TORONTO – In a "state of the CBC" memo to staff sent out Tuesday, EVP English television Richard Stursberg outlined his burgeoning vision for CBC, as media changes all around it.
After a "transition year" of 2006, he predicted further upheaval and that ad revenue will remain soft throughout 2007, as "audiences to continue to fragment," but also said the Corp. must take advantage of that fragmentation as much as possible.
"We need increasingly to understand that we are a content company, no longer just a television or radio company," wrote Stursberg.
"To that end, we are building a multi-platform strategy that focuses on two key areas: Programming (content) and ‘functionality’ – i.e., the technical requirements that will allow us to offer Canadians an enriched, on-demand and interactive relationship with the CBC. On the content side, we are channeling our efforts into three areas: News, Entertainment and Sports. On the technical side, we want to move to a 2.0 environment, providing our audiences with the ability to comment on items, rate them, and link to them from their blog or website, to subscribe to specific types of content, to search for specific video content, and to submit user-generated content.
"We are in a unique position to exploit audiences’ interest in and shift to new platforms because, unlike the private broadcasters whose content is primarily foreign, almost all of ours is domestic. This means we can potentially ‘make the market’ in Canada for Canadian offerings," he said.
"Over the coming months, we will refine our strategy and then present it to the Board of Directors. We hope to be able to share the details with you some time this spring."
In the meantime, while there have been many negatives, CBC TV has seen its share of successes, too, despite claims from the nation’s newspaper columnist demographic, noted Stursberg.
We still have work to do, but we are by no means ‘beleaguered’, as some of the country’s television columnists – many of whom work, ultimately, for companies that have a commercial interest in our success or failure – would have people believe," he wrote. "Our prime time share for the regular season to date is 7.3%. Our share for the ’05-’06 regular season was 7.3%. In ’04-’05 it was 6.7%; in ’03-’04 it was 7.3%; and in ’02-’03 it was 6.9%."
Shows like the Rick Mercer Report, The Hour, 22 Minutes, The National, and Little Mosque on the Prairie are ongoing success stories, said Stursberg.
The Corp. will continue to shift towards series-based programs, which are easier to promote than a two-episode drama, for example. Next up for CBC is a new series which is part of the broadcaster’s "Page to Stage" program with The Englishman’s Boy, based on Guy Vanderhaeghe’s celebrated novel.
"We are in the process of developing more programs that reflect our new strategy, which is to focus on more series-based programs that appeal to a broader range and number of Canadians," said Stursberg. "Series-based programs provide greater opportunity for promotion and, in turn, to build audiences. For instance, I believe that Dragon Boys – the exceptional, critically acclaimed two-part series – did not attract the audience it should have precisely because it was only a two-part series, making it difficult to promote, and difficult to build an audience around."
News is also changing. "Last November we – Jane Chalmers, Tony Burman and I – outlined a vision for the evolution of CBC News that reflects our new approach to content," wrote Stursberg. "We want to build a fully integrated news service that is deeply local, that embraces the principles of civic journalism and that provides Canadians with the news and information that they want via whatever medium they choose.
"We’re launching the initiative in Vancouver, where we can test our new approach, learn from it, and then roll it out across the country. While Canadians are increasingly looking for news and information on new platforms, we know that television remains a critical element of our service to Canadians. To that end, reinvigorating our local supper hour newscasts will be an integral part of our efforts."
– Greg O’Brien
