Yesterday, I sat down with CBC president Robert Rabinovitch for a detailed one-on-one interview that lasted more than an hour. Neither he nor CBC Communications staff were provided with a list of questions in advance. We covered a lot of ground, including questions like:

• Considering our relative lack of success in drama ratings, and Canadians’ apparent desire to watch American programming, is television drama really the right format for us to be putting so much money into?

• What do you make of Richard Stursberg’s “magic one-million ratings” number?
• Why CBC Television is moving toward more independent production?
• CTV says it’s going to bid $1.4 billion for the NHL rights. Can or would be be competitive in that kind of bid, and is a contingency plan being developed in the event we lose the rights?
• Could you ever see CBC Radio moving toward a user-pay system, similar to how public radio stations in the U.S. are funded partially from donations by its listeners?
• CBS said this week some of its shows are seeing some solid audience-share increases for their audiences since they started posting clips on YouTube. I know CBC puts occasional clips on the Internet, but what is the specific long-term strategy for CBC online?

Keep checking this site because I’ll have the full interview online early next week. In the meantime, here’s a preview of the interview:

On Staff Defections

Q: We’ve lost some of our high-profile journalism talent lately — Eric Sorenson to Global, Paul Workman to CTV, Jennifer Ditchburn to CP, Jennifer Fry from radio. Does the rate or high-profile nature of these people leaving to go to competitive firms alarm you?

A: Not really. I really believe it’s inevitable. It’s always been the history of the CBC. We’re one of the best training grounds in the world, and it’s almost a compliment that companies like Global or CTV will go after a Paul Workman. But I also think that we have to have some churn and we have to bring new people in, and create space for new people to develop. So I’m sorry when we lose people but I fully understand that that has to happen and it should happen.

Q: But does it seem like a trend to you?

A: No.

Q: It doesn’t?

A: No, not at all. It’s a normal situation that there’ll be churn — especially at the lower levels or at the exit levels. It’s funny; in the middle it tends to be stable. But when people are being moved out and they may not like the new assignments, they may think ‘Well, it’s time for me to try something different.’ And that has cost us one or two people this year. As the people come up, sometimes they find themselves being stymied in terms of promotion and there’s real opportunities to work somewhere else.
     And the other thing too is if you’re going to work in Ottawa, we want you to be bilingual. Some people just don’t want to do that and that’s just fine. But I don’t believe that the national broadcaster can cover people without — they don’t have to speak both languages, but they have to understand both languages.

On His Legacy

Q: When history, say, fifty years from now, looks back on your term, what do you want it to say? “Robert Rabinovitch’s term at the CBC was…” ?

A: What I’d like to believe in is that I always understood the difference, I think, between the creators and the managers, and I’m a manager. My job was to make this more into an integrated institution: break down the silos between radio and TV, get us prepared, use our tremendous advantages that we have so many quality people in radio and TV and we can learn from each other. And that we can we can create and move into the Internet. So, what I would love to, as one of my main elements (other than getting some new buildings for us through some damn good business deals) — is to get the CBC, Radio-Canada, seperately and together, to think of themselves as one company, not as a series of individual entities.

Q: And, objectively speaking, do you think you’ve achieved that?

A: Um… [CHUCKLES] I think I’m way down the way, and it’s not only me, but my whole senior management committee and team. I think that, on the French side we’ve even done away with one of the vice-presidents, and we now have a Vice-President French Services. So I think we’ve made tremendous progress in that direction. On the English side, I think we’ve made tremendous progress and you’ll see more coming out over the next little while, especially as we go more into the next stage of news integration and develop more locally-based operations.
     But I’m not naive. I know that the forces that pull us apart are always going to be there — even within the organization. People’s loyalties tend to be to their program, to their area, more than to the corporation as such. So, as long as its in people’s interests work together, as long as there’s the drive from the top, yes, I think this is the way we’re going to go. But can I assure you it’s going to happen in five to ten years? It’ll depend on my successor, on what his or her priorities are. It’ll depend on how the people here see this. You know, they say, “No, this is a silly idea,” then it’ll go the way of the dodo bird.

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