We’re getting there…

The CBC is succeeding in getting Canadians talking about its new primetime shows, suggests a survey conducted late last month by The Canadian Press and Harris-Decima.

As of Jan. 28th, one in three people polled had heard about four of the CBC’s heavily promoted winter shows: “The Border,” “JPod,” “Sophie” and “MVP.” All of the shows launched in early January.

Now the bad news. That hasn’t yet translated into large numbers of Canadians tuning into the shows, however - only 10 per cent of those polled had actually seen “The Border,” about an elite team of Canadian border-security officers. That’s more viewers than the other shows had managed to attract among those surveyed.

Thirty-three per cent of those surveyed felt that the quality of CBC programming is getting better compared to previous years, compared to 21 per cent who felt it was getting worse. But those who had watched one or more of the new programs (19 per cent of respondents) were five times more likely to say the quality was improving (67 per cent)rather than declining (12 per cent).

More younger people than older people had a better opinion about the quality of CBC programming, the survey also found.

More than 1,000 Canadians were interviewed between Jan. 22 and 28th though Harris-Decima’s national online panel, and the results are considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Canadian Press

Little Mosque on the Prairie creator Zarqa Nawaz will participate in a Toronto forum tomorrow, offering insight into the show’s premise and message, and will comment on the show’s popularity.

Executive Producers Mary Darling and Michael Snook will also participate, along with the two of the series’ lead actors Sheila McCarthy and Manoj Sood.

Their participation is part of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s Canada Award Screening Tour — part of a road show that attracted audiences in Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary and Vancouver.

The screening series showcases diversity in the show, encouraging discussion and promoting multiculturalism. The series will feature episode screenings and a question and answer period with the show’s producers, creator and several cast members.

The screening is free to the public and will be at the NFB Cinema (150 John Street) at 6:00 p.m. ET.

It’s kind of hard to know where to file this one. But believe it or not, the design on this African dress is purely coincidental.

The dress, known on its retailer’s web site as Office and Career Outfit ca-1011A comes in four sizes and costs $150 (!).

It comes with a skirt, blouse and head-wrap.

According to the promotional material, you can “Wear to work, office or to entertain - with or without head-tie.”)

I dare you.

I seriously dare someone to wear this to work.

Hat tip to Jonathan Pinto.

Later this year, the CBC’s I.T. department plans to assess whether it should switch the corporate web browser standard to Firefox 3.

Firefox is a free, open-source web browser which has gained a solid following in the past few years, notably for its stronger security and better ability to render web pages accurately. It also has “tabs” which make it easier to keep multiple web pages open.

CBC standardized on Internet Explorer 6 more than two years ago (it came pre-installed with Windows XP). Windows 2000 users were upgraded about a year ago. Still, says Dean Mannella, CBC’s senior manager of workstation services, “We still have a portion of the population using Netscape and a growing footprint for Firefox.”

“From a security perspective, Firefox has gained much support in the industry and offers great flexibility through extensions,” Dean told me. “As such we will be considering this a possible standard, but we will be reviewing IE 7 and Firefox 3 equally.”

But it won’t be an easy decision.

Microsoft’s web sites don’t play nice with Firefox (or any other non-Microsoft browser for that matter). Some Microsoft sites, like those for updating Windows, simply won’t work at all on Firefox. Also, the CBC has a number of web applications that would most likely have to be re-coded to reduce their reliance on ActiveX, an IE-only technology.

Which web browser do you prefer?

Starting today, I’m going to change a little bit of the editorial focus of this blog. I’ve had lots of feedback from within and outside CBC and people seem to want more about the people and events at the Corp, and less acting as a news aggregator of stories about the CBC.

As a result, there will be fewer (but, hopefully, more interesting!) posts here.

I’d love to know your feedback on story selection over the next few weeks.

However, I know many of you really like having a place that aggregates stories about the CBC so I’ll be ramping up posting links to stories elsewhere in the “Elsewhere” section of the sidebar.

• If you read this by visiting here directly, it’s over there on the right in the grey box under “Elsewhere.”
• If you read this through an RSS feed, you’ll get these links once daily.

Here are some recent stories posted to the Elsewhere section:

• Emmy-winning producers to create show for MySpace

  MySpace social networking site has a deal to obtain exclusive rights to TV series Quarterlife, which it describes as the first “network quality” program to be shown exclusively on the internet.

• Multi-Platform Variations on Gould Airs on CBC

  Streaming video, multi-media presentations, live relays between venues and other media platforms will be used to celebrate the life, legacy and lasting inspiration of music virtuoso Glenn Gould with Variations on Gould a 10-day radio festival…

• Drabinsky looks to elevate reality TV

  Some critics believe that our national broadcaster shouldn’t even go near reality shows. Triple Sensation is only the latest in a series from the Ceeb that also includes the successful Dragon’s Den, the forthcoming No Opportunity Wasted…

• Canadian TV could face American invasion

  There was a lot of gnashing of teeth among Canadian television honchos yesterday. A few garments may even have been rent. The cause of all this angst was a report that calls for changes that could shake the Canadian TV business to the core…

• Net radio pact may be near

  Listening to radio over the Internet is easier than ever, as high-speed connections proliferate and online offerings become more sophisticated. Now the legal aspects may be falling into place too.

• Change rules to promote Canadian drama, CRTC told

  Two prominent communications lawyers asked to review broadcast policies for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission say the rules should be changed to promote more Canadian drama on prime-time TV.

• Media merger wave has passed, Corus chief says

  The wave of consolidation that has washed over the media industry in the past year - with more than $5-billion worth of deals in the broadcast sector alone - is starting to subside, executives say.