovative, high-quality Canadian content. It will also commit to airing at least 10 signature events per year in English and in French.

CBC will be looking to expand its regional footprint, launching new radio stations, introducing new local websites and services, and increasing regional news and programming. Radio-Canada will enhance its presence in regional life by producing engaging local programming that can then be used for broadcast nationally, by delivering more local and regional news, and by providing more local French-language content on regional websites, especially those outside of Quebec.

And, in an evolving digital and on-demand world, CBC/Radio-Canada will continue its leadership in new platforms and digital services, doubling its investment over the next five years. To evaluate progress, CBC/Radio-Canada has developed metrics to track and assess its performance by service and genre against the strategy twice a year.

(Source: CBC/Radio-Canada/R Netherlands Media Network)

CBC makes drastic cuts

CBC cuts hit news, drama, sports, radio

Last Updated: Thursday, March 26, 2009 3:19 PM ET
CBC News

CBC English Services plans to cut up to 80 positions from its news division and a further 313 from sports, entertainment, current affairs, sales and support across the country as part of its efforts to make up a $171-million shortfall in 2009-10.

Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of CBC's English Services, announced details of the cutbacks to radio and TV in a speech to employees on Thursday. The details came a day after CBC president and chief executive Hubert Lacroix announced the public broadcaster would have to cut about 800 full-time positions in total at the CBC/Radio-Canada, as well as selling about $125 million in assets.

The cuts to programming at CBC English Services will mean fewer episodes of many prime-time television shows and cuts to entire programs on both Radio One and Radio 2, Stursberg said.

Changes coming to Radio One and 2

Changes on Radio One include:

* Cancellations of The Inside Track, Outfront and The Point.
* Reduction of regional noon-hour programs to one hour.
* Reductions in drama.

Changes on Radio 2 include:

* Cancellations of In the Key of Charles and the weekend edition of The Signal.
* Reductions in live music production and recordings.
* More consolidations with Radio 3.

On CBC-TV, investigative programs such as The Fifth Estate and Marketplace will have reduced budgets, though it's not yet known whether that will mean fewer episodes.

Canadians can also expect to see more repeats of many prime-time programs, with shorter seasons ordered for ones including:

* The Border.
* This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
* Being Erica.
* Little Mosque on the Prairie.

The CBC will also reduce spending on new children's programming and cancel the Living programs produced in each region.

In CBC Sports, there will be reductions or cutbacks in coverage of:

* International figure skating.
* CONCACAF Champions League soccer.
* World aquatics.
* World athletics.
* Skiing.

The CBC will also drop its Blue Jays baseball telecasts.

CBC Radio loses 121 jobs

About $14.4 million must come out of radio, leading to a reduction of 121 jobs, including 20 in Toronto.

There will also be job losses in the Ontario cities of Windsor, Thunder Bay and Sudbury, in Quebec City, in the New Brunswick cities of Moncton and Saint John, in Sydney, N.S., and in Corner Brook, Gander and Grand Falls in Newfoundland and Labrador. There will be budget reductions at CBC North. (Perhaps an excuse to do away with CBC NQSWS?-FW)

One-person bureaus in La Ronge, Sask., and Thompson, Man., will be closed.

About 109 positions will come out of television entertainment, including the previously announced cancellations of Fashion File and the placing of Steven & Chris on hiatus. A further three jobs will be cut from CBC-TV Sports.

A total of $7 million must be cut from the news division, including 80 jobs in radio news, current affairs and TV current affairs.

The number of people who lose their jobs could be reduced if a number of employees opt for a retirement package to be announced in April.

Stursberg also said there would be further details released about cuts in news on April 16.

He called the cuts "painful" and said he was worried about the future of news, TV drama and children's programming. He noted that the cuts in drama will also have an impact on dozens of independent producers and their employees.

"We want to maintain as much as we can and stay on strategy as much as possible as we make these cuts," Stursberg said.

He emphasized that radio morning and afternoon drive shows have been spared and radio remains ad-free. On television, the CBC will keep 80-per-cent Canadian content in prime time and increase it during the day, with shows such as Martha Stewart and The Simpsons expected to be cancelled.
Cuts needed despite high ratings

He said the CBC tried to make cuts that would maintain the strong position it has now with high ratings in radio and television.

"The irony is, we are in financial difficulty when we're doing better than we've ever done before," he said. More than 20 million Canadians tune in to CBC Radio, CBC-TV and CBC.ca every week, he said.

Stursberg said he didn't know whether further cuts would be necessary, perhaps a year from now.

Ad revenue by all conventional broadcasters has been falling and private broadcasters, like the CBC, have experienced a steep decline in revenue.

"It depends in very large measure on what happens to earnings. If ad markets recover, we will be in much better shape," Stursberg said.

"We can't really see where the bottom is. No one has any sense of when the economy is going to come back."

At a speech in Montreal on Thursday, Lacroix warned there would be deeper cuts if the CBC is unable to sell off assets.

He announced on Wednesday that the CBC was hoping to sell $125 million in assets — but those sales must be approved by the federal government.

Lacroix criticized the Conservatives for leaving the CBC in limbo over its budgetary allocation for 2009-10, saying the government has not yet let the CBC know whether it approved the special $60 million for programming it has received since 2001. The CBC's new fiscal year begins in five days.
Supper hour newscasts cut in Quebec

Lacroix said no part of Radio-Canada will be untouched by the cuts.

Among the large cuts on the French side are the elimination of noon hour news shows in Quebec City, Ottawa, Moncton and Sherbrooke and reduction of the supper hour newscasts in those markets to half an hour from an hour.

The programs Vous êtes Ici and Macadam tribus have also been cancelled.

Lacroix also announced Radio Canada International will eliminate its Ukrainian and Cantonese services.

President of the Canadian Media Guild's CBC branch Marc-Philippe Laurin said employees face a hard six months.

"It's sad that we've come to expect layoffs as a way of life at CBC," he said in memo to CMG members, saying these decisions "cut to the very heart of what we do and who we are."

"It is also very disappointing that the Conservative government has let this happen at a time when our members and the public broadcaster are doing better than ever in every market across the country in providing valuable and informative programming to Canadians," he added.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2009/03/26/cbc-layoffs.html
(Fred Waterer/ODXA)

Looming cuts would shake CBC to its core

Chief sees cash crisis bringing asset sell-offs and more U.S. programs
Feb 27, 2009 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (122)
Greg Quill
ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

The CBC is facing major cost-saving measures "that would change the very nature of our service to Canadians" as it copes with its deepening financial crisis, the national broadcaster's president said yesterday.

More ads, more American programming, selling or downgrading parts of its TV/radio services and consolidating local stations are all on the table, Hubert Lacroix said, admitting the measures would alter what Canadians are accustomed to seeing and hearing on the CBC's networks.

"Nonetheless, these are some of the scenarios we are analyzing as we finalize our plans for our next fiscal year, which starts on April 1," Lacroix told a business-group luncheon in Toronto.

A CBC spokesperson said after the speech that changes could mean anything from unloading Radio 3 to putting a website up for sale.

Lacroix's scenarios would jeopardize the CBC's mandate of defining Canada to Canadians and are unlikely to produce more advertising, critics say.

It "could lead to the end of the CBC," Steve Waddell, chief of the actors' union ACTRA, told the Star.

Lacroix has requested a meeting with Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper to explain CBC management's options. He has already met with Heritage Minister James Moore, and has another meeting scheduled next week.

His speech to broadcast industry executives and senior CBC staffers at the Empire Club of Canada yesterday follows revelations this week that the CBC, like other media organizations, is facing a budget shortfall this fiscal year because of a severe drop in advertising revenue.

CBC insiders fear 600 or 700 layoffs in the coming year, and full-scale commercialization of English-language radio, which would bring an estimated $95 million in additional revenue.

CBC will ask the federal government to authorize either a line of credit, to be repaid over a set period, or an advance on CBC's annual $1 billion annual appropriation to pay downsizing costs in 2009-2010, Lacroix confirmed yesterday.

As a Crown corporation, the CBC has no access to private-sector financing.

Referring to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's recent assessment that the CBC already has "substantial financing" from the government, Lacroix said: "It's not about a handout. We are not begging for more money, or new money.

"We are trying to manage ourselves out of the current economic mess. To do that, we need the co-operation of government."

The cost-cutting options he outlined yesterday "would cost the government no more dollars than those they would normally invest in CBC-Radio Canada."

Lacroix did not say how much the CBC wants to borrow or detail what downsizing measures management is considering.

A dramatic media-wide advertising slump, combined with the global economic recession, has ravaged the Canadian broadcasting industry. Private television networks have made substantial layoffs. CTV eliminated 105 jobs in November, while rival Canwest cut 560 in the same month, including 210 at its broadcasting divisions.

The CBC, with 100 per cent Canadian prime-time content, is facing a $65 million – or 7 per cent – shortfall in advertising revenue this year, despite increases in audience shares for both English and French TV services.

"More American programs on CBC-TV and commercials on CBC Radio won't help to define it as Canada's national public broadcaster," ACTRA's Waddell told the Star.

"If the changes Mr. Lacroix envisages are made, there'll be no distinction between public and private broadcasting operations in this country. His scenario could lead to the end of the CBC. He's going down the wrong road."

Ian Morrison, spokesperson for the broadcast industry watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, said he doubts Canadian taxpayers would be willing to pay for a public broadcaster that carries American TV shows and commercialized radio.

The Canadian Film and Television Production Association, which represents 400 Canadian film, television and interactive media companies, has a strong partnership with the CBC and is committed to long-term stable funding of the public broadcaster, national executive vice-president John Barrack said.

"We don't want to see the CBC undermined or torn down in haste. More American programming won't help Canada's public broadcaster. We look to all parties to support stable funding for the CBC."

Lise Lareau, president of the Canadian Media Guild, said the economy has left Lacroix with little wiggle room. "I really hate to see the nation's public broadcaster ... being affected by partisan politics at a time where Canada needs both solid information, and information from communities across the country, and jobs in communities across the country."

With files from The Canadian Press

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/593930
(Fred Waterer/ODXA)

CBC/Radio Canada calls for action

In his first appearance before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage as President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, Hubert T Lacroix yesterday pressed the need for the Federal Government to implement the Committee’s report CBC/Radio-Canada: Defining Distinctiveness in the Changing Media Landscape.
“The report highlights the importance of public broadcasting in Canada, and the belief, that I strongly share, that CBC/Radio-Canada should continue to play a pivotal role in the social, cultural, and democratic life of this country,” Lacroix said in his opening remarks to the Committee.
Lacroix, along with Sylvain Lafrance and Richard Stursberg, the Executive Vice-Presidents of French and English Services, respectively, appeared before the Committee to address their recent review of the broadcaster’s mandate, discuss some of their priorities, and reiterate the call for a seven-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Canadians that would define CBC/Radio-Canada’s role in the evolving media landscape.
Lacroix stressed the urgency and importance of developing an MOU with Canadians, calling it an imperative tool to ensure the national public broadcaster remains relevant in a modern broadcasting environment. In particular, with licence renewals beginning in 2009, having an MOU in place is in the interest of good governance and efficient planning for all the services CBC/Radio-Canada offers to Canadians.
“This document would clarify for all Canadians the services we will provide and the resources necessary to do it,” Lacroix said. “And that, in turn, would enable CBC/Radio-Canada to evolve as a critical cultural institution in this country - according to the needs and objectives identified for it by Government and Parliament.”
The President and CEO called the Committee’s report a blueprint for action, saying the broadcaster is ready to work with the Government to immediately begin developing the memorandum, and is looking forward to the Government’s response to the report in June.
(Source: CBC/Radio-Canada/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

CBC's Sounds Like Canada to be silenced after summer

CBC Radio says its weekday morning show, Sounds Like Canada, will end its six-year run at the end of the summer.

The Radio One show's cancellation follows the decision by host Shelagh Rogers to leave her position on May 30.
More details at: CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2008/03/13/soundslikecanada-cancellation.html
(Source: Fred Waterer/ODXA)

Canada's CBC podcasts now available

Canada's domextic service has done a particularly good job of using podcasts to make archival content available - CBC podcats offer weekly installments of programming that won awards in years past, as well as programming that listeners have asked to hear again. For addition information, consult: http://cbc.ca/ podcasting for examples.

Ireland's RTE Radio 1, also offers archived programming via a podcast. The BBC's various radio services, including domestic Radio 4 and BBC World Service, have increased the number of programs offered via podcast in 2007.
(Source: Easy Listening, R. Cuff/ NASWA Journal Jan. 2008)