Robert Rabinovitch, Richard Stursberg and Sylvain Lafrance appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage today to discuss “the role of a public broadcaster in the 21st century” and to “make the case for a new contract between Canada’s national public broadcaster and the Canadians it exists to serve.”
Rabinovitch’s opening remarks and the CBC news release are available online. One focus of the discussion was the integration of media and media lines:
We can no longer think of ourselves as a Television and Radio company with an Internet presence. The fact is: we are a content company. We need to create content that, from its inception, is designed for multiple platforms. We are working hard to entrench this philosophy in all of our services, and to have it guide us in all that we do. French Services’ integration is well underway and is yielding results, and much the same can be expected to follow from the recent announcement concerning the integration of English Services.
Rabinovitch suggested the CBC needs a 10-year mandate and firm funding commitments to make such changes. And he suggested that up to $150 million more should be added to the budget to cover expenses such as high definition service.
Richard Stursberg was questioned about his suggestion that CBC needs to be more like Tim Hortons and less like Starbucks.
“The purpose of the metaphor is to capture what the CBC is trying to do,” Stursberg said. “Hortons is … the service that has broader public appeal.”
More on the story at CBCNews.ca Arts.
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The coffee shop comments are indeed disturbing. Although I would note that Stursberg’s goal has already been achieved: Tim Horton’s advertises pervasively on CBC. I therefore conclude that they have similar target audiences.
Nevertheless, the CBC needs to focus on the quality of its content, not the quantity of its viewers.
CBC needs to be more like Tim Hortons and less like Starbucks
Which part? TV or radio? That’s all I want to know.
You’re leaving out internet and print there.
As to the coffee house analogy, what’s wrong with comparing CBC to the likes of Bridgehead, rather than Tim’s or Starbucks?
They only have 3 or 4 kinds of donuts left at Tim’s these days.
They’ve abandoned their core mandate to try to be everything to everyone.
Hmmm.
Works for me:
Radio One = Starbucks
Radio Two = Murchie’s (RIP)
Radio 3 = Caffè Artigiano
TV = Tim Hortons
Tim’s - as in started by a Leaf hockey player but now owned by (Americans) Wendy’s, with watered-down coffee & staffed by teens? And with a hole in the middle…where the heart should be?
Poor little metaphor, strained to the breaking point!
Seriously, of all the statements made by Stursberg lately, this is the one people is obsessing about? Maybe that town hall should have been mandatory.
What a horrible analogy. When I think of Tim Hortons, I think of a company that shamelessly wraps it’s unhealthy products in the flag and flogs patriotism as a double double and a maple glazed. I turn to the CBC for culture, not garbage, but if that’s where it’s headed then count me out.
It’s hard to know whether to be optimistic about what’s being said so far or not. “Serving all Canadians”, and not being merely “niche programming” are good statements, and if followed through on should mean that basically anyone who has ever worked for MuchMusic, and Jian Ghomeshi, will be transferred to CBC Toronto and that the national CBC will be hiring qualified people, and some younger people, and certainly people with an adequate education level and some kind of respectable national perspective, to replace them. The statements about no micromanaging make me wonder whether the changes will have enough power for force any change at all, however, and holding up the example of Little Mosque on the Prairie as a wholly positive example is also worrying. LMOTP of last year was a very good example of what the CBC should be, but LMOTP of this year is an example of the CBC that is out of touch with what was successful about LMOTP, and worse it may be yet another example of the corruption at the CBC working to defeat its mandate.
The writing on shows like Corner Gas and LMOTP isn’t always great, but a big part of the appeal of these shows was that they had a different flavour to them somehow, a different overall feel to the show that was both fresh and that people identified with. Someone who is more familiar with the mechanics of how these shows are made may be able to pinpoint whether it’s the direction or cinematography or more probably some combination of things, but such shows produced out of Toronto as a rule don’t have these intangibles and all seem to take on an identifiable shellac of tired, old, schlockiness. You can generally identify the shows that are produced out of Vancouver too, and some of them are very good and others are not that great, but this seems to depend on the writing more than anything else, it seems to me. One of the factors that keep Corner Gas fresh and interesting is that it has a unique feel, different from either of the above, and LMOTP did too. Now, however, LMOTP is taking on that very familiar shellac of Toronto schlock, and it’s losing its flavour, and its audience, this year.
And I think many if not most people knew that a move to Toronto would do this to LMOTP, and it was discussed on this very board with Derek McGrath in full, vulgar, denial, saying that “Toronto is Canada” and that Canadians should be happy about having all of CBC’s programming produced out of Toronto. With people like Derek openly saying things like this then the CBC’s current problems can’t be a secret to most. If that kind of arrogance and entitlement, not to mention disconnect with Canada and Canadians, is at all common in the employees who inhabit the TBC then, once again, I think the only solution is to shut it down, and perhaps some micromanagement and quotas are also needed too to curtail this kind of corruption in the future. What do you CBC employees believe is needed to make the CBC Canadian again? Do you feel free to say? Are some of you living off of the current gravy train and don’t want anything to change?
I’m getting long winded again, but let me just end with this. If the Conservatives want to kill, or make major cutbacks to, the CBC then their best course of action would be do very little and to let things continue to deteriorate, and as the CBC continues to lose credibility and to burn off its good will they will have increasing support for making drastic cuts to the CBC, or killing it. Not making major reforms to the CBC to make it Canadian again will end up being the worst option for CBC employees, for the CBC itself, and for Canada.
Seriously, David, do you work anywhere or is your full time calling to comment on every thread on Inside the CBC, essentially making the same, idiotic Toronto-bashing point over and over?
It doesn’t matter, really, I suppose. The internet is and always has been a self-powering troll machine, but when you willfully or haplessly distort the views of others, you lose the right to have your opinion considered seriously.
Let’s just run down the factually incorrect statements in your last screed:
-First of all, it’s Denis, not Derek. I’ll give you that one, though. Derek McGrath is a fine actor well remembered from Cheers and now, Little Mosque. He’s from the delightfully named town of Porcupine, Ontario. Though sadly he lives in Toronto so you have to hate him.
-Little Mosque did not “move” to Toronto. Little Mosque was always shot in Toronto, with a few weeks of shooting in Regina. From the beginning.
Everything you write, you write through a single prism, which is your absolutely off-the-charts hatred for everything Toronto. It’s not surprising that you missed the point of what I was saying in the earlier thread. I, sadly, tried to frame it in somewhat poetical terms.
My point, vulgar as you may think it is, is that Toronto is a diverse and teeming place, and the CBC employees who work and produce shows there show a very healthy cross section of the Canadian mosaic. In my contacts with CBC Radio and TV, I’m consistently amazed by the people who work there who hail from Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Sudbury, Halifax, St Johns, Charlottetown, Montreal, Val D’or, Red Deer, Regina, Saskatoon, Vernon, Prince Rupert, Yellowknife…..these are merely the people I can remember off the top of my head. It used to be a joke in and around the newsroom that CBC News was run by a “Winnipeg mafia.” In short, the interesting thing about CBC Toronto is the interesting thing about Toronto itself — you meet so many people who aren’t from here. Who, in fact, hail from everywhere. When I made the point that “Toronto is Canada” — that’s what I was saying.
You didn’t miss a beat, though. You came straight back with the howler that the second anybody moved to Toronto, the city somehow nefariously co-opted them and they became part of the big Toronto problem that you rail against.
If you don’t like Jian Ghomeshi, that’s entirely your concern and your sacred right — but don’t say it’s because he doesn’t know Canada, my friend. The guy toured in a band for years, and I dare say that he’s seen more of this fine country than you and I put together. George S, too, has crisscrossed sea to sea to sea.
Your thinking is provincial, and it is one track. There are a hundred different ways to fix the CBC. And I happen to agree with you that one of them is to strengthen regional operations so that the national broadcaster is truly the national broadcaster.
But any person who reads these comments, after a week or so, will quickly come to realize that you have one bug in your bum, and it rhymes with “For Tonto.”
There’s lots of things that need to happen to strengthen the CBC and give it a real future. But none of them start with indulging a guy who only sees what he wants to see, hears what he wants to hear, and frames everything in terms of imagined slights perpetrated by all the people in the big bad city.
Just as a small point of interest (at least to David), Little Mosque was shot in Saskatchewan this season. Again. (There was a mid-season switch to Toronto last year, but it was back on the good ol’ prairies this year.)
Oh for Heaven’s sake. No, it wasn’t. You’re wrong.
Little Mosque was shot and written and produced out at Dufferin Gate studios on Evans Avenue in the west end of Toronto. That’s where Season One was shot. That’s where Season Two was shot.
After principal photography was completed, there was a couple of weeks shooting for exteriors, etc, in Regina to give the flavour of the town of Mercy.
Just like NYPD Blue was shot in L.A., and The West Wing was shot in L.A., and made to look like they were on location through the judicious use of second unit scenes shot for a couple weeks each season, so does Mosque employ the same technique to create the town of Mercy. It’s TV magic.
And so to the larger point — not an example of what happens when something “that’s from the prairies” is transferred to the big bad city.
Corner Gas is shot 100% on location in Rouleau. Mosque is shot mostly in Toronto, with a few weeks shooting in Sask. Big difference.
Is Battlestar Galactica really shot in space?
The first season was shot in space. But in the second season they moved the show to Earth and lost touch with what it was about because all those dirty Earthians got their mitts on it and made all their snide little Earth jokes.
Actually, now that I think about it. I slightly misspoke. I think Mosque might have gone to Sask. twice — once in June and once at the end of shooting. None of that changes the fact that if you go out to Butterick Road, just off the QEW at Islington and Evans, voila, there’s the place they shot Mosque. In all its dirty, Toronto-standing-in-for-fictional SaskAltoba town Mercy.
Denis: You may be thinking of Galactica 80. Hopefully they won’t make that mistake again.
Not that it matters because you know, not on our network.
If Little Mosque was half as entertaining as this comment section, maybe I’d watch it.
Maybe.
Maybe if the Battlestar Galactica characters drank more Tim Hortons in Regina, CBC would fire Jian Gomeshi, forcing Stursberg to live in Portage la Priaire with his MuchMusic… integration… Torontooo… arrogance… doughnuts… AH! MY HEAD IT’S hhuurtttxflmn nnt k
The response on this site to the Tim’s vs Starbucks is very telling indeed.
Lovely. Another irony laced post by one of the shining examples of what is wrong with the CBC, *Denis* McGrath.
It would take forever to address all the false statements and misdirection Denis litters his posts with, and if you look back you’ll find that he does this in almost every long rant he makes, but it seems that here and on other CBC sites his posting style is pretty well known, so I don’t think I need to say very much, but here are a few points.
It was common knowledge to anyone who followed the show, but for someone who didn’t already know a simple internet search would show that LMOTP season 1 was “shot mainly in Regina”. (At the very least it seems clear that the first episodes were shot in Regina and somewhere midseason the shooting was shifted to Toronto.) Is it possible that he doesn’t know this? Does he just open his mouth and randomly start spewing things that he thinks will save him in the moment, or is he deliberately trying to mislead? You be the judge, but note that he does this in essentially every rant he makes.
Next let’s note the irony of someone who claims that “Toronto is Canada” suggesting that someone else who is arguing for true representation from all of Canada is “looking through a single prism”. (He MUST just blurt this stuff out without ever pausing to pass it through his brain first.) The argument that he made last time, and that he’s resurrecting here, is that there are a lot of people from all over Canada in Toronto, and therefore that Toronto is Canada, culturally speaking. This is obvious nonsense, of course. There is a HUGE number of people from all over Canada here in Calgary, so using Denis’ logic Calgary would be Canada, and Calgary would have to be the same as Toronto, culturally speaking, and the same could be said for Vancouver too. Anyone who thinks Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver are culturally the same please stand up! Denis, presumably, is standing alone at this point. And note that the CBC has recognized the need to have well rounded hosts for cultural programming for a very long time. Every host of a major national cultural show I can thing of, except Q and The Hour, has been hosted by someone who has spent a significant amount of time in very culturally different parts of Canada. Go down the list yourself, starting with Peter G.
Why would someone try to concoct an excuse as absurd as this? Is it true that he does a guest spot on Q every week? I think Denis’ job, and quite likely his past and any future jobs, have and will depend on his Toronto contacts and this ridiculous, and highly offensive, myth that “Toronto is Canada.” Q is hosted by someone who has never lived anywhere in Canada other than Toronto for any significant length of time, so it would appear that Jian’s job depends on this convenient myth too, and Denis’ job along with it. (And note that anyone who has actually lived in different parts of the country knows very well that it takes a couple of years, at the very lest, of meeting people and going to events and learning about local history and artists, to absorb and understand the new culture to any significant extent. The suggestion that you can breeze into town and play a gig or two and then know the culture of the place is preposterous. It could only be made by someone who has never made such a move, like Jian or George perhaps, or someone who is working another agenda and not being honest. I’ve lived in 3 different provinces for more than 3 years each, including Ontario, and my parents both come from a 4th province on the east coast, so I’m well aware of what I’m talking about. Further, the fact that Jian and George are very culturally narrow and regional is, frankly, plain to see for all those who have a broader understanding of Canada and Canadian culture than that of just one region. Maybe some people have mistakenly believed that, “that must be Canadian youth culture”, but it isn’t. I’m not sure it’s even Toronto youth culture anymore, but it’s certainly regional Toronto anyway, and not much broader than that at all.)
And of course throughout his posts Denis consistently relies heavily on the ad hominem argument. The national CBC is obviously hugely skewed toward Toronto content, and culturally Toronto content, and I’m pointing out that this is in violation of the CBC’s mandate and that major changes need to be made to make the CBC Canadian again and bring it back in line with its mandate, but he has no substantive response to this so he resorts to trying to label me as anti-Toronto. This is all very text book so I don’t need to go much farther than this on this point.
The fact that someone like Denis McGrath is employed by the CBC in Toronto in any capacity is, frankly, quite shocking, but it speaks volumes about the state of CBC Toronto in general, and it goes a long way towards explaining why the quality and relevance of the shows coming out of Toronto are what they are. It also seems pretty clear what kinds of forces are acting to maintain the status quo, or to give the appearance of making changes while really trying to protect their turf and privileges. So those concerned about reforming the CBC and making it Canadian again need to keep up the fight. Keep writing your MPs and the new CBC management and whoever else you can think of. Bookmark this thread and sent it to your MP and others. The CBC belongs to Canadians, so let’s be proactive and take back the CBC. Let’s free the CBC from the clutches of people like Denis McGrath make it Canadian again.
What does “content company” mean, anyway? Sounds like a buzzword.
You’re bound and determined to be a silly man.
But wow, you’re persuasive. What could I have been thinking?
Oh, wait, I remember. I was probably thinking about when they filmed the first season of Mosque in the same building where I was writing and producing my own show. And all those visits I had with my good friend the script coordinator. As he put out the scripts. Which came from the writers. Working … in Toronto.
But you know what? It should be an easy matter to disprove me — you can just call Saskfilm and ask.
SaskFILM / Locations Saskatchewan
Mark Prasuhn - Film Commissioner
2445 13th Ave, # 340
Regina
Saskatchewan, S4P 0W1
Tel: (306) 347-3456
Mark’s a very decent guy. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to hear that they owe a lot more for locations, since the whole series was shot in Sask in season 1 … or … um…it moved halfway through season one or something. You’re not really that clear on which point you’re making.
I worked with Mark at TVO years ago, but don’t worry, David, he’s lived in Sask for more than three years so he’s probably clean.
As for the rest, well, you know, I actually do think that the Vancouver and Calgary CBC detatchments (which I’m most familiar with, and know the most people working in) are made stronger because of the diversity of voices and representation from all areas of Canada there — including people from Toronto who’ve settled in those places.
But when you define an enemy — Ie: “Toronto” as the root of everything evil, you do back yourself into a lot of corners. You want to disprove things I’ve seen with my own eyes, man, you better bring some heat and some fact.
Oh, so tired. If only there was some ready made thing somebody else said that perfectly encapsulated David’s brave, anonymous stand of rage. Oh, hang on a tic…Davey, you may find this one familiar!
“Does he just open his mouth and randomly start spewing things that he thinks will save him in the moment, or is he deliberately trying to mislead? You be the judge, but note that he does this in essentially every rant he makes.”
Couldn’t have said it better me own self. Say ‘Hi’ to Mark at Saskfilm — and do post those facts when you got’em. It’ll throw everybody off, you postin a few facts!
Peas out,
“What does “content company” mean, anyway? Sounds like a buzzword.”
It is a buzzword.
The way I use it is to explain that in my opinion we should spend less time defining ourselves by how we get content to people than the content and the people themselves. Hard to argue the fact the CBC for decades has been the national broadcaster. What does that mean online? Use it to distribute what we’re good at? Or can and should we be doing something else? What do people expect from us?
It’s an oversimplification, but personally it helps frame my thinking, and sometimes it helps you recognize when you’re trying to force something online that probably shouldn’t be there.
Wait.
They were NOT doing principal photography for Little Mosque in Regina this year?
Could’ve sworn I’d heard that they were. I figured with all that other stuff going on in and around Regina these days, the logistics could fall into place for Little Mosque to do so as well. It would also be one more knife in the metaphorical back of the logic of the Taxpayers’ Federation’s argument against SaskFilm as well. Or the front of its logic. Take your pick.
my understanding is this: the first two eps of mosque were shot entirely in regina.
the last six of the first season were shot in toronto.
in season 2, the one that is airing now, there were a total of about 20 shooting days in regina, and 60 or so in toronto. i don’t know exactly, but i think there were about 80 shooting days total.
this is just my understanding; i didn’t work on the show.
mark
This would the pilot episode of Mosque, where all the scenes with the daughter were reshot because they replaced the actress with Sitara Hewitt? Having seen the original pilot, I can tell you they wound up reshooting a bunch of it. In Toronto.
But the central point is this: Nutty David insists — as part of his “Toronto Grr Bad” thesis, that there is a noticeable change from season one (or part of season one, he keeps moving the goalpost) — which employed glorious Regina and therefore had real Canadians doing it, and the inferior boo hiss second season (you know, the one that all the critics say is actually, um, funny) that was made in exactly the same place, exactly the same way.
He has locked himself into this ridiculous position where creative people supposedly can’t make anything decent if they come to Toronto. Because they lose their…I don’t know — Canada mojo.
If you transfer that argument to any other country in the world, you immedialely see how ridiculous is is. A BBC producer from Edinburgh works out of BBC London, but has a London Bias…an artist from the Midwest paints in SoHo in NYC, but is no longer defined or influenced by the dreams of where they’re from.
It’s a child’s argument, and he makes it childishly. To leave it unchallenged is to let the guy spread his crap. Of all the stuff the CBC needs to do — INCLUDING reflect the country better, listening to a bigot with an insane bias against the biggest city in the country isn’t the answer.
Do not discard, however, the concept that CBC’s version of “Canadian” culture is Toronto-centric. Just because you perceive David’s diatribes to be nutty does not mean that the issue is nonexistent.
For example: In Winnipeg, there is very little local CBC programming. The 2-time Gemini Award-winning show It’s a living was cut and our last two news anchors Diana Swain and Krista Erickson were “promoted” to Toronto (Why do all the good people get “promoted” out of Winnipeg?).
I’m sorry, I’m really not trying to be thick here but I really don’t get your point. So talent in smaller markets shouldn’t try to move up to other shows? So Rick Mercer and Cathy Jones and Mary Walsh should have all stayed put in Nfld? Is that really what you’re saying?
Or should any national show built around a personality the network wants to feature be located in that person’s home town?
Is that practical? What if you have someone who’s from one place, like Vancouver, but really makes a splash as host of the Ottawa morning show? What happens then?
The issue of the cutting of regional programming goes back to 1990 and the first massive cuts of 1100 regional jobs. The CBC is consistently asked to do a lot, without being able to fulfill what it’s asked to do. It tries to struggle with still having regional programming while having to support a massive terrestrial apparatus. Something’s gotta give.
As I’ve said many times before — stronger regional presence would benefit the CBC a lot. But not if nobody can move from place to place because you’ll feel “slighted” if they move on, and not if it means that you have to entertain weirdo agendas like Toronto-hating David. Does no one see that that kind of shortsighted provincialism is exactly what makes the case for more regional representation more dismissable?
I think communications technology has advanced such that Broadcasters do not need to be monolithic. Nation-wide broadcasts can be made in any city.
I would not aurgue that journalists should not travel, but getting a promotion should not be analogous to moving to Toronto.
Well it sounds to me like what you should be really promoting is that Toronto itself be legislated to correct its many inequities. So new immigrants shouldn’t go there, the stock exchanges and head offices shouldn’t locate there, and the 2 and a half million people who live here should be redistributed in a more equitable fashion across the country.
That’s about as practical a suggestion as the one you’re making.
People being able to move - labor mobility - is exactly the thing that allows for building a shared vision of a nation. In the U.S., the flocking to New York for all over doesn’t just make that city stronger — it makes America stronger. Cross pollination of people makes a city stronger and better, and a vision more national, not provincial. It’s happening in Calgary right now.
The French from Burgundy or the country go to Paris, and nobody blinks.
London draws from Scotland and the UK and it’s entirely proper.
Finns go to Helsinki, Aussies to Sydney or Melbourne, Quebecois from the townships to Montreal and nobody blinks. But English Canada is different. English Canada has to nurse a grudge because an anchor moves to Toronto?
I’m sorry. That’s just stupid.
Denis, you’re not listening to what I’m saying.
A national public broadcaster doesn’t need to be monolithic anymore. We have the technology to produce quality programs in any city.
I do not mean to say that this should be applied across the board in all sectors (especially not to businesses), but as a broadcaster and a public agency, CBC has a responsibility to represent all regions.
Right. By upending the way broadcasting works — by the way that business works.
We should definitely make sure all arts shows come out of Winnipeg. Never mind that, in fact, business demands that most touring artists of stature, for instance, come to Toronto and maybe Montreal.
We should do national shows in places where national people aren’t located and spend tons of money on satellite time. I’m sure with a little rejgging and spit and polish, it would make perfect sense, for instance, to have a show about national politics come from Saskatoon. Sure everyone you want to talk to is in Ottawa, but that’s a small price to pay to represent all regions.
If you’re actually serious about this frankly silly position — that resembles the way absolutely NO public broadcaster works anywhere in the world, then what you’re really saying is “kill the CBC.”
Because there’s not a government agency that exists that has equal amounts of office and work in each region. Every place has to have a central hub of some sort. You’re bitched out that place is Toronto? Fine. That I get. But to say that hosts shouldn’t move and if they do and get “promoted” to Toronto that that doesn’t represent the regions is an absolutely bald, plug idiotic misrepresentation of the way that broadcasting works.
From DNTO to the regional news shows to the Vancouver experiment they’re doing, the CBC is trying to restore regionalism, that was lost, by the way let’s remember due to a systematic cut of more than 15 percent of its budget.
You’re perfectly welcome to the contention that the pace is moving too slow — but when you get into the issue of who should stay where and not go elsewhere to be promoted? That’s not a business or a cultural argument. That’s strictly emotional, and it’s remarkably, almost breathtakingly naive about the needs of both a large organization like the CBC, and the broadcasting business in general.
I never said that people shouldn’t move. I said that the corporate culture of the CBC should not be one that requires talented people to work out of Toronto.
CBC has a mandate to tell the stories of all Canadians.
Regionalism - Yellowknife, Iqaluit, Whitehorse: we’re the very DEFINITION ofthe word.
And BTW: I’m a Finn & I came to Yellowknife.