Layoffs Loom: No Bridge Loan for the CBC
Composite image of the CBC Toronto’s atrium. Courtesy The_Magical_Man.
Layoffs, cancellations and service cuts loom at the CBC as The National Post is reporting that the conservative government has no plans to loan the CBC money to offset a sharp drop in ad revenue.
Earlier this week CBC President Hubert Lacroix and Vice-President of English Services Richard Stursberg said the CBC may lobby the federal government for bridge financing derived from future funding to help weather the recession and a sharp decline in advertising revenue.
Today a spokesperson for the Prime Minister appeared to quash the idea. “The CBC cannot be insulated from all market realities,” Kory Teneycke, Harper’s chief spokesman said. “Nobody likes to see this, but broadcasters have to adapt to lower ad revenues. No one broadcaster is immune from that.”
If bridge financing is not an option, “We’re looking at the company as a whole… everything’s on the table,” Richard Stursberg said Tuesday.
“Like every other media organization in the country, we’re facing significant challenges” CBC spokesperson Jeff Keay said today “and those challenges do in fact put programming, services and our own people at risk.”
|
Email This Post |
| Parliament, The Media Landscape |
Seconded. This is not a good thing for the country.
Why is it that when people say “everything is on the table,” there is always the whiff of a cleaver in the background?
ill take a layoff ASAP , LD
A few early retirement packages might help get rid of some of the older expensive seat warmers in the corp. It may also cause our older quality staff to decide to take the money and go retire.
In the summer of 2007, I wrote Hereux and said, “I’m a supporter of the CBC, but please don’t make the changes to Radio 2.”
When I asked Hereux “will these new Radio 2 listeners you hope to attract support the CBC if there are any funding issues?”
It was supposed to be rhetorical. Now that Radio 2 is something I don’t care to listen to, good luck CBC. Hope those hip new listeners support you.
Instead of focusing on the CBC, I would like to take a look at Stephen Harper’s policies as being a root of the problem. Currently our fearless leader has proposed an immediate $3 million in ‘economic stimulus’ money to start cash flowing to help keep people employed.
To quote from above, “The CBC cannot be insulated from all market realities,” Kory Teneycke, Harper’s chief spokesman said.
So how is it justified to pledge $3 million to support job development, but just not ones at the CBC? The government is mandated to support Canadian broadcasting, and until the CRTC legislation changes, Stephen Harper must be held accountable to support Canadian broadcasting. Whether or not we agree with/love/hate the content on the CBC, our tax dollars are supporting it.
Also, I heard a rumor this morning that Mr. Harper has threatened to call an election if his $3 million plan is not passed in Parliament. That shows a real maturity and a genuine care for the people of this country. He deserves a pat on the back.
As an employee of 5 years (coming from a major media company), I am stunned by the waste and inefficiency of the CBC. There are floors full of supervisors with six-figure salaries whose jobs are to supervise supervisors with six-figure salaries, who are supervising supervisors with….(etc. etc. etc). The whole goal of television and .ca is to make money without spending any — there are no long term plans, everything is reactionary and decisions are made by sales and marketing people using criteria and demographic studies that other broadcasters have long ago abandoned. The following will never happen in this country — but it’s time for the cbc to ditch television entirely (it long ago ceased to be a public broadcasting, if it ever was) and keep commercial-free radio, and do so with a much smaller, smarter budget.
I agree with Jake that CBC’s mandate is best filled in radio. Radio is the medium where there IS a need for a national broadcaster. TV is just trying to beat the privates to the good American shows.
Bow many TV channels does the CBC own/run? CBC, Newsworld, Bravo, Country Canada, etc. They all overlap in their programming. What’s the point of this?
Bravo is actually a CTV property, and CBC has much fewer channels than the privates. CTV has somewhere in the 30s, CanWest has 25 or so, Astral has 18. By comparison, CBC has CBC, SRC, RCI, CBC Newsworld, Bold, and the Documentary Channel (I may be forgetting one or two on the francophone side). So if you’re concerned about CBC getting too deep into the speciality channel market, it doesn’t look like that’s a problem.
(I’m not sure how radio shakes out but I’m pretty sure Astral blows everyone else away when it comes to numbers of stations.)
Mike from NS
The goal is to offer Canadians unique, distinctive and quality programming.
Below are some of the choices CBC Radio-Canada offers to Canadians.
CBC
* CBC Television
* Radio 1
* Radio 2
* Radio 3
* CBC on Sirius
* Newsworld
* Bold
* Documentary
Radio Canada
* RDI
* Première Chaîne Radio
* Espace musique
* Espace classique
* Bande à part
* Sirius Radio-Canada
* ARTV
* TV5
CBC Radio-Canada
* Radio Canada International Short Wave
* Galaxie
D’oh, I knew I’d forgotten a couple on the SRC side.
Mike from NS says: TV is just trying to beat the privates to the good American shows…
Hardly, and not in prime-time (except the odd movie). CBC-TV has more CanCon than all of the privates put together, and on SRC it’s even higher.
One can debate whether it’s the right CanCon for a pubcaster, but the last thing the Corp is guilty of is buying too much US content.
And, BTW, Newsworld and RDI are virtually all CanCon.