It’s generally assumed that a viral video is a momentary diversion. It’s something that pops up out of the blue, entertains you for a few minutes and then disappears as quickly as it arrived. But what if you or your show is the source of that video? Can a video gone viral have a lasting impact? Well over at Q the answer to that question is yes.

It’s been over two months since Oscar winning actor and musician Billy Bob Thornton’s disastrous interview with Jian Ghomeshi. That’s two months for the senior team at Q to assess the impact the video has had on their online properties.

“In the first 24 hours our (YouTube) channel had over one-million views. It was the number one video in all of Canada and I saw it hit number three in all of YouTube, although it may have gone higher. In that first day we also had over 1,200 people subscribe to our channel going from 2204 to 3409. The numbers continued to be astronomical for four days until they dropped below 250,000 views a day,” wrote Ben Aylsworth, senior producer of Q on Bold TV in an email.

Arif Noorani, Q’s executive producer said that their website went from an average of 20,000 page views a week which is high for radio programs to 300,000 during the initial week. The Q audio podcast on iTunes we went from being ranked anywhere from 20th to 50th, to being in the top five of all podcasts for that week. The video podcast made it into the top ten.

But here’s the interesting part. While the numbers have dropped down since their initial spike. They have stayed higher than they were before the video went viral.

“All our numbers are higher than they were before the video and this is two months later. We have definitely expanded our core audience and broadened the number of loyal viewers/listeners…(our website) regularly ranks in the mid-30,000s. Q is often the top-ranked or second-ranked program site in radio,” wrote Noorani.

Aylsworth said that Q’s YouTube views are on average 50-75% higher than they were before the video.

So what steps did they take to capitalize on the video as it spread?

“We made sure that the video of the interview was up as soon as the show was over both on the CBC site as well as Q’s YouTube site. Q’s goal is to be cross platform and provide our content in as many places as possible. We also Twittered the link. We didn’t editorialize around the interview, just pointed people to it and let them judge for themselves,” wrote Noorani.

“I would also add here, immediately after the interview we discussed strategy for getting this material out there. We decided to contact all of the major global media outlets, including CBC, to see if they were interested in footage, embedding, linking, etc…,” wrote Aylsworth.

Jian also did interviews with other media outlets about the Billy Bob meltdown.

So the lesson here is that it’s not enough just to hope a viral video will work magic for your show’s numbers. Q was proactive. They encouraged the video to spread by featuring it prominently on their sites and they pushed out outward by making clips available to whoever wanted them.

If only every bad interview had such good consequences.

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	Q	Posted at 5:00 am (12 Jun 2009)

With the CBC News renewal process well underway, I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the opening animations of The National over the years.

This one’s pretty wild, it’s from 1978 when Knowlton Nash was still anchoring the broadcast, the description says the announcer is Allan McFee, but I can’t vouch for that.

Seven years later and the look had changed dramatically. This is a bumper for CBUT Vancouver and the opening for The National from 1985. Reminds me of Tron.

Here is a 1992 opening in which both The National and the Journal share the headlines

This is from 1996, with a headline style, more full screen viz and longer voice-overs. Both The National and The Magazine share the headlines.

Then this a year later, from 1997, the voice-overs now much shorter with sound-ups, and animations frame the visuals.

By 2002, new animations, but the same headline format with short voice-overs and quick sound-ups.

The description says this is from 2003, this may be from Newsworld, I like the sense of momentum in this version - follow the dot.

Finally the current version, thanks to Ivan for the audio version.

Which is your favourite and why? Do you favour certain elements and not others?

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	The National	Posted at 9:31 am (11 Jun 2009)

Don Newman, in an interview with The Hill Times, said the CBC should be careful with changing the format of the CBC News: Politics.

Newman said the shows maintains a comfortable ratings lead over its time slot competitors, and his advice to the network is that “if it’s not broke don’t fix it.”

Although the show is not going to be canceled, as was rumoured, according to CBC spokesperson Jeff Keay, it will undergo “substantial changes” as part of the news renewal process.

Newman also touched on the budget squeeze being felt at the CBC, saying:

With its Parliamentary grant unchanged for at least a decade it’s been a bit like an old age pensioner living on a fixed pension and every year there’s inflation and less money to go around, so it really squeezes.

The full article is here. Don Newman is also the guest on The Hour tonight at eleven.

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	Shows	Posted at 2:02 pm (08 Jun 2009)

After eight years on the air, CBC News: Sunday taped their final morning show in front of a full house in the atrium of the CBC building in Toronto on Sunday.

You can watch the show here. Here are a few pictures of the event.

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	Behind the Scenes, CBC News: Sunday	Posted at 11:56 am (02 Jun 2009)

The supper-hour news show in Vancouver just celebrated a significant milestone, co-host Gloria Macarenko had her 20th anniversary. The guy at the show put together this highlight reel (there’s a bit of an audio sync problem).

Macarenko has twice been nominated for the Gemini Award and her most recent honours include a Jack Webster Award for “Best News Reporting” in 2002 and in 2004 and a Leo Award for “Best Anchor in a News Program”.

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	CBC News at Six, Vancouver	Posted at 10:11 am (26 May 2009)

This photo was on Kevin McGrath’s Facebook page with the caption “Erin Karpluk is pretty flattered after we inform her that she is the next Carrie Bradshaw.” It was taken during the CBC’s ‘Doors Open’ event on Saturday, an annual event in which the public is invited to tour the CBC facilities.

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	Behind the Scenes, Being Erica	Posted at 12:15 am (26 May 2009)

CBC Television announced its new Fall/Winter lineup today. The new shows include three comedies and two reality shows.

The comedies are ‘The Ron James Show’, centered around stand-up comedian Ron James, ‘18 to Life’, a comedy about a couple that gets married when they’re 18, and ‘The Republic of Doyle’, a one-hour comedy-drama about a father-son team of private investigators set in Newfoundland.

The reality shows are ‘Battle of the Blades’, a reality television competition that pairs hockey stars and figure skaters against one another in elimination challenges and ‘Canada’s Super Speller’, a spelling game show hosted by Evan Solomon that has 12 finalists competing for the title of Canada’s Super Speller.

As expected the Calgary-based drama ‘Wild Roses’ was not renewed. The returning series are: Rick Mercer Report, Being Erica, The Border, Little Mosque On The Prairie, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Heartland, The Tudors, Dragons’ Den And The Hour With George Stroumboulopoulos.

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	Shows	Posted at 9:59 am (21 Apr 2009)

It looks like the CBC’s Calgary-based drama Wild Roses will not be renewed next season. A petition is circulating online that reads: “We, the Undersigned, are fans of CBC’s Drama Series, Wild Roses, which has reportedly been canceled.” The petition has been signed by over 1000 people. 

The petition was created by Tom Niles. He said the news was announced on Facebook by Paul Christie, an actor on the show, who wrote a message on the
Facebook fan page:

As some of you may already know, we got word last week that the CBC has decided to pass on producing a second season of “Wild Roses”. To the disappointment of many, I’m sad to pass along the news.

Jeff Keay, the CBC spokesperson, said the CBC is currently figuring out which shows to renew for next season, and no announcements will be made for the next couple weeks.

Wild Roses averaged about half a million viewers during it’s thirteen-episode run. The petition says the show could have been more popular if it had received more promotion from the CBC.

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	Programming, Wild Roses	Posted at 8:23 am (16 Apr 2009)

In case you haven’t heard about this yet Billy Bob Thornton and his band The Boxmasters were on Q with Jian Ghomeshi this morning. The interview, uh, ahem, well, it didn’t go very well.

Billy Bob said he was upset because Ghomeshi referred to his acting career in the introduction to the interview. He said he’d told the producer to focus on the band and not mention his acting.

The highlight was when Ghomeshi asked him about his former and current tour-mate Willie Nelson, and Billy Bob replied that he’d never met him.

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	Behind the Scenes, Q	Posted at 3:19 pm (08 Apr 2009)

In a note to staff this afternoon Kirstene Layfield announced that Steven and Chris will go on hiatus next season and Fashion File will be cancelled.  Steven and Chris will end production on April 15th, and Fashion File will stop at the end of March.

The Canadian Media Guild (CMG) says the changes will affect about 65 jobs, of which 44 are freelance, temporary and contract positions. The CMG says it’s “seeking other assignments” for the 19 permanent and long-term contract employees.

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	Layoffs, Shows, Steven and Chris	Posted at 7:28 pm (10 Mar 2009)

Andy Barrie is set to return to Toronto’s Metro Morning next Monday. Barrie had been off the air for several month while his wife battled cancer. Sadly she died of the disease in February.

BlogTO has more here.

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	Metro Morning	Posted at 12:11 pm (05 Mar 2009)

‘Off The Record’ the TSN show with Michael Lansberg, recently redesigned their set. It reminded me of the set of ‘The Hour’ pictured below.

What’s that they say about imitation and flattery?

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	Asides, The Hour with George S.	Posted at 8:00 am (27 Feb 2009)

The image is from John A Ryan. It was taken during the making of CBC’s ‘The Border.’ He says: “This was shot outside of Brampton’s vacant Peel Memorial Hospital, [I] was given authorization and access by the hospital security.”

You can see more of his photography here.

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	The Border	Posted at 10:00 am (26 Feb 2009)

The U.S. broadcast rights to the CBC drama ‘The Border’ has been sold to ION Television.

The U.S. deal follows deals in Britain, Italy, Germany, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, South Korea, Sweden, Estonia, Bulgaria and South Africa.

The border is produced by White Pines Pictures Production in association with the CBC.

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	The Border	Posted at 1:38 pm (25 Feb 2009)

The move to Wednesday night for CBC’s prime time drama Being Erica has not yet paid off.

Last Wednesday the show pulled in 478 thousand viewers against a monster lineup of U.S. imports on CTV.

The logic behind moving Erica to Wednesday night seems right. The show pairs well with The Week the Women Went, but that logic has yet to pay dividends in the ratings.

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	Being Erica	Posted at 4:12 pm (20 Feb 2009)