Craig Norris from CBC Radio 3 notes on the Radio 3 blog that much hoopla has been made of CBC Television’s decision to simulcast the American version of The One, an American Idol knock-off, throughout the summer.
”Yes, everyone’s pissed off. We’re all missing a much more serious topic, though; Who will host the damned thing?”
Good point. Will Ralph Benmergui be back? I think Adrienne Clarkson’s probably looking for a gig. Maybe we can coax Ben Mulroney over to our side with promises of, uh, free stickers. Oh, and a free coffee mug! I can’t imagine that would happen. Then again, stranger things have happened.
Anyway, on Craig’s Radio 3 show tomorrow at midnight (it airs on CBC Radio Two — don’t ask), he’ll explore some options for the CBC.
So, who do you think should host The Canadian One? Add your comment to CBC Radio 3’s blog.
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| CBC Television | Posted at 3:21 pm (30 Jun 2006) |
One of the CBC’s best-kept secrets (until now) is that our technology group puts out an outstanding semi-annual broadcast-technologies journal. Warning: It is highly, highly geeky.
It covers everything from computer security, remote production at the winter Olympics, new compression paradigms (only true geeks refer to compression technologies as “paradigms”), new delivery platforms and transmission.
Here are the articles (each one is a PDF):
IT Security - Basic Insurance to Protect our Business
- JPEG 2000 The New Contender in Content Production and Transport
- Inclusion of Foreign Bureaus in the CBC/Radio-Canada Wide-Area Network
- Cost Saving and Production Enhancements for the 2006 Winter Olympics
- Computer Security: A Broadcaster’s Challenge
- First Canadian Encounter with the New Radio Transmission Technology
- Aspect Ratio Terminology: Bilingual Glossary
- What is DMB?
Source: It popped up on the CBC/Radio-Canada Corporate News RSS Feed.
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| The Outside | Posted at 1:44 pm (30 Jun 2006) |
Canadian Press reports [see Macleans coverage] that Canadians are fairly divided in their preference for CTV or CBC national news. The Decima poll says 40% favour and 38% prefer CBC.
But the poll found that among those who said they watch The National, 57% would be less likely to watch it if the program were moved permanently to 11 p.m. Only 14% said they would be more likely.
CTV has been successful in building its national news audience partly with popular lead-in programs, Decima said.
Truth is, I switch between the two. It has nothing to do with the quality of reporting; it has everything to do with the time-slot. (I’ve got a PVR so I don’t ever need to be “led in” to news.) If I happen to be ready for news at 10, I watch Peter. If I’m around at 11, I’ll watch Lloyd.
If the CBC were to move Peter to 11, then I’d have to make a real decision. Which, as a Canadian, makes me somewhat uncomfortable.
My source: Found it in one of my usual Google News searches.
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| CBC Television, The National | Posted at 10:48 am (30 Jun 2006) |
CBC Television vice-president Richard Stursberg gave an interview to Report On Business Television recently about the CBC’s business model. It’s actually quite an interesting discussion. Nice to see a longer-form Q&A about the issues at hand. Usually these things get reduced to a quote or two in a newspaper.
My source: CBC Communications told me the interview happened and I tracked down the audio and made it an MP3 file.
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| Executives, Our Mandate, Programming | Posted at 10:25 am (30 Jun 2006) |
Wha?! An official CBC blog? Yes indeed.
I recommend you read the About This Blog section, or just feel free to peruse some of the stories here (I’ve been putting content into here for the last few weeks, just to test the system out.) Anyway, welcome, and I look forward to your participation.
So, let’s start. What do you think — is this a good idea for the CBC to be doing? What kinds of things do you think should be blogged about?
Reaction so far:
- Gillianic Tendancies: “The CBC just got a little more awesome.”
- PopJournalism.ca: “Management have launched a new CBC blog which gives audiences a behind-the-scenes peek at ongoing operations and an opportunity for the audience to respond…. [It] isn’t a management love-in as you would assume it to be.”
- Kate: “I find this quite fascinating. Really, a blog for CBC employees that’s open to the public? I love the blog, but I find the positioning a little strange. Why not just say it’s an inside look at the CBC, full stop?”
- Antonia Zerbisias, Toronto Star: “It’s a good site, with entries critical of CBC too. Check it out.”
- “Ouimet” the mystery management blogger: “Keep in mind that [this blog is] the idea of the Ottawa Corporate Communications Department, architects of Rabinovitch’s disastrous “silence is golden” media campaign of the 2005 lockout. To go from that to this signifies a radical rethink.”
- Peter Janes: “The CBC’s new WordPress-powered official weblog. Neat. There’s also a status blog.”
- Flick: “I don’t care. Come back here and scratch me again.”
- PodcastLounge.ca: “Who says the CBC isn’t agile?… This could be a new age of influence for the CBC; a chance to be heard by, and hear (hopefully to listen to), the community at large.”
- CBC Radio 3: “Tod was a pitbull on the pantleg of CBC during the lockout, and I don’t really expect this to change, which is a good thing for CBC as an institution. Hey, it never hurts to have a devil’s advocate, right? So if you find watching the drama of CBC as interesting as watching the actual programming, this is the blog for you.”
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| About This Blog | Posted at 9:12 am (30 Jun 2006) |
The CRTC has just released its annual Broadcasting Monitoring Report in which it presents recent results for the Canadian broadcasting industry. Highlights:
Radio
English-language services, 275 are French-language services and 35 are
third-language services. Over the course of 2005, the CRTC approved 44 new
AM and FM stations.
week, which is about the same as in 2004, when average listening time was
19.5 hours.
2005, coming in at $1.3 billion, while profits increased by 24% to $277 million.
Television
English-language services, 106 are French-language services, and 86 are
third-language services. As well, the number of Canadian and non-Canadian
third-language television services has increased in the past year from 53
to 86.
hours while in 2003-2004, viewership was 24.7 hours.
audience in 2005, compared with 78.4% in 2004 and 76% in 2003.
television. For English-language Canadian television services,
Canadian dramas and comedies capture, on average, 23% of audiences for
this type of programming. This breaks down to 10% for private conventional
services, 35% for CBC conventional services, and 31% for pay and specialty
services. As for French-language television, Canadian dramas and comedies
capture an average of 35% of audiences for such programming. This breaks
down to 26% for private conventional stations, 58% for SRC conventional
stations, and 34% for pay and specialty services.
New media
74% between 2004 and 2005.
2004.
Blackberry, 7% used digital assistants, 12% an MP3 player, 4% iPod and 8%
a Web camera.
watching television, 3% for taking pictures or making videos, 7% to obtain
news or weather, and 4% to get sports scores.
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| The CRTC | Posted at 9:07 am (30 Jun 2006) |
The CBC’s Jane Angel has been promoted to manage the business and rights matters for the documentary and new factual-entertainment unit of CBC Television. A great opportunity for what sounds like an extremely qualified individual. Unfortunately for her, her business card is likely to be completely illegible, thanks to the enormous title she’ll be saddled with:
Director, Business, Rights and Content Management for News, Current Affairs and Newsworld (‘NCAN’), the Documentary Unit and Factual Entertainment Programming (‘NDF’).
Yowza. (How NDF became the acronyn for words that start with D-U-F-E-P is a mystery I’ll never know.)
In English, this means she’ll manage NDF’s business (including in-house productions and acquisitions). She will make sure that the rights and funding sources obtained by NDF are appropriate and “effectively exploited.”
Jane used to work at CBC as a manager in A&E Production Financing. Before accepting this new position, Jane was a senior member of A&E’s business team.
Before coming to work with the CBC, Jane was Director of Legal and Business Affairs at Paragon Entertainment and, before that, legal counsel at Greenlight Film & Television.
Anyway, Jane, congratulations.
Note: I’ve emailed Jane and asked if she’s willing to play “Five Questions for the Fresh Meat” — a new column for this blog I think you’ll like — let’s hope she’s up to the challenge! 
My source: All-staff internal email. See the comments about this.
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| Executives | Posted at 7:05 am (30 Jun 2006) |
Oda’s reluctance to get embroiled in the summer scheduling furor is in line with her cautious approach so far when it comes to the CBC. 
