TORONTO – CBC’s plan to cut jobs and original programming will create “a domino effect” that will not only compromise its ability to deliver on its mandate to reflect Canada to Canadians, but will impact the ability of Canadians to choose quality Canadian programming, according to the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC).
The organization predicted that the funding cuts, which at this point includes 175 hours of original programming, will trigger further revenue decline for the national broadcaster as it becomes more difficult to sell advertising with less original programming.
“Canadians want Canadian stories – on all platforms,” said executive director Maureen Parker,…
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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…
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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, 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…
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TORONTO – The CBC’s plan to generate revenue by adding advertising to its national radio networks CBC Radio 2 and Espace musique received a warm response by the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA). (The proposal has yet to receive CRTC approval.)
The industry organization, which has long advocated for advertising access to CBC/Radio-Canada, said Thursday that the move “allows government to be fiscally prudent while still advancing public policy goals”.
“Advertisers are seeking evermore narrowly-defined target audiences to promote their products and services”, said Bob Reaume, VP of policy and research, in a statement. “They require a depth and breadth of…
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GATINEAU – Profits of private conventional broadcasters have risen to pre-recession levels mainly due to cuts in overall program expenses says the CRTC in financial information it released Wednesday for the broadcast year ending August 31, 2011.
While revenues for private conventional television stations remained nearly frozen from 2010 to 2011 ($2.147 billion to $2.153 billion), broadcasters managed to cut 7.2% from their operating expenses, reducing them to $1.9 billion from $2.05 billion. The result is that operating profits rose from $11.5 million in 2010 to $160.6 million last year. Including contributions from the Local Programming…
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OTTAWA – The CBC will eliminate 650 jobs, including 475 this fiscal year, as it struggles to swallow the $115 million in budget cuts announced as part of last week’s federal budget.
President and CEO Hubert Lacroix told staff Wednesday afternoon that it will seek to increase self-generated revenues by adding advertising and sponsorship to its national radio networks CBC Radio 2 and Espace musique (assuming it can get CRTC approval on that), while CBC Radio One and Premiere Chaine will stay ad-free for now, leasing existing real estate, and by divesting of non-core assets, including digital specialty…
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RADIO IS NOT DEAD. Obituaries for the broadcast medium have been written and re-written over the past 10, 20, 30 and even 40 years and, yet, it lives on.
Oddly, for CBC, facing budget cuts that some say may slowly starve it, coupled with the cultural malaise peculiar to Canada that prompts us to doubt many things produced in our country, radio is the Corporation’s biggest success.
It’s the ratings leader in many Canadian markets (Jian Ghomeshi’s Q gets better ratings that the legendary Peter Gzowski did). It provides local leadership but with a national focus. When…
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OTTAWA – CBC/Radio-Canada is keeping a low profile as it digests the impact of a 10% cut to its budget announced as part of Thursday’s federal budget.
The government committed to slashing the public broadcaster’s annual parliamentary appropriation by $115 million over three years as part of the Deficit Reduction Action Plan.
“CBC/Radio-Canada will review its approach for dealing with this reduction in a way that doesn't overly compromise its strategy for the future, 2015: Everyone, Every way”, the Corp said in a brief statement. “The measures that CBC/Radio-Canada intends to take over the next three years will be set out…
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I READ WITH INTEREST your commentary concerning the dispute between the independent BDUs (CIDG) and Bell Media.
Like Kevin Crull, the CEO of Bell Media, I too have “walked on both sides of the fence” (as noted in his letter of March 28). I was the president of the Canadian Cable Television Association and the CEO of Star Choice, Bell ExpressVu’s principal competitor, now known as Shaw Direct. More recently, I was the head of English services at the CBC, which, like Bell Media, includes a big conventional network and a number…
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LAST FALL, AROUND THE TIME of the CBC’s 75th anniversary, Edmonton MP Brent Rathgeber suggested the broadcaster become more commercially self-reliant. It couldn’t fulfill its mandate if “few people are watching and listening,” in his estimation.
In January, OpenMedia.ca and Leadnow.ca, two citizen engagement groups, launched a campaign to re-imagine the CBC by crowd-sourcing ideas using an online discussion forum. Then, recently, The Toronto Star launched The Network, a site devoted to what’s wrong with the CBC and how to fix it.
The CBC, however, is already “fixing” what it believes needs to…
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