A discouraged Street Cents freelancer speaks out about the show’s cancellation: “On the picket line I heard a lot of talk about having a place at the CBC. It seemed a little hollow then and it certainly seems hollow now. I had pushed as much as anyone to increase the online presence of Street Cents and include pieces on the show concerning blogs and myspace and I certainly won’t be getting re-hired. I certainly won’t be part of the new initiatives. It’s easy for someone who isn’t freelance to talk positively and optimistically about ‘changes’ and ‘medium switches’.”

There’s an interesting discussion underway at the blog of Toronto Star media columnist Antonia Zerbisias. Antonia doesn’t agree with the CBC’s decision to cancel Street Cents in favour of focusing on online content:

For one thing, a public broadcaster is a public broadcaster, not a webcaster, and it has an obligation to broadcast programs that are non-commercial and even anti-commercial. For another, not every kid has a computer, or easy access to one — but just about every kid watches TV and too damn much of it.

Some of the discussion:

• [W]hy *shouldn’t* the CBC be a webcaster? Is there anything in its mandate that says “Thou shalt continue to broadcast on the radio spectrum and *only* on the radio spectrum, in perpetuity or until the return of the Holy Frum”? If the CBC can come up with interactive programming via the web, then shouldn’t it get the chance?
• “its demographic (pre-teen and teen) is increasingly and quickly moving to interactive digital platforms for news”: Wonder how many other (CBC) shows that would apply to. Shall we cancel them all?!?

What do you think? Broadly speaking, should the CBC produce content for web-only audiences? Personally, I think CBC’s mandate is to “broadcast” where Canadians are. Which, increasingly, is as much online as television or radio.

That said, I think we missed an opportunity with the announcement — we probably should have announced, at the same time, what youth and/or consumer initiatives we were planning to launch to replace Street Cents.
     If we truly are.
     Ball’s in our court, I guess.

CBC Television has cancelled Street Cents, the popular youth program about consumerism and marketing. The last episode will air October 1.
     CBC spokesperson Jeff Keay told InsideTheCBC.com: “Street Cents has been an exceptional success over the past 17 years and CBC is proud of the show’s award-winning reputation and focus on innovative stories, news and entertainment for its youth audience.
     ”However, research has demonstrated pretty clearly that its demographic (pre-teen and teen) is increasingly and quickly moving to interactive digital platforms for news, info and entertainment. We’re in the process of refocusing our youth strategy to specifically address this trend.”

Let me first say this. Street Cents rocked. It was a shining jewel in CBC Television’s crown.
     But CBC has it absolutely right in this case. Pre-teens and teens are simply not watching television any more — certainly not in the volumes that they do. Instead, they get their information through YouTube, MySpace, instant messagers, and more.
     This does not have to mean, of course, that CBC stops presenting the same outstanding content that Street Cents offered. I have no inside knowledge of what these interactive initiatives are, but I sure as hell hope the CBC keeps that unit together, bolsters it with people who “get” online social media, and starts pumping out even more content online. I’ve only been at CBC for six years or so, but I’ve already seen too many “clean sweeps” occur, where perfectly functional teams are swept aside in the desire for a fresh change.
     This shouldn’t happen here.
     The content was always bang-on. It’s just the medium we’re switching.
     I hope.

UPDATE: From a posting on Mark Black’s blog:

I was part of that “unit” and there’s been no talk of keeping it together. It is indeed a clean sweep. The notion of keeping the unit together is much too Pollyanna for me. When we hadn’t heard whether we were going to be renewed in the spring, the writing was on the wall.