LOSING THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE rights (and revenues) will move from the realm of “what if” to real, tangible cuts which will be felt directly by many CBC staffers today (Thursday) when senior management hosts a series of town hall meetings to address the Corporation’s future.
We don’t know what, exactly, will happen but given the massive revenue hit the broadcaster will take next season – when it will still air games, but earn no revenue from hockey at all, while still being on the hook for Saturday night’s game productions – not to mention the very soft ad market in the first quarter of the calendar year and the phased in cuts to its Parliamentary appropriation, today’s restructuring announcement is predicted to be significant.
That said, re-reading our report on what CEO Hubert Lacoix told the Canadian Senate just last month makes us think his town hall will be about more than job cuts and outline a brand new, "Beyond 2015" vision and/or mandate.
The Corporation, whose fiscal year ended March 31st, is facing a serious, immediate, shortfall, which will be reflected by the actions to be announced when Lacroix addresses employees at 12:30 today. He will host a two press conferences with the media beginning at 3 p.m., as well.
Losing the NHL rights to Rogers will cost the CBC at least $100 million directly in lost ad revenue – but further, it will dramatically impact its ability to sell ad spots in its other prime time programming going forward. Canadian ad agencies make the CBC a priority in their mix of buys largely because of Hockey Night In Canada, far less so because of Dragon’s Den, Rick Mercer Report, Mr. D and the rest of its prime time schedule.
Anectdotally, all Canadian TV and radio broadcasters have also been talking this winter (and now spring) about how dreadfully soft the ad market has been since Christmas – and we will likely start to see the results of that as the major private broadcasters like Bell, Rogers and Shaw report their quarterly results (beginning with Shaw’s, also today).
As for the CBC’s government funding, the 2012 federal budget cut the pubcaster’s budget by $115 million, phased in over three years, meaning that funding has fallen below the $1 billion mark.
The sales force and the sports department are expected to be particularly hard hit in Thursday’s announcements. This will be the third major round of job losses at the CBC in the last five years. About 800 positions were eliminated in 2009 and 650 in 2012.
We’ll bring you what we can as we find out what happens Thursday afternoon.
