A recent report from the lobby group ‘Friends of Canadian Broadcasting’ exaggerates the amount of foreign programming on the CBC.

According to Ian Morrison, a spokesperson for the group, “A full 25% of CBC’s prime time schedule is now devoted to foreign, mostly American, programs.”

^{A graph showing the number of hours of Canadian content on CBC TV during the spring season.}

Morrison made that remark on June 30th as the organization released a report examining the amount of foreign programming on the CBC between Feb 21st and March 13th, 2009.

What the report didn’t say however, is that the amount of foreign programming on the CBC varies widely according to what’s on the schedule in any given week. Although it’s true that there was 25 per cent foreign content on the network during the weeks they studied, more half the time that percentage drops to about 18 per cent.

It all depends what’s movie is playing in the Sunday night movie slot. If it’s a foreign movie, running for two hours, then you get 25 per cent foreign content for that week. If it’s a Canadian movie, which more than half of them are, then the amount of foreign content drops to 18 per cent. (Click here to see the Spring 2009 schedule).

The report also says “Canadian content during prime time on CBC English TV has reached a 20-year low.” But it’s worth noting that the real low point for foreign programming on the CBC was reached in 1981, 28 years ago, when more than 40 per cent of the schedule was foreign (click here to see the 1981 schedule).

In the eighties the CBC schedule looked a lot like an American network with shows like M*A*S*H, WKRP, Three’s Company, Mork & Mindy and Happy Days filling almost half the slots.

By the mid-nineties, the CBC had reversed course and introduced an all-Canadian lineup, but the prime-time audience share suffered, which is why CBC executives made the decision to bring back some American shows into the lineup.

What do you think? Should the CBC go back to airing as much Canadian content as possible, or should it stick to its current approach of about 80 per cent Canadian content?

By: Paul Mcgrath
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Yahoo has decided to stop supporting the CBC’s online video content management system, known as Maven.

The California-based search and web services company made the decision to shelve Maven last week. The sudden move will force the CBC to find a new video software provider by year-end.

The CBC had entered into a relationship with Maven Networks prior to the later’s acquisition by Yahoo in 2008 for $160 million.

Now the CBC must scramble to switch several thousand videos to a new content provider and figure out a transition plan in next several months. Nevertheless, the move is being well received at the CBC, many of the producers that used the Maven product were unhappy with it.

What did you think of Maven?

By: Paul Mcgrath
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The face of CBC News, whether it be online, on radio or on television will be dramatically different this fall as the monumental task of renewing CBC News picks up steam.

In a note to staff today, Jennifer McGuire, the general manager and editor in chief of CBC News, outlined some of the changes that are underway at the news department. As McGuire explains the news operations of radio, television and online will start to merge into a single news-gathering hub, which will be divided into content units that serve the needs of the three different platforms.

The news-gathering hub “will be the engine that drives our newsgathering “as it happens” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” McGuire wrote.

She also outlined some major changes at Newsworld, including more immediacy and breaking news “but offering it up in a way that engages viewers and has authentic personality,” McGuire said.

McGuire also unveiled more details on the Newsworld schedule, including an expanded two-hour politics show from Ottawa, a new business show that starts at the market close, a prime-time two hour flagship news show, a documentary block airing seven days a week under the umbrella of the Passionate Eye, and finally more international coverage around the clock.

The changes at Newsworld will affect many of the producers working there. Previously Newsworld producers would usually be assigned to a single show, now they “will ideally be assigned to a story,” McGuire said “and will follow that story through all of its incarnations throughout the day.”

McGuire said the “task we have taken on is nothing short of monumental. It is complicated and time intensive,” but McGuire added that she hoped “to be ushering in a new era at CBC News.”

Do you work in the news department? What do you think of the changes at CBC News?

By: Paul Mcgrath
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The consensus that teenagers are abandoning television for the internet is not true.

This is to one of the findings from a new report by Nielsen. According to the study television viewing rates among teens in the U.S. have actually gone up 6 per cent in the last five years, despite the growth of social media networks and video sites like YouTube.

The finding call into question the general assumption that the internet is eroding television audiences and reducing the amount of time that people watch TV.

The full report is available here, and TechCrunch summarizes some of the key findings here.

By: Paul Mcgrath
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^{A shot from a user-generated video of the protest in Iran, dubbed the Neda video}

When you look at the blurry, shaky, low-resolutions videos that have dominated coverage of from Iran recently, you may be looking at the future of broadcast journalism.

“I’ve never seen anything to this extent - the Mumbai attacks had some, but not this amount, day after day,” Leigh Felesky, the senior producer for user-generated content at CBC News said today.

The lock-down on mainstream media in Iran, combined with vivid accounts captured by Iranian citizens, has propelled user-generated content to the forefront of many newscasts - and has blurred the line between professional and amateur coverage.

“It think it’s crossed over into that area where there’s no distinction anymore,” Felesky said. “It’s part of the everyday telling of the story, and it’s incorporated into the story-telling.”

In Iran, restrictions on traditional media have forced many broadcasters to turn to the internet for content. Producers are looking to Twitter and YouTube for updates on the story, while their reporters are stuck in hotel rooms; and that’s changed the role of journalists.

“We used to have to make a lot of phone calls… Now it comes to you,” Esther Enkin, Executive Editor at CBC News said.

According to Rachel Nixon, the new director of digital media at CBC News, journalists are increasingly “taking on the role of authenticators and verifiers.”

Although the situation in Iran is unique, the advent of user-generated news content creates opportunities across the board.

The reality is that no news organization is staffed to cover every story, in every location. But user-generated content “allows news organizations to get coverage from the scene, even when they don’t have their own reporter on the ground,” Nixon added.

The advent of citizen journalism also creates opportunities for professional journalists to build relationships with their audiences “by reflecting the world as they see it,” Nixon wrote in a email this afternoon.

“Our audiences are telling us that they want to participate,” Enkin said. The audience then “becomes partners on some levels,” she added “It’s not just a compelling images, it’s also a resource that we can use to tell the story.”

But as journalists rely more and more on user-generated content, there’s also risks. The content is hard to verify, the sources are often anonymous and when the material was shot is usually not clear. The New York Times highlighted this problem on their blog recently, when they pointed out that at least four videos appeared on MSNBC recently that were dated inacurately.

“We know we can’t verify this stuff,” Felesky said, and that creates a obligation for professional journalists. Felesky said that the online audience can provide a solution. She said users will often correct errors and can help in authenticating clips.

Nevertheless, especially with stories like the protests in Iran, where tons of material is being uploaded by motivated activists, there is obvious risk.

“The duty to ensure that we are not being manipulated is even greater than it was… but the upside is well worth the risk,” Enkin said.

By: Paul Mcgrath
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Despite a celebrity-studded lineup that included the Jonas Brothers and Lady Gaga, the ratings for the Much Music Video Awards weren’t very impressive.

As Bill Brioux explains on his blog, the awards averaged 219,000, around half of what TSN drew for the U.S. open at 423,000, and a quarter of what CBC got with a re-run of Happy Gilmore.

By: Paul Mcgrath
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The CBC’s falcon cam page have become immensely popular. This week the page passed a million hits. The page streams the current activities of a family of peregrine falcons in Winnipeg.

THURSDAY UPDATE: Looks like the banding operation may be underway. I saw a couple of safety lines near the nest this morning. Yesterday the site said the “banding of the three peregrine falcon chicks will happen Thursday morning (weather permitting).”

Today an update on the site reads “The banding of the three peregrine falcon chicks will happen at 11:00am Thursday morning (weather permitting).”

Since it launched on May 18th, the page has become one of the most popular at cbc.ca, averaging about 50,000 views a day. About a week after the page launched the falcons hatched three chicks.

By: Paul Mcgrath
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On the eve of his last day at the CBC, Don Newman is hosting a live chat today at noon Eastern Time.

Newman is widely respected for his parliamentary analysis and long-standing coverage of Parliament Hill. In 1989 he helped launched CBC Newsworld, since then he’s covered every political story and scandal under the sun. It’s rumoured that some Prime Ministers used to call him directly, sometimes when he was on the air, to tip him off about breaking stories.

You can submit your questions in advance, or log in and ask questions live during the Q & A session, by going here.

By: Paul Mcgrath
Categories: News & Journalism Parliament  |  Email This Post
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Richard Stursberg says the CBC is well on its way to transforming itself from a broadcaster to a content provider.

“We will be there on whatever platform you need us to be on,” Stursberg said at a Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto on Tuesday.

Strursberg highlighted a couple portable platforms that have become immensely popular with the public, the iPhone and iPod. The CBC served 787,000 podcasts in May, and the iPhone site clocked 920,000 page views.

He also said the web site has almost doubled its audience, from 2.23 million unique visitors five years ago, to 4.45 million uniques today.

Stursberg also tackled the cannibalization argument - the fear that offering too much content online will diminish a television audience.  He said the CBC was concerned that its heavy online offering for the Olympics would cannibalize its television coverage, but it never happened. Instead the reverse occurred; viewers found the online coverage complementary.

By: Paul Mcgrath
Categories: Technology The Media Landscape  |  Email This Post
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An internal memo released today says that a CBC employee in Iqaliut has contracted swine flu.

It is the first confirmed case amongst CBC employees, Michèle Parent, executive director, organizational health and wellness said “There are a few other suspected, but unconfirmed cases there too, and one possible case at the Toronto Broadcasting Centre.”

“All affected employees have been asked to call their family doctors to arrange for testing if required, and are to stay home, up until tests results are proven negative, or if they are positive, up until their doctor finds them well enough to get back to the office. Workspaces have also been disinfected. Even though everyone has to be sensitized on proper hand washing and respiratory hygiene, there is no cause for alarm,” he said.

The internal link to the full intranet article is here. Unfortunately it is only available with a CBC login.

By: Paul Mcgrath
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Yesterday, the Globe published an article by Guy Dixon about staff changes at CBC News arising from the news renewal process.

The article was mostly correct, but this one line stuck out:

Newsworld, which is one of the CBC’s few areas which attract advertising revenue, will be up for a licence renewal before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission next year.

What a strange thing to write. For the record CBC pulled in $329 million in advertising revenue in 2008, and I suspect most of that wasn’t attracted to Newsworld, that is unless that Lakota guy is forking over bags of cash.

By: Paul Mcgrath
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Daniel Schwartz, one of the founding members of CBC cycling group in Toronto, was hit by a car and seriously hurt while riding his bike last Wednesday.

Paddi-Anne Crossin is putting together a small package to send to Daniel, “to let him know that we’re thinking of him,” she said in an email. Contact Paddi-Anne for more information.

By: Paul Mcgrath
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It’s generally assumed that a viral video is a momentary diversion. It’s something that pops up out of the blue, entertains you for a few minutes and then disappears as quickly as it arrived. But what if you or your show is the source of that video? Can a video gone viral have a lasting impact? Well over at Q the answer to that question is yes.

It’s been over two months since Oscar winning actor and musician Billy Bob Thornton’s disastrous interview with Jian Ghomeshi. That’s two months for the senior team at Q to assess the impact the video has had on their online properties.

“In the first 24 hours our (YouTube) channel had over one-million views. It was the number one video in all of Canada and I saw it hit number three in all of YouTube, although it may have gone higher. In that first day we also had over 1,200 people subscribe to our channel going from 2204 to 3409. The numbers continued to be astronomical for four days until they dropped below 250,000 views a day,” wrote Ben Aylsworth, senior producer of Q on Bold TV in an email.

Arif Noorani, Q’s executive producer said that their website went from an average of 20,000 page views a week which is high for radio programs to 300,000 during the initial week. The Q audio podcast on iTunes we went from being ranked anywhere from 20th to 50th, to being in the top five of all podcasts for that week. The video podcast made it into the top ten.

But here’s the interesting part. While the numbers have dropped down since their initial spike. They have stayed higher than they were before the video went viral.

“All our numbers are higher than they were before the video and this is two months later. We have definitely expanded our core audience and broadened the number of loyal viewers/listeners…(our website) regularly ranks in the mid-30,000s. Q is often the top-ranked or second-ranked program site in radio,” wrote Noorani.

Aylsworth said that Q’s YouTube views are on average 50-75% higher than they were before the video.

So what steps did they take to capitalize on the video as it spread?

“We made sure that the video of the interview was up as soon as the show was over both on the CBC site as well as Q’s YouTube site. Q’s goal is to be cross platform and provide our content in as many places as possible. We also Twittered the link. We didn’t editorialize around the interview, just pointed people to it and let them judge for themselves,” wrote Noorani.

“I would also add here, immediately after the interview we discussed strategy for getting this material out there. We decided to contact all of the major global media outlets, including CBC, to see if they were interested in footage, embedding, linking, etc…,” wrote Aylsworth.

Jian also did interviews with other media outlets about the Billy Bob meltdown.

So the lesson here is that it’s not enough just to hope a viral video will work magic for your show’s numbers. Q was proactive. They encouraged the video to spread by featuring it prominently on their sites and they pushed out outward by making clips available to whoever wanted them.

If only every bad interview had such good consequences.

By: Nick McCabe Lokos
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With the CBC News renewal process well underway, I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the opening animations of The National over the years.

This one’s pretty wild, it’s from 1978 when Knowlton Nash was still anchoring the broadcast, the description says the announcer is Allan McFee, but I can’t vouch for that.

Seven years later and the look had changed dramatically. This is a bumper for CBUT Vancouver and the opening for The National from 1985. Reminds me of Tron.

Here is a 1992 opening in which both The National and the Journal share the headlines

This is from 1996, with a headline style, more full screen viz and longer voice-overs. Both The National and The Magazine share the headlines.

Then this a year later, from 1997, the voice-overs now much shorter with sound-ups, and animations frame the visuals.

By 2002, new animations, but the same headline format with short voice-overs and quick sound-ups.

The description says this is from 2003, this may be from Newsworld, I like the sense of momentum in this version - follow the dot.

Finally the current version, thanks to Ivan for the audio version.

Which is your favourite and why? Do you favour certain elements and not others?

By: Paul Mcgrath
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Current TV has been granted a channel license by the CRTC.

In Current TV will be joint venture between Al Gore’s Current TV channel and the CBC. According to the CRTC decision the CBC owns an 80 per cent interest of Current TV’s Canadian branch corporation.

Current TV is a hybrid television network and web site that airs both content submitted by users and professionally produced content. The web site ranks the online submissions. The most popular have the greatest chance of making it to air. To comply with the CRTC license, 35 per cent of the user-submitted content must be Canadian.

CBC now requires approval from the Treasury Board in order to proceed with launching the channel. This application is expected to take place in the fall.

The full details of the license decision are available here.

By: Paul Mcgrath
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