CBC on the future of Canadian broadcasting
CBC/Radio-Canada has filed a submission in response to the CRTC’s call for reports examining the future environment facing the Canadian broadcasting system. This was the review announced by the Honourable Bev Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage, at the Banff World Television Festival in June.
Some of the CBC’s points:
- While the scope and scale of the changes in the broadcasting environment over the past decade have been profound, the central fact remains that the broadcasting industry is expected to remain a critical element of Canada’s social, political and economic fabric.
- Developments in digital, wireless and Internet Protocol (IP) technologies offer Canadians expanded choice and greater diversity in content, technical quality, method of delivery, mode of reception and time and place of viewing or listening.
- Technological innovations are extraordinarily expanding the consumers’ broadcasting universe by giving them access to audio or video content in ways and at times that were previously not possible.
- The changing broadcasting environment raises numerous and varied challenges as well as equally numerous opportunities.
- To remain relevant, broadcasters will need to keep pace with innovation, embrace the expanding broadcasting universe and bring high-quality video and audio programming to Canadians on every possible platform.
- The challenge for the Canadian government is to support and enhance the Canadian broadcasting system through regulatory and other mechanisms, which will ensure that Canadians have access to programming that reflects Canadian values and realities.
In a memo to staff announcing the report, CBC President Robert Rabinovitch wrote: “In recent years, CBC/Radio-Canada has evolved from a traditional broadcast company to a company that is more rightly focused on content – content that’s as compelling as it is Canadian. As such, we believe that CBC/Radio-Canada is uniquely positioned to meet the challenges of the new broadcasting environment, and the Corporation has a special role to play in bringing Canadian programming to Canadians on 19 media platforms.”
I haven’t had a chance to read it through yet, but will later tonight. I’d love your take, though, once you’ve read it.
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Well, seeing how you asked…
The first thing that struck me was the numbers on TV watching across demographics. Conventional wisdom tells us that younger people are watching less TV, and I’m sure that I’ve seen studies that show this, but the numbers in this report show that they are watching just as much as they did 10 years ago.
This would contradict the main reason given for cancelling Street Cents. In fact, according to this report, the SC demo watches MORE TV than it did 10 years ago.
These kids are online a lot, as well. I wonder how many of them are using TV and internet at the same time?
The conclusions are where the meat is. The CBC really wants to get out of broadcasting “over the air,” and they really extrapolate on some of those numbers to show how crazy it is. This will be a hard fight, and painful for hicks.
I can see where the CBC is coming from, but no matter how you candy-coat it, it means passing the cost on to consumers, when they’ve already paid for the CBC through taxes.
They also have their sites set on grabbing some of the cableco’s subscription fees, which sounds good to me. They should also be making the private networks subsidize the CBC, but no one wants to suggest that here.
Finally, they want the CRTC to re-examine “broadcasting over the internet” which seems like a tremendous headache to me. No doubt by the time it’s re-examined, the landscape will have changed again.
And to be frank, I don’t like where that kind of discussion could lead us.
CBC President Robert Rabinovitch amazes me at his ability to say things that seem to have substance but which, upon examination, leave one wondering, “Just what does he mean?” This statement, is ad example: “In recent years, CBC/Radio-Canada has evolved from a traditional broadcast company to a company that is more rightly focused on content – content that’s as compelling as it is Canadian.”
RR’s words sound progressive, but moving toward what? What is a traditional broadcast company in Canada, anyway? And hasn’t the CBC always grappled on the tv side with the issue of content that is both Canadian and good? So what is new in what RR is saying?
RR speaks at a time when the corporation seems to be doing the opposite of what he says: It is interesting that within the last few weeks we had the announcement of the National being delayed in some regions for broadcast of an American reality program (that was cancelled). Oops! And then the Corporation cancelled the quirky Toronto-based courtroom show (the name of which I forget for the moment) that at times was very clever and funny. Oops again!
Radio has the traditional shows that wed compelling content with a uniquely Canadian approach: Ideas, AIH, Quirks and Quarks, DNTO, Si\unday Morning, Cross Country Checkout (but surely there must be a Canadian as intelligent as Rex Murphy who is also articulate). CBC — no one does it better!
But then there’s the oops factor again, the tendency to put anyone on the air without stopping first to think about how they sound or what they have to say. A prime example was Sean Cullen on labour day (or on his other summer shows) with much natter, lots of laughing at his own wit, but darned little content. Or the navel gazing explorations of Jonathan Goldstein.
And who monitors pronunciation at CBC? Most news readers and commentators cannot even say the words Muslim or Islam correctly, making one ask whether we Canadians cannot differentiate a hard s from a soft s, or even whether we bother to listen to how people from elsewhere pronounce the words that mean the most to them.
So to RR I would say, if there’s any breaking with tradition at Mother Corp it may in fact be the act of straying from making good decisions and keeping a check on quality. For the many of us who love CBC with a passion, please don’t let it happen any more.
Daly
Heaven knows how often I’m either listening to CBC Radio One or keeping the TV tuned to CBC Ottawa or CBC Newsworld for one thing or another while I’m either on-line or drawing pages for the next comics project. So I wouldn’t be surprised to find, as Ouimet suspects, that a lot of young viewers and listeners are doing the same as I am on a regular basis. I think Ouimet’s right to want to look more closely at this habit and see how widespread it truly is, and run with the resulting info from there.
AND I’m a regular user of the CBC’s on-line services as well. I don’t think I’d want to lose any of the services presently being provided by Mothercorp as each of the ones I’ve named here has its positive uses for me.
Daly de Gagne poses an interesting question when asking what RR means by the following: “In recent years, CBC/Radio-Canada has evolved from a traditional broadcast company to a company that is more rightly focused on content – content that’s as compelling as it is Canadian.” Being neither a broadcasting nor a content-producing type myself, I didn’t entirely get the drift of the whole traditional broadcaster vs. content producer bit either. So I asked around. A short and sweet version of what I learned… Programming used to be conceived of and developed with a specific platform in mind. (Hey I’ve got an idea for tv that I’d like to develop. And I might have wound up with a tv show.). And that was a good thing. But in today’s world — with new platforms popping up here, there and everywhere — mindsets are shifting toward developing that same kernel of an idea with all kinds of possibilities in mind. (Hey, I’ve got an idea and a huge number of platforms at my disposal. And if I go about it the right way, I might wind up with a tv show, a web site and a podcast.) And, now, that’s a good thing. Anyhow, that’s my take (perhaps oversimplified) take on the difference. While I personally see the statement more as signifying the new reality for broadcasters than as articulating a progressive idea per se, it does seem to me like a pretty progressive and meaningful shift in perspective for a company to have taken.
Kevin Payan
CBC/Radio-Canada Communications
CBC TV should re-work itelf to focus on the local level up. Local television is what’s missing on the dial, here the CBC could take a lead role in reforming local tv outlets, tied into the main cbc website. People want to know what’s going on down the street in their own community. By focussing locally, it would strengthen the CBC network as a whole. Build new CBC affiliates on the web serving communities from far and wide. That is what I see the CBC becoming.