THE OVERFLOWING TOILET THAT was the endless stream of negative commentary last week on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was more than a little unseemly and ultimately, absolutely confusing to the average Canadian.
A letter to the editor last Thursday from Gerry Nicholls, vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, in just 107 words, perfectly illustrated the paradoxical critical firestorm of the last seven days when he criticized the Corp. both for trying a show that might produce big ratings and for producing shows "nobody wants to watch," he wrote.
Talk about sucking a blowing at the same time. His solution was to privatize the CBC. One supposes that if this were to happen, Mr. Nicholls would be okay with the CBC going after ratings.
In his column this Saturday, Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson sniffily looked down his nose at the CBC’s recent shift to try "new (read lowbrow) programs… So, just when you think English-language television can’t get dumber – that is, more like the private networks – it does," reads his piece, which is stunning in its pomposity.
Popular TV programming, according to Mr. Simpson, is watched by uncultured dumbasses, apparently. None of his readers, one assumes, watches Canadian Idol or What Not to Wear or CSI so he’s free and clear to smugly deride all those who enjoy entertaining television. This is the typical old fart newspaper columnist response to all popular TV, by the way, where they place themselves far above we lowbrows who like World’s Scariest Police Chases.
Indeed, his readers just have to watch TVO’s Studio Two, he said – a very traditional talking head show if there ever was one. According to Simpson, it’s "the best public affairs program on English-language television." That may be, but it’s a little dull and not well-watched, even if its audience is probably pretty loyal. Simpson also didn’t mention the fact he often appears on the show.
The National Post’s political columnist Don Martin’s piece on the subject last Thursday at least refrained from Simpson’s snobbish approach but he displayed, as generalized columnists often do (they write about agricultural subsidies one day, the Edmonton Oilers the next and TV the day after that), a bit of ignorance of the TV industry in general when he wrote: "The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has become a uniquely confused hybrid adrift inside a fluctuating television mandate with no idea which way to channel itself."
Hmm. To say the CBC is alone in its confusion among today’s media players is simply false. I know folks at CTV, Alliance Atlantis and Corus who are confused about the direction of the industry and the mandate of their own jobs, which shift weekly sometimes.
At the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas in April, I heard the chief executive of ABC say she doesn’t know where the industry is headed, so the company is experimenting. The technology heads at HBO and NBC Universal said similar things.
Should the CBC not experiment? Is it supposed to have some kind of deeper insight than those piloting some of the world’s largest media companies?
Not a chance.
(And, for that matter, will our Commission be able to tell the Heritage Minister where the future of broadcasting lies before this Christmas, as Bev Oda has asked, when the likes of ABC aren’t sure? Not bloody likely.)
Now, I’ll grant that the CBC’s decision to bump The National once a week this summer to do a sim-sub of American reality show The One doesn’t exactly display a lot of out-of-the-box thinking. It’s the oldest trick in the Canadian TV broadcasting book when it comes to producing revenue. But, it’s part of the price the Ceeb had to pay to get the rights to make a Canadian version of the show.
Now, let’s suppose they do a good job on The Canadian One, or whatever it gets called (and with former Citytv executive producer Moses Znaimer on board, I’d bet on it being a good program), and it becomes a ratings bonanza, drawing millions of young Canadians to the CBC, who will watch promos for all of the Corp’s other programming and perhaps be interested in something else, too.
Plus, that new content – aimed at a young demographic – can be multi-purposed across all platforms, rebuilding the CBC’s brand, and potentially even some cachet, among younger Canadians.
Doesn’t that sound like it could be a good thing? (And set aside the public broadcaster vs. commercial revenue debate for now. That’ll be a different column.)
Imagine if Peter Mansbridge had a ratings lead-in like Lloyd Robertson does with the various CSI’s and CTV’s other mega-popular programming. The National might emerge from its third-place ranking behind CTV and Global National.
What would we all say if The National’s viewership actually rose by running after The One?
Because don’t forget, we may all talk a good game about interactive television and on demand viewing and time shifting and wireless viewing, but the fact is that TV is still traditional TV for the vast majority of viewers. And a good program, wherever and whenever it’s on, will get found and watched – even in real time, with all the ads around it.
Even if it’s on the CBC.
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