TORONTO – While staff at CBC’s English division found out today that CBC News Network’s Connect and CBC Radio’s Dispatches are being cancelled, along with a few other specifics detailed below, it is not known yet what other entertainment or sports programming is going to face the axe – although that information won’t be long coming.
What the employees heard today is that of the 650 positions being eliminated at CBC/Radio-Canada which were announced last week, 473 will happen prior to the end of July this year (215 from the English side, 153 from the French side and 105 from CBC corporate). Most redundancy notices will be delivered by the end of April. CBC employees can take advantage of employment assistance for up to six months after their departure.
While the federal government cut $115 million from the broadcaster’s appropriation, as we and everyone else has reported, the Corp has calculated the true cost of that to be in the $200 million range, after factoring in severance for the employees who will be let go and hits to revenue that are sure to follow when programming is cancelled.
English Services’ share of the cuts is $86 million, which will be borne across the board, said EVP of English Services, Kirstine Stewart, in an interview Tuesday with Cartt.ca. On the programming side, 111 will be let go from news and centres, 32 from TV programming and 18 in Radio.
Stewart said CBC executives had plans prepared for a 5% cut in its budget and a 10% cut and is deploying that worst-case scenario plan. However, with high ratings on both the radio and TV side and excellent online viewing, Stewart said the budget reduction couldn’t have come at a worse time. “We were at a place where things were going pretty well,” she said.
Besides the cancellation of live daily talk show Connect with Mark Kelley and Sunday night radio documentary hour Dispatches, CBC’s news division will also reduce documentaries, cancel Maritime programs Close to Home, Connections, At the Table and All the Best and international bureaus in Africa and South America will be closed. The National will also face cuts as well and newsgathering will see capacity reduced when it comes to the assignment desk, content units and the Parliamentary Bureau.
There will be more spent, however, on western regional programming, on the London and Washington bureaus on local service extensions (which will be delayed) and for high impact projects.
CBC Radio will reduce the number of live music recordings and drop its drama programming.
The big hit is coming on the entertainment and sports programming side. Over the next three years, the Corp will show 175 fewer original hours, which means six fewer series overall (to come in cancellations of existing shows which will be announced in the coming week and a decrease in the purchase of new shows). Viewers will then see more repeats in prime time and see fewer specials, too. CBC execs noted to staff that these cuts will ripple beyond the Corp as one cancelled hour long drama leads to the loss of 200 more jobs from the companies who produce the programming.
“It will mean we will have to cancel some shows that we would have liked to have kept around if we weren’t being faced with this cut,” added Stewart. As well, kids programming will be cut to four hours per week and as announced previously, digital specialty channel Bold will be sold (CBC execs hope the channel will bring in something near to the $10 million Travel + Escape was sold for in 2010).
CBC Sports will take a $4 million hit with the elimination of 14 positions as Sports Weekend will now focus exclusively on winter amateur sports (what the Corp is calling its “Ice and Snow” strategy) and will be seen rarely in the summer.
Stewart said the full announcement of just what is being eliminated has net yet been announced as there is a lot to sort through in terms of regional commitments, contracts signed and other Canada Media Fund commitments already made.
On the production side, new technology and the shuttering of 620 transmitters will help wring new efficiencies from the organization through workflow and work process improvements. The technical and production side faces a $12 million cut which will affect 82 positions.
“None of this is happy news,” reiterated Stewart.
