The Executive Vice President of English Services said it’s good when the updates are “non-events.” He said it indicates fewer concerns about the state of CBC finances.

Stursberg spoke at length about the general media environment in Canada prior to focusing on the CBC’s situation. He said the advertising market in Canada is facing a “structural decline” because of the recession. He added that the impact of the economy has been most acutely felt at Canwest, of which some units are now in receivership. Stursberg said the current economic environment strengthens the argument broadcasters have been making concerning the fee-for-carriage debate. It’s a “very very difficult environment, very tough economically,” he said.

Nevertheless he said CBC Radio has had the best summer on record, while on TV the numbers have “generally gone up,” based on the averages of the first three weeks since the fall TV season launched. He highlighted the ratings for Dragons’ Den, Heartland, The Rick Mercer report, and Battle of the Blades.

He also touched on the relaunch of CBC News, saying it has been a “gigantic undertaking,” while calling the criticism “pathetic” saying it “revolves around whether people are standing or sitting.”

“One thing we should remember is that the papers are owned by our competitors… so I think you can draw your own conclusions about where they are going,” Stursberg said.

“It looks like the advertising revenues will be ahead of plan by the first quarter,” Richard Stursberg said during a surprisingly upbeat financial update held in Toronto to present the first quarter results. The executive vice-president of CBC English services said “”The sales department has done an outstanding job. It looks like the first half will be ahead slightly of where we need to be.”

The news will come as a relief to CBC employees who have faced 393 layoffs and retirements in English services over last few months, in large part because of the collapse of the advertising market last summer and fall. He also noted that the corporation was on track with its cost reduction targets.

Stursberg said he is pleased with the audience growth for both CBC Television and CBC Radio. CBC Television’s audience numbers have improved in the last couple years in pretty much “every single time slot,” he said.

Since the recession hit last fall, the CBC has been facing a massive $171 million revenue shortfall. Stursberg said there were a couple unexpected events are helping the corporation tackle the shortfall, such as cost-cutting measures and a new local programming fund which provided some unexpected revenue.

Nevertheless the central plank of the corporation’s recovery efforts remains the sales of a number of real estate holding and assests. For these sales to proceed the CBC needs approval from the government, a process Stursberg describe as more than difficult. “Dealing with the government is not just difficult, it’s a nightmare,” he said, adding that the process was “on track it’s just slow. “

Every year the CBC prints and distributes 338,000 paper pay stubs, at a cost to the corporation of $44,000 a year. The goal is to cut the number of paper pay stubs in half by May 31, 2009. The electronic pay stubs will be available online.

To switch to electronic pay stubs all you have to do is send an email, for the email address and more information go here. Everyone who makes the switch will be entered in a draw to win an 8G iPod Touch, or four $25 gift certificates to the Keg restaurant, oh, and you’ll also get the sweet feeling of moral superiority for having done something good for the environment.

According to an email from CBC President Hubert Lacroix, ad revenues were 17 per cent lower than forecast for fiscal 2008. The note says: “we are now projecting a shortfall in advertising revenue that will be in the $55-$65 million dollar range.”

And it gets worse.

Lacroix added “The more pressing issue is our budget for 2009-2010. The combination of a severe slump in our commercial revenues, coupled with rising costs of production, is a menacing test that will demand some tough choices on our part.”

According to the note some of the choices may affect jobs, services and programs but “Nothing has yet been determined,” Lacroix wrote.

The update will be held in the Glenn Gould Studio, in Toronto, Tuesday, Feb. 24, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. ET. Employees that can’t make it in person can tune in on the in-house channel or dial in. For more information on that click here.

Lacroix ended the note by addressing Greg Weston’s story in The Sun from yesterday.

Lacroix said Weston “horrendously distorted the facts and suggested we’ve been looking to Government for “hand-outs,” which is precisely what we HAVE NOT been asking for.”

A CBC press release added Weston did not check any of his facts with the CBC before publishing the article. Having read the article this morning I was surprised that it made it past the editing desk, giving the single source and inaccuracies.

Last week Canwest Global announced it is cutting five per cent of its workforce. Which works out to 210 broadcast and 350 publishing jobs. Today CTV announced a hiring freeze and some layoffs.

Both blame the global economic downturn, sagging ad sales, and a recent CRTC rejection of extra fees for the three main networks.

With CBC currently facing a budget shortfall many employees are wondering if a hiring freeze, layoffs or some belt-tightening is on its way at the Mother Corp.

Currently senior executives seem to leaning in favour of maintaining current staff levels but reducing some costs. I’d expect an announcement on that in the coming days. Stay tuned.

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.

Information about the savings plan can be found on HR @ my fingertips.

(If you are a Short-term Temporary employee (less than 13 weeks), and are interested in participating, visit the Shared Services website for more information. Please note that if you are paid through Artist Payroll, the Payroll Savings Plan is not available to you at this time. However, you can purchase Canada Savings Bonds through most financial institutions this month.)

The network has improved its use of existing resources, including its real estate, over the last few years, he said, but there is a limit to how much more can be done with existing resources.

Casgrain appealed to the committee, which has been considering how much commercial advertising should be on CBC television, to strike a balance between a fully commercialized network and a network supported solely by taxpayers. “Should we gain the rights to a show like Hockey Night in Canada and not sell advertising? Can we ask the Canadian taxpayers to underwrite that?” he said.

Canadian taxpayers now pay an average of $30 each to have a public broadcaster that broadcasts in five time zones, two official languages and several aboriginal languages. The BBC, which broadcasts in one time zone and one language, gets $80 from each British taxpayer.

Casgrain, a veteran businessman, is chair of Skyservice Investments. Several MPs on the committee had questions about how Casgrain, who has no background in broadcasting, was appointed to head the CBC, however, committee chair Gary Schellenberger confined questions to the CBC mandate.

• Casgrain’s opening statement to the committee
• Full story on CBC.ca

By increasing the number of advertising minutes in American programming aired by Canadian private conventional broadcasters, both English and French, the CRTC has effectively increased the value of this programming, and removed the incentive for private broadcasters to create more Canadian drama.

The statement, which isn’t signed by any particular CBC executive, continues on to comment on the CRTC’s denial of a CBC/Global TV request to charge cable and satellite TV operators fees for carriage of their local conventional television signals. “While recognizing their full jurisdiction in this area, the Commission has missed another opportunity to help ensure a sustainable future for Canadian programming,” the statement says. “CBC/Radio-Canada is disappointed in today’s decision. Over the longer term, the net result will be fewer opportunities for Canadian stories to be told.”

What do you think? Was the CRTC right in its decision? How do you think this will affect “opportunities for Canadian stories to be told” — or will it?

The federal heritage minister says the government is willing to give CBC long-term funding, but first wants to ensure the national broadcaster is in tune with Canadians. Bev Oda told the Senate transport and communications committee yesterday the Conservatives support a strong public broadcaster equipped with adequate resources.

“Long-term, stable funding is something that has to be worked towards,” she said. “But first of all let’s ensure that the service we’re supporting with our public funds is that which is going to be meaningful and relevant to Canadians.”

Oda noted young media consumers want entertainment in portable and easy-to-access formats in the new digital environment. “Let us not underestimate the depth of that change,” she said. “The CBC has to take into consideration these technologies and the new platforms.”

• Add full-length regional morning and afternoon shows on CBC Radio One in Kitchener, Red Deer, Hamilton, Barrie, Kingston, Nanaimo, Kelowna, Chilliwack, Saskatoon, Peterborough, Cranbrook, and Kamloops.

• Explore the viability of establishing a foundation to which Canadians could offer direct financial support to key CBC|Radio-Canada programming initiatives
• Commission drama series based first upon research about what “specific audience segments” want to see on television
• Focus on comedy and performing arts, commissioning three new half-hour comedy series
• Program television using emerging forms of narrative, including single-camera shooting, mockumentaries, and animation for adults.
• Revitalise Canada Now, its national-regional supper hour news program, by increasing coordination and cooperation between the regional programs

Blog reaction:

• MHP’s Musings: “Next time you complain about CBC-TV programming and use the “And I pay your salary” line, it’s only 45% of that salary you’re paying.”

First, let me say these three things.
1. I really like the Gill Deacon show.
2. God knows, we need the money.
3. t’s not like our competitors aren’t doing it.

With that out of the way, let me confess that I gently shudder when the Cranium product-placement comes up on Gill Deacon’s show. For those of you who haven’t seen it [video example], it’s a regular segment where an audience member plays a question from the Cranium board game.
     Seems only yesterday when when CBC contents were ones that we made up ourselves (though, honestly, if I hear another “Make Your Own Regional Limerick” contest on any radio morning show, I’m going to keel over). But now, why make our own when we can charge a company for it.
     Actually, it’s not the product-placement itself that gets to me. As I mentioned, we need the money — Gill’s show is otherwise excellent, and the CBC just isn’t well enough funded to produce that kind of material on its own.
     Rather, what bothers me is we seem to have taken a page from (read: “stooped to the level of”) the private broadcasters and are no longer even trying to be transparent about the financial transaction going on. Gill recently introduced the game recently like this: “It is time to play Canada’s favourite game, Cranium for Cash. You all know why I love this game: Because it asks you to think from all four corners of your brain.”
     Great description. Er, perhaps little too great. I have a feeling the Cranium folks could use that as a tagline on their next box printing. And, really… is Cranium for Cash really Canada’s favourite game? Is even Cranium? Somehow, I think even Monopoly still outsells Cranium. (Even though Settlers of Catan should. But that’s another story.)
     There’s nothing wrong with product placement these days, imho. But — call me old fashioned — I think the line between paid-placement and genuine editorial recommendation should be made much more obvious. Especially on the CBC.
     Remember, in the minds of our viewers, they do not separate the CBC into its programming divisions like we do (News and Current Affairs vs. Arts and Entertainment). They just see CBC Television as one entity. And if viewers begin to think that on Arts/Entertainment programming we’re willing to say or air things because we’re paid to, that affects the credibility of the entire brand. If we blur that editorial vs. promotion line in one branch of our programming, who could blame the viewer for wondering why Peter Mansbridge did two stories about a particular vacuum cleaner company in one week.
     And that — not funding, not mandate issues, not regime changes — will truly be the CBC’s undoing.

     Then again, I could be way off base here. What do you think?

I have no idea what that means – who gets it, and where’s the table? So I asked Wendy Duschenes, Manager, Writing & Publishing Services, Corporate Communications (which means she worked on it all year, but her name doesn’t appear anywhere in the 86 pages. “I did get cookies from my boss.”)

She says the printed copies are delivered to certain MPs and key stakeholders, and the report becomes an official, publicly available document. But the online document is now the key.

“We don’t actually print a lot of copies,” Duschenes says. Approximately 1,800 copies are printed for politicians, government departments and libraries – everyone else is directed to the online copy. In the past, CBC printed as many as 10,000 physical copies.

The document is “a way for CBC to account for its money spent, and get some key messages across,” says Duschenes. “This year’s theme is ‘Striking the right balance’ – how to balance the need to provide programming for traditional audiences as well as new ones, and maintain traditional media while adding new technologies.”

It’s a surprisingly pretty document, with an opening photo essay on CBC’s perceived audience (a sort of “These are the people in your neighbourhood” theme.) CBC show photographs and bright colours are used throughout (“But in the printed copy, it’s a lot more red than orange!”) as a way to grab attention.

“There are a lot of annual reports that cross everybody’s desk every day,” Duschenes says. “They question is, how do you get your message across in an interesting way?”

This is Duschenes’ seventh annual report. “You can survive these things. I’ve already started working on the next one.”

Yesterday was a double whammy for CBC brass. They filed the corporation’s submission to the CRTC’s Television Policy Review, and they were grilled by the standing committee on heritage.

Some of the headlines:

- CBC could lose hockey and local news

- CBC wants to charge fees for cable and satellite users

- CBC does reality TV, but we don’t eat bugs

Each of these items is worthy of a heated debate, so I’ll file the details in separate stories.

In the meantime, here’s your homework:

• - Check out the CBC.ca story on the heritage presentation
• - Read the Corporate news release
• - Extra credit: read the full 68-page submission to the CRTC

Good news, although there’s still that pesky “one-time” prefix, meaning CBC has to apply for it every year. I believe this is the sixth “one-time” year in a row.

The cash isn’t in hand yet – according to CBC President Robert Rabinovitch, it becomes part of something called the Government’s Supplementary Estimates, which will be tabled in Parliament in November and voted on in December. Barring an election, of course.

(Do check out the new Budget site from the Department of Finance Canada – with a header that incorporates a talking Jim Flaherty!)

The next big day comes Wednesday, when CBC files its CRTC submission on over-the-air television. The same day, President and VPs appear before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage – for the first time since the change of government – “to talk about CBC/Radio-Canada’s plans for the future.”

The Mother Corp. has sold off the staff parking lot at its downtown building at 700 Hamilton to Concord-Pacific for approximately $34 million. The downtown developer’s plan is to build two highrise towers on a TV theme. CBC will use the revenue to fund a new Vancouver Production Centre for its 550 employees, at a time of scarce federal support for the “corp.” Construction has just begun with a scheduled completion in 2009.
     . . . .
Plans call for integration of all television and radio operations into a single, three-storey newsroom. The project will also showcase several public features:

• A promenade, so that people can watch the newsroom at work.
• A 4,000-square-foot plaza, featuring a courtyard garden and outdoor stage.
• 8,500 square feet of community space for non-profit uses.

CMG reaction (as quoted by The Province): “They’ve had a policy of squashing employees into as little square-footage as possible,” said CMG president Lise Lareau. “At a certain point it’s a false economy,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with getting money, especially when money isn’t flowing from the feds, but they’ve gone too far in many cases.”

In accordance with the current CBC/CMG Collective Agreement, all eligible temporary and contract employees receive a payment in lieu of pension equal to the Corporation’s contribution to the pension plan for full-time permanent employees. The purpose of the in lieu of pension payment is to provide these employees with an equivalent amount of money to invest in their own RRSP or to use in a way that is of benefit to them.
     Effective August 7, 2006, the ‘in lieu of pension’ payment will be adjusted to 10.15 per cent. Affected employees will see this change on the pay date of August 31, 2006.
     Should you require additional information, please contact your local Human Resources department.