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’.”
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| Asides, Street Cents | Posted at 3:46 pm (22 Aug 2006) |
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.
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| Programming, Street Cents, Technology | Posted at 12:51 pm (22 Aug 2006) |



CBC Television has cancelled
Let me first say this. Street Cents rocked. It was a shining jewel in CBC Television’s crown.
















