OTTAWA – Knowing CBC-TV chief Richard Stursberg will meet some of the national media (including cartt.ca) in Ottawa today at the CFTPA’s Prime Time gathering to talk about the Ceeb’s future plans, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and ACTRA released an hour-count it says shows CBC has "dropped the ball" on Canadian drama.
FOCB, a lobbying group, and ACTRA, the Canadian actors union, are still stinging from the announcement this week that the CBC has cancelled the critically praised, but low-rated This is Wonderland, The Tournament, and DaVinci City Hall. Both groups are still angry about the CBC lockout of 2005, too.
The groups say that between September 2003 and August 2005, CTV presented 219 prime time (7 to 11 p.m.) hours of Canadian dramatic series compared to only 122 hours during the same period by CBC. The data were assembled by Canadian Media Research Inc.
"These numbers should embarrass CBC’s management who appear to be ignoring CBC’s mandate to showcase Canadian programs, especially in the powerful drama genre" said Ian Morrison, spokesperson for FOCB, in the press release.
In the same release praising a private broadcaster, Stephen Waddell, ACTRA’s executive director then said, "CBC management has joined private broadcasters in a race to the bottom in terms of Canadian TV drama. The CBC must be given the resources it needs to fill its mandate and raise the bar on Canadian content. The CRTC must then hold the private broadcasters to meet those raised standards by imposing minimum Canadian content and expenditure requirements."
"For the CBC to cancel three series that it admits were ‘terrific’ is disingenuous. The CBC is mandated to produce, promote and schedule programming that is ‘predominantly and distinctively Canadian’ – not to compete with private broadcasters for ratings on imported U.S. programming," said Waddell.
"Following the CBC’s calculated decision to lock out more than 5,000 of its employees last summer and to fill its schedule with Hollywood blockbusters during the NHL lockout, Friends is renewing its call to end patronage appointments to the CBC Board. We are calling on Prime Minister Harper to relinquish the government’s power to appoint the CBC president and members of the board. CBC management is unaccountable for their poor performance because of Prime Ministerial patronage," Morrison said.
"Too often, appointments to Canada’s most important cultural institutions have been made on the basis of partisan considerations, rather than merit and ability. This must change," he continued.
CBC’s current president, Robert Rabinovitch, was first appointed by Prime Minister Chrétien and re-appointed by Prime Minister Martin.
"Canadians perceive CBC to be the leader in presenting Canadian content. At this rate, president Rabinovitch’s legacy will be to drive this hard earned reputation into the ground," Morrison added.
However, the release was written and released not knowing what the CBC has planned to replace the cancelled shows, which will come out later on today.
Surf back to cartt.ca for more as this develops.
