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
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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)