Get CBC Out Of The Free Market

How a fawning show-biz interview with Ms. Streisand, an American global mega-star who is merely flogging her latest CD, came to be promoted as a “Canadian exclusive” on The National must boggle the minds of many Canadian nationalists.

On the other hand, the CBC thrives on the contradictions embedded in its corporate mandate, which is to make its services available “throughout Canada by the most appropriate and efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose.” Over the years, the government broadcaster has been able to parlay its public and private funding regimes into a hybrid dual-engine machine fuelled by billions in direct subsidy from federal taxpayers and billions more in advertising dollars out of the private broadcasting industry.

With $1.2-billion in direct government subsidies (2013) and $330-million in declining advertising revenue, the CBC is as far from being a “market-based” enterprise as an enterprise can get. As the corporation’s annual report makes clear, the CBC’s self-described “business model” is “not profit oriented and all sources of funds are used to fulfill its public broadcasting mandate.”

The CBC is a giant non-profit that plays at being a business, taking viewers/listeners and advertising dollars away from private broadcasters.

It is surely time to demolish the lumbering CBC corporate machine. Created almost a century ago, before television even existed and when there were few broadcast choices available due to technological limits, the CBC today operates in a world that has ceased to provide a reason for its existence.

Read the full story here.

CBC's Hubert Lacroix Justification Stuns Senators

Senators said they were stunned to hear the head of CBC justify the earnings of one of the broadcaster’s top executives based on the fact that she is a woman.

After questioning Hubert Lacroix about anchor Amanda Lang’s conflict of interest issues during a Senate communications committee hearing Tuesday, Conservative senator Don Plett asked about another CBC employee who may be in conflict of interest at work – Maryse Bertrand.

Plett said he read that Bertrand, who is the vice president of real estate services and legal services general counsel for the CBC, is also a director of Metro Richelieu as well as on the board of National Bank.

“$400,000 working for CBC, I would assume is a full-time job. If she’s making over $200,000 a year doing other work, how can she properly serve the Canadian public by doing her work in the real estate industry and as legal counsel for the CBC?” asked Plett.

Read the full story here.

CBC Doubles Down On Digital

The CBC is doubling-down on its digital offerings this fall, bringing the largest offering of original content for its online platforms to market, with nine new series.

The enhanced emphasis on digital originals is part of the pubcaster’s transition to becoming a digital-first company, a strategy that CBC president and CEO Hubert Lacroix spoke to at the University of British Columbia earlier this week.

The CBC/Radio-Canada currently sees 15 million visitors to its digital sites each month, according to Lacroix, an increase of three million over the previous year, with half of those people accessing content through their mobile devices.

At yesterday’s upfront presentation, Paul McGrath, director, digital content at CBC said the pubcaster is building out its digital content in a way that’s more similar to Netflix’s category model than TV and radio’s demographic-based one.

Read the full story here.

CBC reinterprets its mandate every few years in attempt to stay relevant

Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier is promising to overhaul CBC/Radio-Canada – an institution he says “seems frozen in time” — by cutting hundreds of millions in funding, streamlining its mandate and getting it out of the advertising market.

Bernier says CBC/Radio-Canada “should stop doing three-quarters of what it still does” that private broadcasters are already doing, including running game shows and cooking programs, sports programming, music streaming and a website devoted to opinion journalism.

It also needs to stop “unfairly” competing with struggling private media in a shrinking advertising market, he says.

With a media landscape that now includes hundreds of channels and millions of sources of information and culture, “CBC/Radio-Canada seems frozen in time,” he said.

“It tries to occupy every niche, even though it doesn’t have and will never have the means to do so, with the result being lower-quality programming,” Bernier told reporters.

Bernier said that CBC/Radio-Canada, in an attempt to stay relevant, reinterprets its mandate every few years and simply moves from one crisis to another.

Read the full story here.

CBC masquerading as a public broadcaster

The CBC/RC is a made-in-Canada solution for public broadcasting – currently a hybrid of public funding and private commercially-driven content. The CBC was created in 1936, and since then no other country as adopted our model.

Some have said that, if we throw more money at the CBC, we could fix the problem. That’s decidedly unlikely. At its last network licence renewal hearing before the CRTC, a very senior CBC executive described the CBC as “a publicly subsidized commercial broadcaster”. With that mentality, it’s clear that CBC’s senior management just doesn’t get it.

While elements of this new public broadcasting model may generate antagonism in certain predictable quarters, the existing English-language system has clearly failed and its television component is barely used by Anglophone households.

There is, however, no serious suggestion that public broadcasting no longer has a role to play in the national life of this country. But both of our official language communities deserve high quality public broadcasting services. To achieve this, we need to rebuild the English-language component to properly address the needs of contemporary Canada. — and it’s clear this cannot be done by a “publicly subsidized commercial”, “arm of the government” radio and television service masquerading as a public broadcaster.

Read the full story here.

Can CBC Separate Opinion From News?

Most newspaper commentary I’ve read about the CBC’s decision to start an opinion page has been pretty disapproving. Personally, I couldn’t be happier. The CBC is soaked through with opinion, from every story choice and placement to every meaningfully raised eyebrow, furrowed forehead or meaningful pause from a reporter or anchor.

Purveyors of journalism should strive hard to distinguish opinion from news even if they never will completely succeed. It’s a good thing that, at least implicitly, CBC is going to try. For if it does now formally have a place for opinion, that presumably means it will try harder to keep opinion out of those parts of its content it labels “news.”

Read the full story here.

CBC employees experiencing serious bullying, harassment, and workplace abuse

Following the April 2015 release of the Rubin Report, which detailed workplace abuse and institutional failures at CBC’s Q, many internal changes are being championed by the public broadcaster. Bullying awareness posters are plastered throughout the halls and every employee must take online training to help prevent bullying and harassment.

In media interviews, CBC executives and spokespeople assure the public that institutional changes are taking place.

But CANADALAND has learned of serious bullying, harassment, and workplace abuse complaints at the CBC, throughout its departments. Through conversations with over a dozen CBC employees, our investigation revealed that CBC Radio One, CBC TV Sports, and CBC human resources have all experienced, or are experiencing, allegations of workplace bullying and abuse.

Read the full story here.

Does CBC Unite Canada?

My relationship with the CBC as a listener ended about a decade ago when, during the course of a weekend’s air- time on Radio One, I heard veteran broadcaster Michael Enright make a series of crude anti-Irish jokes that might have provoked a few titters at an Orange Lodge, or been unremarkable banter in polite company almost a century ago, when Toronto was known as the Belfast of Canada.

I won’t bother unpacking the casual and time-honoured code that makes an Irish joke, by inference, a Catholic joke. There’s no point, since Enright has been quite forthright in his dislike of the Church, going back before the 1997 Globe and Mail article where he called it “the greatest criminal organization outside the mafia.” There’s probably some tortured back story here, as Enright went to the same private Catholic boys’ school I attended, but that’s also besides the point.

What is important is that there were thirteen million Catholics in Canada when Enright made his comment. One of the fondest refrains of the defenders of the CBC is that the national broadcaster “unites the country.” It’s a phrase used by Elizabeth May and the Green Party and by the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, the interest group whose prime function is to refute attacks on the CBC in the public arena. It’s a strange institution that can “unite” a country by attacking the faith of over a third of its citizens ...

Read the full story here.

CBC involvement in amateur sports will be reduced

After losing NHL hockey to Rogers and suffering a shortfall in ratings and advertising for its other properties, the corporation announced deep cuts on Thursday afternoon. Decisions on which jobs will be lost won't be made for a few months, but sports is expected to take a huge hit.

The main reason is CBC's announcement that it is out of the pro sports business and will carry only those amateur sports that can either produce a profit or break even.

"CBC and Radio-Canada will no longer compete with private broadcasters for professional sports rights," Hubert Lacroix, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada said in a statement. "We will also cover fewer events and fewer sports. In addition, our involvement in amateur sports will be reduced. We will only broadcast events that allow us to break even.

Read the full story here.

Is the CBC an Unbiased Source of Canadian News?

Canada’s state broadcaster’s best days are behind it.

Evan Solomon, another of the CBC’s larger-than-life personalities, was fired for a conflict of interest involving his side business as a broker of highbrow Canadian art.

If the reports by the Toronto Star are accurate, Solomon was fired for good reason.

They say he misused his position of power and trust as a prominent Ottawa political journalist, through his television show Power and Politics and radio program The House.

The CBC is supposed to be a trusted, unbiased and ethical source of Canadian news.

Many looked to Evan Solomon’s Power and Politics to break down the issues of the day and get past the political spin.

Solomon was widely viewed — and billed himself — as a tough but fair interviewer and a straight shooter.

In a statement, Solomon said he did not view his art business as a conflict with his political journalism and “never intentionally used my position at the CBC to promote the business.”

In fact, he disclosed the business to the CBC a few months ago.

But the CBC didn’t let him go until a reporter from another news organization pointed out to them why he was in a conflict-of-interest.

Read the full story here.

The CBC continues to fail the people

There’s an old saying in journalism that you should never let yourself become the story. These days the CBC has failed too many times on that front.

The public broadcaster used taxpayer dollars to go to court to fight having to disclose documents to the information commissioner.

The Jian Ghomeshi saga is an HR, PR and management disaster — and that’s not including the alleged harm suffered by his accused.

CEO Hubert Lacroix apologized last year for claiming $30,000 in expenses to which he wasn’t entitled.

For an organization that’s supposed to be dedicated to talking about Canada and Canadians, Canada spends far too much time talking about it.

The CBC continues to fail the people it’s supposed to serve.

Read the full story here.

Where are the Secret CBC documents

‘Secret’ CBC documents from board of directors meetings haven’t been made public since last August.

And it’s true. Since August 20 2015, the CBC has not published any agendas, minutes or documents prepared for its board of directors, which it normally does as part of its policy of proactive disclosure.

Both the federal election and the high-profile sexual assault trial of former CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi have taken place since the CBC last published board documents.

Read the full story here.

CBC Radio 2 Ordered To Drop Ads

CRTC Orders CBC Radio 2 To Drop Ads: Could TV Be Next?

Here is the good news: the CRTC has ordered CBC/Radio-Canada to end paid advertising on Radio 2 and ICI Musique. The ban begins immediately.

The bad news is that CBC management still seems to think it was doing the right thing when it opened the two radio networks to commercial sponsorship three years ago, with the CRTC's wary approval.

A corporate spokesperson said Wednesday the withdrawal of permission shows "a lack of understanding about the reality of public broadcasting," and "does not help CBC/Radio-Canada serve Canadians."

Read the full story here.

CBC's The National Seems To Never Grow Up

There was a time, not so long ago, in Canada when we depended on the editorial decisions of a few at the hub of a few daily newspapers and a couple of television stations, notably the CBC and its rival CTV. Rapidly, these sources are becoming like rotary landline telephones. Sure there are people who use them, but with each obituary, they become fewer.

Weirdly, there is a debate happening among those nostalgic about the old dominion that was once Canada, about who should replace Mr. Mansbridge. When he took over the anchor desk, he was typical for the day -- a fatherly, authoritarian figure with a deep voice that could read us the tragedies and bad news of the day while reassuring us that all would be OK.

My view is that there is no longer be a need for a highly-paid person to read us the news headlines. We have it all at our fingertips -- on our smartphones, tablets and computers -- and through a number of platforms and outlets.

Mansbridge does not leave until July 1, 2017, so the mother corporation that is the CBC has plenty of time to rethink The National.

The National is like Peter Pan without the free spirit and mischief making. It seems to never grow up. Its managers are really the Lost Boys of the news game.

Read the full story here.

CBC's long corporate metamorphosis

I worked at the CBC for nine years, from 2001 to the end of 2009 before I lost my job as a producer on the investigative unit due to budget cuts. I'd joined the CBC as an associate producer at The Fifth Estate and eventually worked at CBC News Sunday as a producer. I owe a lot to the CBC and had the pleasure of working with amazing people on great stories. I still have many friends who work there.

As a result, I saw the beginnings of the metamorphosis of the CBC that begat the Amanda Lang scandal. This change in the CBC's direction began under former CEO Robert Rabinovitch. In 2004, Rabinovitch appointed Richard Stursberg, a millionaire and former head of Telefilm Canada, as vice-president of English services. At the time, CBC English television was in a ratings slump, having been hammered by government cutbacks, competition from other channels and the Internet, as well as uninspired programming.

Stursberg brought a business approach to the CBC, which in practice translated into turning it into a private network backed with public funds.

The CBC was now run like any other textbook corporation, with union-busting embraced. Employee morale sank, stress levels rose, and dread over the constant reality of layoffs and cuts grew. Stursberg emerged as an unpopular if not openly despised figure.

Read the full story here.

CBC president Hubert Lacroix wants you to pay more for TV

The CRTC is holding hearings into the future of Canadian television.

The idea is, let Canadians unbundle and just pay for what they want to subscribe to. Lots of Canadians think they already pay too much for their cable bills because they don't watch half the channels. Most of us see this as a way to pay less for TV.

Not CBC, they see this as a way to get you to pay more.

CBC president Hubert Lacroix, the guy who double-dipped on his expenses to the tune of near $30,000 (which he later repaid), now wants to double, triple or even quadruple dip into your pocket.

Lacroix told the CRTC that BDUs -- that would be broadcast distribution units, what most of us call cable and satellite companies -- should have to pay to carry local CBC stations.

Yes, you heard that right. The local CBC stations that you already pay for with the $1 billion-plus subsidy CBC gets each year should now cost you more on your cable bill.

But that's not all.

In addition to all the money Lacroix already picks from your pocket, and his proposal to be paid again for what CBC already gets paid to do, he wants another fund.

CBC is proposing the creation of the local news fund.

Read the full story here.

CBC will likely drift and decline for years to come

Early television suffered from a number of technological limitations. The relative scarcity of spectrum meant few channels were available. Signals could not be confined to those who had paid for them, so broadcasters financed their activities by selling advertising time. The result: a handful of networks all crowded around the middle of the road, offering the same, predictable fare, aiming to attract the broadest possible audience.

In such a world, there was a need for a public broadcaster, and for public regulation of the airwaves: ironically, to mimic the sort of diversity of offerings markets usually produce on their own. It was always a rough proxy, though: if advertising insulated television networks from its viewers — rather than selling programs to audiences, networks sold audiences to advertisers — so, in its own way, did public funding.

For a network like CBC that relied on both, it meant a constant quandary: should it aim, like the private networks, for the broadest possible audience, in pursuit of its “national unity” mandate — and, not incidentally, advertising dollars — or should it concentrate on smaller niche audiences, of a kind private networks were not interested in?

With the advent of first cable, then satellite, and finally pay television, however, all of this changed. There were now hundreds of channels, spectrum scarcity was no longer posing a constraint. And since broadcasters could now charge directly for their programs, every taste could be served, narrow or high. On the one hand, this meant there was no longer any case for public funding: the quality divide in television these days is not between public and private, but between pay channels and free. On the other hand, it offered the CBC a way out of its dilemma: converted to a pay channel, or perhaps a constellation of channels, it could concentrate on serving its audience, freed from dependence on either advertisers or politicians.

Increasingly, the CBC’s dilemma is indistinguishable from that facing the private networks, themselves suffering from a fragmented audience and a decline in television viewing.

So the likelihood is that the CBC will go on like this, drifting and declining for years to come. Like Canada Post, like Via Rail and the other stranded assets that litter the public sector, it will limp on, purposelessly, through successive “action plans” and “reinventions,” for no reason other than that no one can be bothered to do anything else — and because no one expects them to.

Read the full story in the National Post here.

CBC management incompetence is root problem

The long series of ill-formed, unaccountable decisions... makes it clear that an inexperienced, government-appointed president and board of directors is a root problem.

The past decade has seen a cornucopia of management incompetence.

CBC has announced a new strategy that could equal the 1992 disaster of moving The National. CBC is making Internet services the top priority and CBC TV the lowest. Radio, too, will be less important than Internet services.

The success of the new strategy will be judged primarily on an internal survey commissioned by CBC, not traditional audience measures from independent surveys.

CBC/SRC.ca's average moment audience for its Internet services, according to comScore, was about 10,000 people in a recent month. This is a small number considering there are 35 million people in Canada; it is in the realm of niche rather than mass media. It is worth mentioning that CBC Internet services are not start-ups, but have been around for 20 years. An hour can't go by without CBC radio and TV reminding you a dozen times to check out CBC.ca, yet the audience remains minuscule.

By comparison CBC English and French TV services, including news channels, had a combined average moment audience of over 500,000 viewers and CBC radio services had an average moment audience of almost 300,000 listeners, according to CRTC reports.

CBC viewers, listeners and readers may be engaged in different activities but these numerical differences are huge. Yet CBC is reducing the emphasis on established mass media, radio/TV, and increasing the focus on niche, digital media, which will compete with Internet behemoths like Facebook and YouTube.

Read the full story here.

Top CBC Official apologizes for harassment accusation

A top CBC official who called for a more respectful workplace has apologized for her own behaviour to one of her senior staff.

Heather Conway, executive vice-president of English Services for the public broadcaster, was recently accused of harassing Neil McEneaney, sources told the Star.

In the wake of McEneaney’s informal complaint, CBC has hired an outside firm to conduct a review of the conduct of senior managers including Conway.

McEneaney took issue with Conway’s behaviour in a meeting over the last two months. The Star was unable to get people at the meeting to describe what happened but sources familiar with it said Conway’s behaviour was “upsetting.” McEneaney made an informal complaint to CBC president Lacroix, sources told the Star.

Read the full story here.

CBC claims to reach more millennials than Twitter

There was a lot of discussion about the problem, but not much in the way of big solutions during the first full day of the Public Broadcasters International conference in Montreal on Thursday, which host CBC/Radio-Canada is focusing exclusively on how public broadcasters can attract and engage a young audience while fulfilling their mandate.

One thing that CBC and Radio-Canada’s heads of digital showed during their presentation is that the problem with public broadcasters — and broadcasters in general — isn’t that they’re not reaching enough people, but that they’re not getting enough engagement from them. In fact, CBC reaches more millennials than Twitter, Snapchat and other major news sources, but Facebook and YouTube are “in a class by themselves” in terms of time spent, said Richard Kanee, head of digital for CBC.

Read the full story here.

CBC President Hubert Lacroix was aware of Ghomeshi allegations

Fired over the Ghomeshi affair, a former senior executive is suing the CBC for more than $640,000, saying he was scapegoated and sacrificed in a face-saving effort by senior management.

Todd Spencer, 45, accuses the national broadcaster of blaming him for the public mess over former star host Jian Ghomeshi. Yet, top management – up to and including CBC president Hubert Lacroix – were “deeply involved with and aware of” the investigation that he and others carried out into allegations against Mr. Ghomeshi, he says.

Read the full story here.

CBC facing another lawsuit for wrongful dismissal

A former human resources executive for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has filed a wrongful dismissal suit against the broadcaster, alleging that senior HR staff conspired to fire her while she was on medical leave and that CEO Hubert Lacroix breached his duties in refusing to review the matter, according to court documents.

The suit is one of at least four pending cases against the CBC alleging wrongful dismissal, and reveals allegations of infighting in the HR department in the months following the revelations that several women had publicly accused former CBC star Jian Ghomeshi of sexual abuse and inappropriate workplace behaviour.

In three of the four wrongful dismissal cases pending against the CBC, the broadcaster is alleged to have either ignored or exacerbated health problems of its employees.

Read the full story here.