Ratings Dip on Playoffs with Zero CanCon
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs saw a major falloff in ratings – half a million viewers – with no Canadian team in the final.
Sure, we all understand that both teams in the playoffs are comprised of Canadian players, but somehow the visceral attraction of fandom doesn’t exist when the jerseys don’t belong to a Canadian team. Most of you reading this have probably heard at least one hockey fan friend exclaim that there are no Canadian teams in the playoff in distress.
The good news is that the numbers are significantly better this time around than the last time the playoffs were all-American, back in 2003. Viewership then was 1.29 million, and ratings for the Saturday game were 2.11 million.
Lacroix: “Failure is not an option” in next round of CBC/CMG talks
Hubert Lacroix spoke yesterday at the Canadian Media Guild‘s biannual convention. It marked the first time that a CBC/Radio-Canada President and CEO spoke at a CMG convention.
Lacroix said poor communication between the senior executives and guild representatives underscored an urgent need to rebuild a proper relationship. Lacroix’s said his mission since he joined the CBC 18 months ago has been to build a greater level of respect and transparency at every level of the organization.
Lacroix called for a “paradigm shift” (yes, he actually said “paradigm shift”) in thinking to incorporate more pride and positivity. He added that he knew the job was hard because the same executives are in the same place as they were during the 2005 lockout. He also highlighted that each member of his senior management team had been fully briefed on the importance of the CBC/CMG relationship, and “failure is not an option” to them.
Lacroix also spoke of the changing media environment, particularly of the BBC’s move to up their budget for their web services from $200 million to $800 million US annually. He used this as a pointed example; “[Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC] is going to take almost one-half our total annual budget for CBC/Radio-Canada and invest it in Web services and Web-related initiatives,” Lacroix told delegates, pointing to the challenge of working in an industry that is constantly requiring us to rethink our existing strategies. “How can we keep being relevant in this environment if we can’t talk? If our own labour and management team can’t change this, no one can.”
Lacroix has also started up a key initiative, “Challenge Us!”, which brings together 65 CBC employees from all levels and all areas of the country, in order to examine the employee/employer relationship and change it to a healthy and productive one. He recognized the inputs from key members of the Canadian Media Guild, and finished by once again reiterating that failure was not an option, and that the relationship must improve from both sides.
Happy 76th Birthday Ceeb!
On May 26th, 1932, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Act was passed by Parliament which had established the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC). Celebrations to be kept to a minimum. It’s Monday, after all.
A: Jeopardy. (Q: What show has buzzed out Marketplace?)
Marketplace has been upset from its 7:30pm Wednesday time slot by the syndicated game show Jeopardy. It will not return to the programming roster until January of 2009, when it is predicted to take over the Friday evening time slot left vacant by the departing Royal Canadian Air Farce.
Marketplace is the only adult show on CBC to not run ads, a commitment the show has kept since it started 36 seasons ago. This is in keeping with the shows spotlight on consumer affairs. The time slot bump was a move to simulcast Jeopardy at the same time as its US media counterparts broadcast the show.
Maybe the CBC is just pining for the old days when Alex Trebek belonged to us…
CBC asks for funding boost from $33 per Canadian to $40
At a conference for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television last Thursday, Hubert Lacroix pointed out that the CBC can not accurately plan its programming on 12 month cycles, and requires a seven year funding plan. The full text of the speech is available here.
He also reiterated that the CBC needs an extra 215 million dollars to maintain quality programming, or $40.00 per capita rather than $33.00 per capita. These requests are based on the February 28 report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.
Other highlights of the speech were the fact that he plans to strengthen relations between management and the CBC union, and the fact that the CBC is reliant on ratings and advertising revenue in order to stay viable. The funding increases would help offset some of that reliance.
Summer lineup for CBC Television announced
CBC Television has announced its new summer lineup. Highlights include:
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?
Broadcast Premiere: Sunday, June 15th, 8:00pm
This reality show takes 48 contestants and promises to shape one of them into the new star of a live stage version of the movie “The Sound Of Music”. I’m guessing that Canadian reality TV starlets will be a bit more restrained than their compatriots on “Girlicious”, but who knows? Catfights, dancing, and rousing renditions of “My Favourite Things” – does it get any better than this? (That was rhetorical, folks.)
Othello
One-Time Broadcast: Sunday, June 15th, 9:00pm
This 2 hour adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece stars Carlo Rota (Little Mosque on the Prairie) as the tortured moor and Christine Horne (The Stone Angel) as his wife, Desdemona.
Test The Nation: Sports
One-Time Broadcast: Sunday, May 25th, 8:00pm
Ron MacLean (Hockey Night in Canada) joins host Wendy Mesley for a trivia brawl involving sports fans, athletes, and, er, NHL mascots.
Everest
Broadcast Premiere: Sunday, Aug 31, 8:00pm
This four hour miniseries is a dramatization of the 1982 adventure of the first Canadians to ever climb Mount Everest, Laurie Skreslet and Pat Morrow. Jason Priestley (Don’t Cry Now, 90210), William Shatner (Star Trek, Boston Legal) and Leslie Hope (24) headline an incredible ensemble cast.
CBCnews.ca rolls out more interactive features
You may have noticed a few changes to CBCnews.ca…
New importance given to commenting and opinion sections. Comments have been flying in like crazy since they flipped the switch, and it seems readers are loving it.
Other important changes include:
Commented Tab
This tab at the top allows you to sort stories by most commented; if you have a penchant for reading comments, or want an accurate predictor of what the water cooler convo will be like tomorrow, this is a great option.
Recommended Tab
This tab sorts the stories by most recommended by readers.
Audio And Video Browser
There is now an audio and video browser at the top right of the page which allows viewers easy access to video and audio of stories, a handy step up from before when videos were just embedded randomly throughout the site. Now viewers can have a video running at the same time that they are scanning news from the rest of the site.
Your Voice
This section is now front and centre on the front page of the news site.
Reader Comments Featured on Right Sidebar/Your View
“Your View” is getting more play now as well with a big widget on the sidebar featuring scrollable reader comments.
Recommendation Icons
Icons are now embedded throughout and beside each story in order to make it easer for readers to recommend them.
Fresher Design
The overall design has been tweaked to make it a little fresher, a little crisper, and a little less busy.
What do you think of the changes?
D’Souza featured by local news site
CBC reporter and videographer Steven D’Souza fondly remembers his old town, Richmond Hill, as a cosy place. His community website has published an account of D’Souza’s career.
After leaving Ryerson in 2000 and becoming a sports reporter, he realized that a life in sports meant no social life at all, since most events take place on evenings and weekends. After a short stint doing this at Canadian Press, he interviewed with both TSN and the CBC, and chose the CBC.
Starting off as a producer on CBC’s morning show, D’Souza got to sit in on interviews. He realized that to get in front of the camera, he would need to get out of the Ceeb’s head office in Toronto, so he traveled to Summerside, PEI, for his first reporting gig.
StationBreak — CBC B.C. employee newsletter now online
Ken Gibson and Peggy Oldfield have put together a comprehensive online newsletter under the Employee Assistance Program for CBC staffers and retirees living in Vancouver and B.C.
The site offers memories from CBC archives, provides a home to the CBC 20 Year association, and helpful information on the EAP. The newsletters are composed quarterly, corresponding with each season, and are packed with CBC news and interesting tidbits.
It also provides the service “Where Are They Now?“, on which the authors post the current careers and whereabouts of past CBC B.C. colleagues. This is definitely a site worth subscribing to for any employee or alumni in the B.C. area.
CBC Radio 3 live from Meow Records this Friday
Canada’s best record store, according to CBC Radio 3, is Meow Records in Prince George, B.C.
Thus, Meow and CBC Radio 3 will host a two-hour concert this Friday to be broadcast live on the network on May 23 between 4 and 6 pm.
This was no simple poll; this was a playoff-style series of polls that took two months to decide the victor in the war of the vinyl. Chad VanGaalen, a rising star in the indie scene right now, was one of the supporters of Meow’s bid, and will be performing at the store concert on Friday.
Meow will be holding events all day Friday, so if you’re in the area, get on down there and bring your best sense of funk.
Actor/singer Jack Duffy passes away
Jack Duffy, celebrated actor and singer, died yesterday at 81 years of age in Toronto of natural causes.
Duffy was best known for his appearance on the 70′s CHCH Hamilton charade show “Party Game”, but he was also a studio singer with the CBC in Toronto in his youth.
He toured with Tommy Dorsey’s band in the late 1940′s and came back to Canada to continue his acting and singing career here.
Star Choice Responds to CBC’s Complaint About Ceeb Sask
Star Choice has responded to the CBC’s complaint that it took the CBC Saskatchewan channel out of its compulsory package for subscribers.
The company, owned by Shaw Communications, claims that CBC News is still on the air — broadcast by the SCN, the Saskatchewan Storyteller channel. SCN itself is not a CBC property.
In a news release headlined “CBC Misleading Public About Star Choice Carriage,” Shaw president Jim Shaw said that if CBC wants its entire channel of CBC Saskatchewan broadcast, it should get its own transponders.
Shaw doesn’t stop there. He blames the move to drop CBC Saskatchewan on the CRTC, saying since the regulator insisted they carry Super Channel, which takes up 10 channels of their bandwidth through 4 standard and 2 HD channels, they had no choice but to bump the local-programming.
The yanking of Radio-Canada’s French language service doesn’t even merit a sentence in the Shaw/Star choice release.
Cross Country Checkup Turns 43
On this date in 1965, Cross Country Checkup debuted with a debate on a national, publicly funded health care system. Years later, we have the national health care system and a radio program that continues to entertain and provoke. (Although I really do miss the standard two-question opener to each caller from years back: “Cross Country Checkup, where are you calling from? What do you think about ________”)
Star Choice now pas du choix
Star Choice has decided to drop yet another channel in its lineup in addition to CBC Saskatchewan — it has now dropped RDI, the CBC French news channel, in all Anglophone markets.
The CBC launched another formal complaint with the CRTC this week. RDI is on a very small list of channels that all providers are required to carry with their basic package, and the CBC argues that Star Choice is now in violation of its broadcast licence.
Earlier this week, five local news channels, including CBC Saskatchewan, were replaced by specialty channels like MuchMusic and Teletoon Retro by Star Choice.
Perhaps they got rid of RDI because they needed room for the Golf Channel?
A round-up of Burman/Al-Jazeera commentary
According to Reuters, Tony Burman isn’t wasting any time getting things done in his new role as managing director of Al Jazeera English. Negotiations are pushing forward with U.S.-based cable companies to bring the Arabic news channel to wider distribution. Al Jazeera is also augmenting its Internet presence, including refining its YouTube channel which brought it 21 million views in its first year of operation.
The story that Tony Burman had recently joined the Arab world’s leading news channel, Al-Jazeera, has provoked numerous commentaries. When asked to comment on his new role for this Star piece, Burman said
“Without sounding like a typically self-righteous Canadian, we tend to view things with a detachment that in journalism is a very valued asset. Canadians are viewed in a very favourable way that I must say I find flattering”.
The darker side of commentary has been very busy as well, including this piece in the National Post which stops a hair short of calling Burman and the CBC anti-Semitic, and this one in which the headline denotes that “the rest of them” should be gotten rid of as well. Probably all to be expected, given the demonization of Al-Jazeera in some media after 9/11.
