In an editorial in the National Post today Hubert Lacroix explained his frustration with the CRTC’s decision to exclude the CBC from carriage fees that stand to benefit private broadcasters.

We hear the CRTC chair state to the media that “there was just too much on the table to deal with in one sitting, so we decided to deal with the private broadcast system before turning to the public one.” Unfortunately, words said in a scrum will not fix our broken business model. The CRTC’s decision makes no commitment. We can only deal with what we know to be true, and that’s that we’ve been shut out. We are left with an advertising market under severe pressure, a 30-year history of stagnant public funding punctuated by periodic major cuts and a cost base that is increasing at 6.7% per year.

Over the last decade, my predecessor at CBC/Radio-Canada implemented permanent cost-reduction initiatives to generate $78-million in ongoing annual savings. Last year, I was forced to make cuts of $171-million, cancel programs and lay off nearly 10% of our workforce. This year, we’ve had to sell $155-million worth of assets to balance our budget — selling the furniture to pay the mortgage.

I think we can be forgiven for being a little skeptical of fine words and a little overheated at the thought of more delays. CBC/Radio-Canada’s business model is not sustainable. It would be irresponsible to suggest otherwise. One thing that our history proves is that words won’t fix our financing model.

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	The CRTC	Posted at 11:14 pm (31 Mar 2010)

After 26 years with the corporation, Barbara Budd is leaving the CBC. She’ll hand over the microphone at ‘As it Happens’ on April 30th.

Budd, whose cheerful voice has enlivened the show for the last 17 years, made the sudden announcement on the show last night.

The Toronto Star is reporting that Budd fell victim to a shake up at the show. Budd told the Star “The CBC is always trying to make things better, its programs are always evolving, and after 40 years they want As It Happens to grow.

“I don’t fit in with that plan.” She added that CBC management wants to flesh out the roles of the hosts.

But Budd added that she doesn’t have any ill will. She said shows and hosts constantly change in this business, and the brand of ‘As It Happens’ will endure regardless of who is behind the microphone.

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	Personalities	Posted at 11:05 am (30 Mar 2010)

Last week CBC cameraman Ross Menzies died.

During his 34 years at the CBC, Menzies became a mentor and friend to many employees. Below is how Kenny Delaney remembers him:

When I began shooting in the mid-eighties I met Ross on assignment, he walked up and introduced himself, he noticed the CBC logo’s slapped all over my camera and asked who I was? I let him know that I had just moved over from editing to ENG camera. He quickly offered himself to me as a mentor I had the honour of gleaning sage advice, tips and tricks to become a better cameraman for CBC and Radio-Canada over the years.

Some of the most admirable qualities in Ross was his ‘can do’ attitude, turning demanding challenges into learning opportunities and looking at CBC Radio-Canada as one big family, there to help and support each other.

Even though retired for three years, Ross’ awesome in demand skill set would often see him come back to help out…

Ross your early departure from behind the camera will impact the hearts of family, friends and colleagues. Although thinking about you will always bring a smile to my face.

source: Mississauga Blogger: Ross Menzies CBC Cameraman R.I.P.

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	Obits	Posted at 3:26 pm (29 Mar 2010)

Now that the dust is settling on the CRTC’s non-decision-decision yesterday, I few choice analysis pieces are rising up to the surface. Here’s a few quotes.

Denis McGrath has an interesting take on it from a TV writer’s point of view:

One of the worst parts of it is that there’s now another one-year push as people figure out the rules. Hearings will happen next year. Which means that no changes will be concrete til 2012. Which means that by that time the Domestic TV industry will have endured about 5 years of complete violent uncertainty. I don’t know if there’s anybody who can hang on that long.

I guess Canadian TV will eventually drive you insane. There’s no way around it…
Not saying it’s the end of anything. But not saying it’s not. Welcome to the age of uncertainty. Try to look natural. Smoke’em if you got ‘em.

Meanwhile over at Medium Close Up, Howard Bernstein parses the decision with a grizzled eye of a retired news veteran.

I don’t know if the commission is still gunshy from its poor decisions to allow the cable companies to rape and pillage Canadians in the past. I am not sure whether the terrible rulings in the past that allowed Canadian broadcasters to undermine content rules and kill local television make the current CRTC fearful of their own decision making ability. Maybe they are afraid of a government that stomped on their last mobile telephone decision. Whatever the case, the current ruling that the networks can claim money from the cable and satellite companies for what are by license free over the air services will lead to no easy resolution of the ongoing battle.

Of course the happiest people of all with yesterday’s ruling were likely the lawyers. The CRTC decided to ask the Federal Courts to figure out their position, and the cable and satellite guys told the Globe they’d beat them to it..

“This isn’t over,” said Lawson Hunter, a former federal regulator and communications lawyer with Stikeman Elliott LLP.

So while the lawyers were licking their chops at the prospect of fighting over the revenue scraps of the broadcast industry, perhaps the biggest news of the day was coming out the polling firm Ipsos-Reid far from the CRTC lockup.

The average Canadian now spends more time on the Internet than watching television, according to a new survey from Ipsos Reid, a shift in digital habits that reflects the increasing prevalence of computers in our lives…

Canadians now spend more than 18 hours a week online, compared to just under 17 hours watching television.

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	The CRTC, The Media Landscape	Posted at 5:45 pm (23 Mar 2010)

The CRTC reached a decision today on the acrimonious fee-for-carriage fight.

And the CBC is the odd man out.

The decision released this afternoon allows private broadcasters to negotiate with cable and satellite companies for fees for this signals, just like the specialty channels higher up on the dial.

But the CBC has been denied the same right.

The CRTC said the CBC can’t participate in the negotiations the process could results in broadcasters pulling their signals off the air, and that doesn’t fit with the CBC’s mandate.

This latest development will be a bitter pill for CBC executives to swallow. And they seem angry.

“The CRTC’s decision defies logic,” CBC President, Hubert Lacroix, said. “The Commission wants to save Canadian programming. CBC/Radio-Canada invests more in Canadian programming than all of the other broadcasters combined.”

The decision is especially difficult because, despite some reservations, the CBC joined forces with the private broadcasters last September under the Local TV Matters campaign. And while that campaign probably helped sway public opinion and encourage the CRTC into making this decision, the CBC gained nothing.

“This will solve the economic problems of private sector players but will not bring the system back into balance. It leaves the player who delivers more than anyone else in the system without a viable business model.”

Lacroix added that the decision will impact CBC finances and operations.

“One thing is clear: this will force us to cut programs and services, and our ability to fulfill our mandate has been compromised. The independent production sector, the cultural community, and the public will all suffer as a consequence. But we need to study the decision in more detail and present a plan of action to our Board before I can share more,” Lacroix said.

For quotes from people on every side of the issue, check this page from the Winnipeg Free Press.

For more on the today’s CRTC decision, see this page on cbc.ca.

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	The CRTC	Posted at 8:54 pm (22 Mar 2010)

Cable and satellite companies pulled in some handsome revenues last year, while private TV networks lost millions.

Last year, in the middle of a recession, the cable and satellite firms saw revenues rise by nearly 12 per cent.

On the other hand revenues for private TV networks took a hit, sliding nearly 8 per cent. Their revenues are down $143 million from the year before. Despite trimming costs with cuts and layoffs, the networks still lost $116 million in 2009.

These financial results are sure to add fuel to the fire-fight between the cable companies and the networks.

Both sides have been arguing for months over whether the cable companies should be paying broadcasters to carry their signal.

“The conventional television financial model in Canada is collapsing,” Hubert Lacroix said to the CRTC last November. He insisted that conventional TV broadcasters should get paid for their signal on cable and satellite services.

But the cable and satellite companies said they couldn’t afford to pay for conventional TV signals. They said they’d have to pass on the extra cost to consumers.

These results seem to belie that argument.

The CRTC stats show they made a 25 per cent profit margin last year.

The CRTC released the results today, a few days before it releases its decision on the fee-for-carriage issue on Monday.

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	The Media Landscape	Posted at 6:07 pm (18 Mar 2010)

Facebook and Yahoo are attracting TV viewers during big events, like the Super Bowl. People may be going online during the TV shows to talk about what they’re watching. A sort of crowd-sourced colour commentary.

The phenomenon has been attributed to higher ratings for several large television events, most recently the Oscars.

The media research company, Nielsen, says about 10 per cent of TV viewers also go online during these events. Most of that traffic ends up at Facebook, Yahoo or Google sites.

Of those three big sites, people stayed the longest on Yahoo. The viewers that visited that site while watching the Super Bowl spend over an hour there on average. That’s a very long time on a single web site. To compare, visitors to Facebook averaged almost 20 minutes, with most other sites getting traffic for a few minutes.

There’s more info on the Nielsen blog, here.

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	Programming	Posted at 5:49 pm (16 Mar 2010)

The daytime lifestyle show ‘Steven and Chris’ has launched a healthy living campaign. It’s called The Better Choice Challenge.

The campaign’s picking up a lot of steam. To date they’ve received over 18,000 pledges to participate.

The campaign invites participates to complete one challenge a day. By completing the challenges you’re also entered into a draw for a trip for four to Cancun – I guess so you can then go on to make better choices on the beach in Mexico : ).

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	Steven and Chris	Posted at 5:11 pm (16 Mar 2010)

For the eight year in a row, the CBC received its “one-time” funding of $60 million from the government today.

CBC President Hubert Lacroix confirmed the funding in a note to staff this afternoon. This year the funding announcement was confirmed quite quickly after the budget. Last year staff endured several weeks of nail-biting before we found out if we’d be getting the money.

I’m starting to think that the Conservative government may actually like the CBC.

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	Parliament	Posted at 8:21 pm (10 Mar 2010)

Say you’ve got a great story idea.

You know it will hit a nerve with the public.

So how do you prove it to your boss?

There are several tools on the internet that you can use to back up your story pitches. They provide a gauge of what the public is concerned about; a way to listen in on the water-cooler conversations.

These tools provide a view of what Canadians are searching for, talking about, and telling their friends. They can also find the best reference material on the web.

Let’s look at them each briefly, and then we’ll look at how to use this stuff in your pitches.

How to Listen in on the Water Cooler

Number 1: Google Insight
Google Insight shows what people are thinking about, by exposing what they’re searching for.

Have you missed the boat on your story? Maybe you’re a bit too early? Google Insight may be able to answer that.

Here’s an example of Google searches for the term “Toyota Recall”. You can see that interest peaked and is now waning.

A similar tool to this is Trending Topics which looks at what’s trending on Wikipedia.

Number 2: Google Trends
Google Trends is a slightly different view than Google Insight. Insight shows you what people are searching for over time and place. Trends shows you what people are searching for in comparison to all Google searches.

You can also use trends to compare different searches. This could be useful to compare different angles on a story.

Number 3: Twitter Search
Twitter Search shows you what people are saying about a given topic. It’s a very powerful way of crowd sourcing story ideas and finding out what people are talking about. It is much more immediate than Google searches. I often find out about breaking news on Twitter’s trending topics before I see them on TV.

Number 4: Delicious
Delicious is a web tool used to save bookmarks. The Delicious Search engine shows what web sites are getting the most bookmarks. Since most people only bookmark relevant content, this search function can be useful to find the best resource material on a given subject.

Number 5: IceRocket
IceRocket is a one of many social media monitoring tools that aggregates conversations on many networks (Twitter, Blogs, etc) into one place. I use IceRocket instead of say Radian6, because it’s free. This is a handy way to monitor a news beat, check out the conversation on the blogosphere or to get a general sense of what’s trending on the internet.

How to Use This Stuff in Your Pitches
You can use the data from these tools to gauge the response to your story idea. For instance another story on the Toyota recall might not be the best idea. Interest in the story is waning. There have been far fewer searches. Unless you’ve got a strong news peg you may want to give this story a pass.

On the other hand there’s been lots on interest in virtual assistants lately. It’s one of the top 10 search terms on Google today. Maybe that’s a topic worth considering.

But these tools are not only useful for testing story ideas. They can also be used to come up with pitches.

The Twitter Search Engine is a powerful tool. It’s like an early warning system for breaking news. It’s constantly providing new story ideas. And it can be used to follow leading thinking on a particular beat.

Frankly I couldn’t live without it.

Is there any tool out there that you can’t live without?

Have I missed something? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

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	Secret Nerd Tips	Posted at 8:02 pm (10 Mar 2010)

Almost a two weeks after the news first leaked, fans on CBC Montreal morning show, Daybreak, are still upset that Nancy Wood will not be staying with the show.

According to Henry Aubin, at the Gazette, the CBC decided not to renew her hosting contract two weeks ago. She has not been heard on the air since. Aubin added that Wood has since been hospitalized for a few days for stress and anxiety. Renaud talked to a couple CBC insiders in Montreal, and their take was that Wood’s one-year contract wasn’t renewed because the show’s ratings hadn’t gone up since she took the helm in late August.

Given the circumstances the CBC isn’t saying much on the issue. Wood’s photo was apparently removed from the Daybreak homepage, but there has been no further response, nor has a replacement host has been named. The lack of explanation has seemed to have galvanized her fans and local journalists. “As a result of the handling of it, the egg on the Mother Corp’s face is building up in layers,” Matthew Cope, an upset fan wrote on Facebook today.

In addition to the Aubin piece in the Gazette, which was headlined “Bring back Nancy Wood,” another article in the French-language La Presse today said it was unfair to have dropped Wood after so little time. Not surprisingly, a Facebook group has sprung to oppose the decision. They are directing members to write letters to CBC management, and contact the president’s office.

Former Gazette staffer, and blogger Steve Faguy has more on the issue here.

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	Behind the Scenes	Posted at 10:39 pm (09 Mar 2010)

This is the complete text of CBC President Hubert Lacroix’s note to CBC staff on the federal budget that was tabled yesterday. Lacroix says he’s pleased that the ceeb’s budget wasn’t cut like other departments, however there are other issues affecting the CBC’s finances.

March 5, 2010 – The Federal Budget was tabled yesterday. While we’re still studying details, I wanted to share my initial response to what the Budget means for CBC/Radio-Canada.

First and foremost, I am very happy with the Government’s support of CBC/Radio-Canada in the context of the Strategic Review initiative. As you may remember, we were asked to review the performance of all of our services and to identify 5 per cent of our budget that could have been reallocated elsewhere by Government. After reviewing us, the Government concluded that, “…reallocations were not necessary as programs delivered by [CBC/Radio-Canada] are aligned with the priorities of Canadians.”

This is good news for us. You should know that our Minister, the Hon. James Moore, really went to bat for us on this file and supported our position; I am very grateful to him (and his staff) for standing up for us in these difficult economic times. I’m also very pleased with the government’s endorsement of our services. It’s a great vote of confidence that I think we can all be proud of.

The continued stability in our funding will help us complete the two-year recovery plan we implemented last March.

You have no doubt heard about the Government’s three-year freeze on funding for salary increases. We understand that this measure will extend to CBC/Radio-Canada. It means that each organization will have to find its own way to manage the budget implications of this freeze. We will be studying what that means for us.

There are a number of other issues affecting our finances that we should learn more about in the coming weeks, but I wanted to share the conclusion of the Strategic Review with you immediately.

Cheers.

Hubert

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	Parliament	Posted at 4:56 pm (05 Mar 2010)

The CBC dodged a bullet this afternoon. The federal budget that was released today spared the CBC, and three other crown corporations. CBC staff widely feared this budget would include some painful structural cuts.

The worry arose from the strategic review process that was launched last May. That process could well have resulted in deep budget cuts to the corporation. According to the review guidelines as much as five per cent of the CBC’s budget was at stake.

The first two years of the strategic review process has already resulted in cuts of almost $1 billion. The federal budget released today, identified another $287 million in cuts from 12 different government departments, but the CBC, The Canada Council for the Arts, the National Film Board of Canada and Telefilm Canada all escaped unscathed.

CBC staff were relieved this afternoon as details of the federal budget emerged. The budget document itself doesn’t elaborate on why the CBC was not forced to cut programs under the review process, simply stating that “reallocations were not necessary as programs delivered by these organizations are aligned with the priorities of Canadians.”

Lise Lareau, the president of the Canadian Media Guild said “That means the dreaded and secretive “strategic review process” that the government began last fall and which could have wiped away as much as $50M from the CBC’s allocation is OFF.”

However Lareau added that the CBC is not out of the woods yet, “whether there will be some collateral damage from some broader departmental cut, it’s too early to say,” she wrote in an email, “I find that we rarely find out the (usually bad) details until the supplementary estimates come out, and that can take days or weeks.”

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	Parliament	Posted at 6:55 pm (04 Mar 2010)

Denis McGrath, a Canadian TV writer, says last night’s ratings for four Canadian comedies, 18 to Life and Little Mosque on the Prairie on CBC, and Hiccups and Dan for Mayor on CTV proves that, *gasp*, Canadians actually watch Canadian TV:

Almost two million five hundred thousand Canadians chose to watch Canadian-produced comedies on the TV last night, in the eight o clock hour. If you look at that in terms of Canada’s population, that’s about 10% of the people who speak English as a first language. 1 in 10…

Six months from now we’re going to have license hearings at the CRTC and the same old people are going to traipse up there and talk about how Canadians don’t want to watch Canadian shows.

It sounds to me like that’s just not the case.

Both Dan for Mayor and Hiccups drew 1.9 million viewers, which is big in Canada, 18 to Life and Little Mosque drew 558,000 and 404,000.

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	The Media Landscape	Posted at 8:44 am (03 Mar 2010)

^{Photo credit: Metaviews Flickr photo stream.}

Here are a couple pictures from the reception this morning as Andy Barrie, the long-standing host of CBC Toronto’s Metro Morning, passed the host chair to Matt Galloway. As you can see in the picture above, a lot of people showed up wish Barrie well.

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	Behind the Scenes	Posted at 3:46 pm (01 Mar 2010)