Tag Archives: CBC

CBC dumps Nancy Wood from Daybreak

February 20, 2010 – 1:26 am| Posted in Radio

Nancy Wood ponders future job as hot dog salesperson (from Fagstein files)

I first got a tip about this a few days ago, but was awaiting confirmation and more details. With a story in The Gazette, the news is out there: CBC is removing Nancy Wood from her position as host of Daybreak, as of June.

The corporation had wanted to keep the news quiet until Wood made the announcement on air, but after staff were informed earlier this week, it was just a matter of time until it came out. (To their credit, some of my usual CBC leaks kept their mouths shut.)

Wood tells The Gazette that it wasn't her decision to leave, which matches what I've been told: the decision came from management, and the reasons aren't clear.

The news also comes the same week the CBC announces a new regional manager for Quebec: Pia Marquard, who starts on Monday. Though one CBC employee told me they were told Marquard had nothing to do with the decision to axe Wood. Marquard replaces Rob Renaud, who was filling in. One angry employee found it ridiculous that such an important decision would be made while essentially nobody's in charge.

Needless to say, the mood at CBC Montreal plummeted with the news this week. Another employee described the work environment there as "toxic". Wood herself stepped back from the host mic after the decision was announced, only returning on Friday (Shawn Apel filled in).

Wood was hired as the permanent host of Daybreak only last August. She replaced Mike Finnerty, who left last summer for London's Guardian website.

Has CBC gone mad?

Nancy Wood, CBC Daybreak

To call the decision bizarre would be an understatement. Wood has an incredible amount of experience, both in journalism in general and specifically at CBC. Before taking the Daybreak post, she was a reporter for CBC television out of Montreal, and before that she was the host of the province-wide Radio Noon. As I wrote in August, Wood was a shoo-in for the Daybreak job, which makes it even more ridiculous that she would be yanked from that post.

During her brief tenure, she continued Finnerty's tech-friendly improvements to the show, which included using Twitter and Facebook, accepting emails and text messages during the show, and producing a daily podcast. As a regular listener to that podcast, I can attest to the fact that Wood is professional yet personable, and certainly has no flaws that would warrant such a decision.

It's not clear what will happen to Wood, though she hasn't been fired from CBC. She may return to her previous job as a TV reporter.

Why?

So why is Nancy Wood being pulled out of the Daybreak chair? CBC isn't talking, and the person in a position to answer these kinds of questions doesn't start her new job until Monday.

If this were a commercial station, the first place I would look is ratings. I don't have access to detailed numbers, so until someone leaks them to me, I won't be able to tell you much. One former CBC radio host told me ratings are probably a major factor in a case like this.

But even if the answer is ratings, so what? Wood hasn't had a chance to build an audience in the morning, and this decision is more likely to alienate listeners than attract them. This is CBC, not CHOM. Supposedly the one place outside of community and campus radio where there's a consideration more important than ratings.

The candidates

CBC hasn't announced who it plans to replace Wood with (they haven't announced she's leaving either, technically), and the staff doesn't know yet.

I'll copy and paste some suggestions from my post after Finnerty left, linking to Daybreak podcasts (all MP3) from fill-in hosts last summer. Not to look down on them, but I honestly don't see any of them improving upon Wood:

To that list I'd add Steve Rukavina, who has filled in for departed hosts, and Sonali Karnick, currently the Daybreak sports reporter and one of the hardest working people in that office. Both are professionals and would make good hosts, but would also suffer from a comparison to Wood.

"Boneheads, boneheads, boneheads!"

A Facebook group has been started to keep Nancy Wood on Daybreak. It has 17 80 369 members right now (including myself, though that's more to keep tabs on it than to participate in any campaign). There's also some commentary on the show's Facebook page.

Radio watcher Sheldon Harvey has some comments as well on the news, which he calls "extremely disappointing."

UPDATE (Feb. 21): The Gazette quotes Wood's personal Facebook page saying she and the CBC are "in talks" but "nothing inspiring." The International Radio Report on CKUT (hosted this week by Harvey) also quotes from Wood's Facebook (MP3) and the brief, cryptic messages that appear there, including that it was not a "they" but a "she" (Marquard?) that made the decision to remove her, and that no, this is not a joke, she's been "canned."

UPDATE (Feb. 22): Rukavina filled in for Wood on this morning's show and apparently will for the remainder of the week. No mention of this story at all during the first Daybreak show since The Gazette broke it Friday evening.

UPDATE (Feb. 24): Gazette pop culture columnist Basem Boshra on Wood's dismissal:

Hey, guys, nice work finally getting rid of that Nancy Wood from Daybreak. I'm getting so sick already of hearing her warm, intelligent, engaging voice in the mornings. Can't wait until she's gone in June - it feels like she's been on the air for, like, months! Definitely time for a change. And, hey, I don't want to tell you how to run your business, but if you're looking for smarter, more entertaining voices to anchor your flagship show, I hear Ted Bird and the equally hilarious Tasso are still looking for work. Think of all the wacky impressions!

UPDATE (Feb. 25): Mike Boone and Doug Camilli also weigh in, along with a bunch of letters to the editor.

Those who want to complain are being sent to Communications Manager Hugh Brodie, hugh.brodie@cbc.ca or 514-597-5813.

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PJ Stock too cool for Montreal

December 23, 2009 – 4:39 am| Posted in Montreal, Radio, TV

PJ Stock

P.J. Stock, a former journeyman NHL player turned hockey analyst, has come to the realization over the past few months that he was stretching himself a little too thin. His main gig at Hockey Night in Canada involved a lot of travelling between Toronto and Montreal on weekends.

Though he contributed regularly for CBMT's evening newscast, he cut that weeks ago (CBC says it's looking for a replacement). Last week, he said goodbye to an afternoon radio show on the Team 990. He'll be replaced there by Randy Tieman of CFCF.

Stock says he wants to spend more time with his family. And admiring himself in the mirror.

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A Mary Christmas

December 23, 2009 – 4:25 am| Posted in Media, Montreal

Speaking of people being fired before Christmas, hundreds of CBC employees and friends are rallying around Mary McGuire, a cafeteria employee at the Maison Radio-Canada, who was just told that her services won't be needed by the catering service the CBC subcontracts to.

They've started up a Facebook group, whose members include Michel C. Auger and anglo CBCers Kristy Snell, Kristy Rich, and even some not named Kristy. They say after 36 years of serving them coffee, McGuire deserves to stick around.

UPDATE (Dec. 24):

A Christmas miracle! A day later, Mary has been un-fired.

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The CBC-Post monster is getting bigger

December 17, 2009 – 12:20 am| Posted in Media

Hey, remember when the CBC and National Post signed that content-sharing agreement and everyone was like "dude, WTF?"

Well, it looks like they're extending it to include coverage of the Vancouver Olympics (press release, press release on NP site), producing a "co-branded" website for coverage.

The CBC used to be king for Olympics coverage, but then it lost the rights to CTV, so it will for the first time since 1994 be covering an Olympics it doesn't have rights to. And considering how television rights crippled CTV so much it had to show still images instead of video, expect CBC to face similar obstacles in February.

Similarly, the Post's competitor the Globe and Mail is the official national newspaper of the Games. That won't mean exclusive rights and it's not clear if there are any editorial implications of this designation, but it puts the Post one step behind, at least psychologically.

But ... the CBC and National Post hate each other.

Or, at least, that's what they want us to think.

Anyone else think this is like the second season of a bad sitcom where the two main characters' anger toward each other boils over and they explode in a torrent of rage that's suddenly interrupted when they spontaneously get aroused and start passionately sucking face, leading to a long night of hot sex?

Are the CBC and National Post ... getting it on? Is this Olympics website their illegitimate love child?

If so, when's the hangover and walk of shame?

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I can’t hear!

December 16, 2009 – 7:01 pm| Posted in TV, Video

Journalists have short tempers when they're under pressure. Fortunately those of us in print don't have microphones capturing our frustrations. We also don't have to worry about not realizing we're live.

Via The Tea Makers.

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RadCan pulls plug on online RDI streaming

November 26, 2009 – 5:08 pm| Posted in Opinion, TV

It happened on Oct. 29, but it seems few people either noticed or cared. The first news story came out two weeks later that Radio-Canada has stopped livestreaming of its RDI all-news network online.

The reason? "Faciliter les discussions avec les câblodistributeurs".

Some reaction online (including the video above) was negative, suggesting that Radio-Canada doesn't get it, that we own the corporation and that the cable companies have nothing to fear from online streaming.

Here's what gets me though: RDI is a must-carry network for cable and satellite. There's no choice in the matter. The CBC even forced StarChoice to include it as part of its "English essentials" basic package last year. Because of this, the wholesale rate is set by the CRTC: $1 for RDI in francophone markets and $0.10 in anglophone markets.

So, what kind of discussions are we talking about here? There's nothing to negotiate.

Besides, RDI isn't the only one doing this. CPAC, the political affairs channel funded by the cable and satellite companies, also streams for free online. In fact, it annoyingly starts playing automatically when you go to the CPAC website.

I understand the worry from cable and satellite companies: if broadcasters stream all their stuff for free, then consumers might realize they're being gouged and start cancelling their television services.

But for the public broadcaster to pull its feed, to intentionally deny access to its services from Canadians, solely to please the cable and satellite industry, that's outrageous.

I sent an email to Alain Saulnier, who was quoted in the Cyberpresse piece, asking for clarification, but there was no response.

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Battle of the MS Paint

November 11, 2009 – 9:43 pm| Posted in Media

According to La Presse, Radio-Canada is considering a French version of Battle of the Blades. That's interesting news.

Blades

But I'm not sure about the picture they used to illustrate it.

I realize cutouts like this are used often in printed newspapers without an indication that the photo has been manipulated, but it's clearly called for here, no?

I mean, some people notice these things.

UPDATE (Nov. 13): After being alerted to the error, Cyberpresse has fixed the image. Apparently an online editor took the cutout (used for a section front) and didn't think to replace it with the original photo.

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CBC fee-for-carriage solution isn’t really one

November 4, 2009 – 5:42 pm| Posted in Opinion, TV

The fee-for-carriage/local TV debate is over. The CBC has solved it. In was a stroke of absolute brilliance, the Mother Corp. has come up with a system that makes local broadcasters happy, reduces cable costs for consumers, and provides a fair system that doesn't threaten cable companies' profits.

Oh, and they solved the digital TV transition problem too.

Haha, just kidding. Their proposal does nothing of the sort.

On Tuesday, the CBC heralded a submission it made to the CRTC that "offers a solution to the issue of the affordability should a compensation regime for the value of local television signals be implemented."

I asked the CBC for a copy of this submission, and they kindly forwarded it to me. I've uploaded it here for you to read (PDF).

Here is the key part of the CBC's proposal (emphasis mine):

The CRTC should require cable and satellite companies to offer consumers a small, all Canadian basic package which would include all local television stations plus a few other licensed services.  The rate for this small basic package would not exceed a maximum rate established by the CRTC.  This would ensure the affordability of television service for all Canadians.

Consumers would be free to purchase – but would not be required to purchase – any additional services they may want that are not included in the small basic package.  The cable and satellite companies would negotiate with broadcasters to determine the compensation payable for the services they distribute – including the local television services in the basic package.  The CRTC would act as arbitrator in any situations where the parties could not agree.

The CBC explains how this would work in its "straightforward" three-step process:

First, the Commission would need to determine the services to be included in the streamlined basic package.

Second, the cable and satellite BDUs would have to negotiate wholesale rates with the programming services included in the new basic package – including the local television stations.  Commission arbitration would be available if the parties could not reach an agreement.

Third, the Commission would approve the proposed rate to be charged for this basic package.

Wait, hold on a second. Wasn't the entire point of "negotiation for value" that consumers would have the choice of what local television stations they would carry on cable? The CBC's proposal does away with that (what a surprise) and goes back to forcing the cable companies to carry their stations. It mentions that they would "negotiate wholesale rates", but what kind of negotiation can you have when the only response the cable and satellite companies can give is "yes"?

So this would go to "arbitration" in front of the CRTC. Which means the CRTC would simply set the rate for carrying local stations.

In other words, this is fee for carriage.

In fact, it goes beyond fee for carriage. Now the CRTC would set the price for basic cable as well, and say what channels can and can't be carried on it:

Cable and satellite BDUs would not be permitted to include any additional services in the basic package beyond those required by the Commission.

Surely they could throw in some freebies (like advertising channels) and nobody would get hurt.

The CBC's argument includes a lot of charts and data showing that cable and satellite companies are rolling in cash while broadcasters face certain doom. These things, of course, we knew already. It also brings up all the "save local TV" talking points, like how taxes aren't taxes:

It has become all too common in the Canadian communications environment for cable and satellite companies to disguise items on their consumers’ bills as government imposed retail taxes when they are not (e.g., “system access fee”, “government regulatory recovery fee”, “LPIF tax”, “CRTC LPIF Fee”).

While fee-for-carriage is still up in the air, the LPIF fee is a tax as much as the GST is. It's a mandatory percentage fee added to the total price of a service that's taken by the government. The fact that the CRTC says the cable companies should pay it instead of consumers is semantics at best.

It's not that I oppose the LPIF, or even fee-for-carriage, but don't get all bent out of shape because we call a tax a tax.

Cheap cable solves digital TV?

The submission also pretends to offer a solution to the digital TV transition. In addition to requiring many people across the country to modify or replace television sets that are up to half a century old, the transition will mean many Canadians in remote regions won't have access to free, over-the-air TV, because the broadcasters are too poor/cheap to replace the analog transmitters with digital ones.

I've already argued that this digital transition is completely unnecessary, and that goes double for remote areas with few television stations. But the CRTC is going ahead with it anyway, and in August 2011 will create a problem where none existed.

So what is the CBC proposing? Well, their argument is that cheap cable can replace free television:

While not everyone would choose to subscribe to such a service, those who did not would not be deciding on the basis of affordability.

If this sounds a bit familiar, it's because Bell thought up the same thing with cheap satellite. Both seem to ignore the fact that cheap is not free. Though it's unclear how much basic cable would cost under CBC's plan (I'm willing to guess it won't be much cheaper than it is now), it will still be infinitely larger than zero.

There's also another problem with this idea: The CRTC setting the rate for basic cable tips the economic scales, and reduces the incentive for entrepreneurs to enter the cable market, especially in remote areas where the economies of scale don't work out as well in their favour.

Perhaps the CRTC would set a different rate for big-market and small-market cable, but then it starts to get more complicated.

What is basic?

The CBC's submission is based on the premise that basic packages contain a bunch of channels that Canadians don't want and are being forced to pay for. It doesn't list them, nor does it list the channels it would want to keep.

To get some context, I looked at the channels that are included in my basic (digital) service through Videotron:

  • 10 broadcast stations:
    • CBFT (2, Radio-Canada)
    • CBMT (6, CBC)
    • CJOH (8, CTV Ottawa's retransmitter in Cornwall)
    • CFTM (10, TVA)
    • CFCF (12, CTV Montreal)
    • CIVM (17, Télé-Québec)
    • CFTU (29, Canal Savoir)
    • CFJP (35, V, ex-TQS)
    • CKMI (46 Global)
    • CJNT (62)
  • Three parliamentary channels:
    • Assemblée Nationale
    • CPAC (French)
    • CPAC (English)
  • Eight must-carry specialty networks
    • CBC News Network
    • RDI
    • The Accessible Channel
    • Aboriginal Peoples' Television Network
    • The Weather Network
    • MétéoMédia
    • Avis de recherche
    • TV5
  • Télé Achats (an advertising network that would be silly to demand subscriber fees)
  • VOX, Videotron's public access channel
  • Cable barkers, including the Canal Info Videotron (Channel 1), the video on demand barker channel and the Viewer's Choice / Canal Indigo barkers
  • GameTV
  • Local radio stations, Galaxie and other audio-only services

With the exception of GameTV and the advertising channels (which we're not charged for), these are all part of the basic service because the CRTC requires it to carry them.

So which of these channels would the CBC make discretionary? Surely not the parliamentary channels, nor the cable access channel, nor its own all-news channel.

Maybe I'm on the wrong track. For one thing, Videotron forces its customers to choose a package (either a theme package or an a-la-carte channel package) in addition to the basic service. This would stop under the CBC proposal.

On the satellite side, there's Bell TV, whose digital basic package includes, besides broadcast television stations and must-carry networks, the following:

  • Treehouse
  • W Network
  • CTV News Channel
  • Vision TV
  • Teletoon Retro
  • MTV Canada
  • The Shopping Channel

These would also be pulled from the basic package under the CRTC proposal.

There is also, of course, analog cable, in which everyone gets the same service. That includes more channels, including:

  • Vision TV
  • YTV
  • MuchMusic
  • TSN
  • CMT
  • VRAK.TV
  • MusiquePlus
  • RDS
  • Showcase
  • Bravo
  • Discovery Channel
  • W Network
  • Canal Vie
  • MusiMax
  • Canal D

But analog cable doesn't provide for discretionary channels, at least not on the level of digital.

Despite my criticisms, there's some merit to some of the CBC's proposal, specifically the creation of a basic package, whether on satellite, digital cable or analog cable. The practice of forcing people using digital services to add packages to basic lineups needs to stop.

But what the CBC is proposing is fee for carriage, and that's a tax. And it would do nothing to stop the cable and satellite oligopolies from further solidifying their hold on the market.

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CBC Radio’s new news chime

October 31, 2009 – 4:32 pm| Posted in Radio

CBC Radio news chime: before (MP3)

CBC Radio news chime: after (MP3)

Better? Or worse?

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The New CBC Montreal

October 28, 2009 – 2:39 am| Posted in Montreal, Opinion, TV

On Monday, the great renewal of CBC television took shape, with all sorts of minor pointless changes new, attention-catching refreshening of look and feel.

Nationally, CBC Newsworld was renamed CBC News Network, gained some on-screen furniture (a clock, weather, CNN-like animated lower-thirds, and an obnoxious non-transparent bug in the corner) and got a new schedule which has more one-hour shows and less 24-hour newsroom.

The National was similarly changed to reflect the network's new look (block serifs and pointless coloured square dots). Most importantly, Peter Mansbridge does the newscast standing up, which is kind of awkward.

Peter Mansbridge, kickin' it old-school - and standing

Peter Mansbridge, kickin' it old-school - and standing

Other reviews of changes on the national level:

Changes in radio were minor: a new World Report at 5am for early risers, and additional local radio newscasts at 6:30pm (short) and 7pm (long).

Online, very little has changed, other than the new block-serifed logo and the Inside Politics blog with Kady O'Malley, freshly poached from Macleans.

But what interested me was the local television news. CBC Montreal hasn't had a late-evening newscast in a long time, and I was curious how they would do this one ever since I heard about it last month.

It starts with the 6pm newscast, which still has the 90-minute format but gets a new graphical look:

Read More »

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CBC 11pm local newscast launches Monday

October 22, 2009 – 3:11 am| Posted in Montreal, TV

Remember that 11pm local newscast that I told you about last month? CBC has announced that it's launching on Monday.

The new newscasts are being brought in across the country, and will start at 10:55pm, cutting a few minutes into The National.

As I explained last month, the 10-minute newscast would be a rapid-fire recap of the day's events, with some late-breaking news that's updated from the 6pm newscast.

And as I explained, there won't be much of a new budget for this extra programming, so employees will be stetched even further.

CBC Montreal news director Mary-Jo Barr tells Fagstein that Andrew Chang will be the night host, which will have a night reporter filing an updated story, Frank Cavallaro doing live weather, and updates on things like evening Canadiens games. The local newscast will also feature new graphics (an improvement that is sorely needed if you've seen some of those graphics over the past few years).

Among other changes on the docket:

  • CBC Newsworld gets renamed CBC News Network. This sounds very similar to CTV rebranding CTV Newsnet as CTV News Channel, and about as pointless. The new CBC NN (not to be confused with CNN) will have a new schedule with some new shows, for anyone who actually cares about the schedule of a 24-hour news network.
  • An online 10-minute version of The National by 6pm. A good idea, provided they can provide it in enough formats for it to be accessible (like, say, in a downloadable podcast form for those of us on the go). The newscast will also be "customizable", in that viewers will be able to select which stories will be part of it. Not quite sure how that will work, but the concept makes sense.
  • The National moves to 6pm on Saturday to avoid conflicting with NHL coverage. Because hockey is more important than news.
  • A "faster pace" and "new format" for The National which includes more stuff from Marketplace and the Fifth Estate. In other words, reusing staff from one show to provide cheap content for another.
  • More "transparency" in news reporting. It's unclear what they mean by this, though they give the example of explaining the CBC's policy on reporting on kidnappings. Of course, this would be welcome by people like me, but I'm skeptical that CBC News can get a culture of true transparency going without it getting torpedoed by marketing interests eventually.
  • Wendy Mesley will appear regularly on The National to generate "debate". Make your own Wendy Mesley/Peter Mansbridge joke here.
  • Kady O'Malley starts a political blog. You know Kady, she used to blog for Maclean's before CBC poached her.
  • World Report, which airs mornings at the top of the hour, will add a newscast at 5am for those poor souls who are up at that hour. This sounds a bit odd, considering Daybreak starts at 5:30. Are they going to fill that extra 20 minutes with national content, or just continue their overnight programming?
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A deal at Radio-Canada

October 14, 2009 – 3:57 am| Posted in Media

Rue Frontenac is reporting that the Syndicat de communications de Radio-Canada has reached a deal in principle with the employer and is presenting it to members for a vote this week.

The SCRC is the smaller of the two unions representing staff at CBC/Radio-Canada. It covers all employees in Quebec and in Moncton, N.B., which are predominantly French-speaking, but it covers employees in either language in those areas, which means the SCRC also covers anglophone employees in Montreal.

The rest of Canada is covered by the Canadian Media Guild, which famously got locked out in 2005.

If approved, the deal would be for three years.

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The CBC National Post

October 3, 2009 – 4:26 pm| Posted in Media

No, it wasn't a bad dream. The CBC and the National Post have indeed signed a content-sharing agreement.

The sworn ideological enemies have decided to help each other out in areas of weakness, with the Financial Post providing the CBC with business news, and the CBC providing the Post with sports news.

Though the deal is being mocked in the usual places (reaction from others has been essentially "WTF?"), it's not so unusual for two media companies to share content. It's the entire point behind wire service, after all. And the Post has been looking at new content sources, signing a deal with breakingviews.com recently as well.

But the fact that the CBC - a Crown corporation - is involved makes this unusual. And the fact that this might reduce the number of unique voices in both sports and business reporting is kind of sad.

Otherwise, it's just a content-sharing deal between two news outlets. What makes it noteworthy is their previous animosity (and the fact that they'll have to include a disclosure when reporting about each other now).

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CBC Montreal to start 11pm newscast: sources

September 16, 2009 – 4:06 pm| Posted in Montreal, TV

It's not a secret at the CBC, but it's being treated that way with the outside world: CBMT, CBC's Montreal television station, is planning to launch an 11pm newscast next month.

According to multiple sources within the CBC, the new 11pm newscast would be a short, 10-minute recap of the top stories, similar to what airs currently in Vancouver.

You can see an example of Vancouver at Eleven here. It's five minutes long, sandwiched between The National and The Hour. Vancouver's newscast will be expanding to 10 minutes, which should hopefully give the anchor an opportunity to breathe properly. Other markets are also planning similar newscasts.

CBC Montreal news director Mary-Jo Barr was coy when I asked her about the new newscast, neither confirming nor denying its existence. She would say only that "there's some excitement over here at CBC Montreal" and hinted at an upcoming announcement.

Ten minutes might not sound like much, but when you add local news in the evening newscasts together, you get to about that figure. Vancouver at Eleven contains no advertising, and only a brief weather segment. It's not clear whether that would still be the case in a 10-minute newscast.

CBMT hasn't aired an 11pm newscast since Newswatch was cancelled in 2000. Drastic cutbacks at the CBC led to the idea of "Canada Now", a one-hour evening newscast whose first half-hour was hosted by Ian Hanomansing in Vancouver and the rest by local anchors. That finally ended in 2007, when plummeting ratings forced the CBC to reconsider and bring back one-hour local newscasts. CBMT has been slowly building back the audience it forfeited to CFCF ever since.

Sources tell Fagstein the 11pm newscast should begin around Thanksgiving (in other words, mid-October).

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Global, CBC join CTV’s “Save Local TV” campaign

September 15, 2009 – 9:28 pm| Posted in Opinion, TV

A few months into its campaign to "Save Local Television", CTV has managed to get its competitors CBC and Global to join its rebranded campaign "Local TV Matters" (there's even a Twitter account!), trying to get public support for CRTC regulatory changes that would allow conventional television stations to charge cable and satellite companies for distribution of their signals.

The website's FAQ lists PR-generated counter-arguments to some common complaints, but seems to ignore the history of conventional television and why it's free in the first place.

Decades ago, before there was cable, conventional television was all there is. Most stations were locally-owned and had powerful transmitters to reach as many homes as possible. Revenue came from advertising, which was fine because everyone watched TV in primetime, and everyone watched the local news.

In the early days of cable, the specialty channels were low-budget affairs and highly specialized. Music videos on MuchMusic, live sports on TSN, non-stop weather updates on the Weather Network. Quality primetime programming came from the conventional networks like CTV, which was back then a cooperative of local stations. Local programming gave way to network (Canadian and U.S.) shows in primetime, but mornings and early evenings were still largely local affairs.

Canadian television network breakdown

The proliferation of specialty channels is a large part of why conventional television isn't what it used to be. The audience is fragmented, and the conventional networks' piece of the pie has diminished, along with advertising.

Specialty networks don't have to provide local programming, though on the other hand they cannot accept local advertising and they cannot transmit over the air.

Now that more than 90% of Canadians have cable or satellite service, the advantage of over-the-air transmitters is outweighed by their cost. And because most advertising is national in scope, and targetted to specific demographics that specialty channels are better at reaching, that advantage too has disappeared.

What's left to give conventional television stations an advantage is the programming itself. But while many people still watch the news, it's not enough to pay for it. In very few markets does local news attract enough advertising revenue to pay for itself. So those newscasts (especially in smaller markets) have been drastically cut. Local news has been replaced by more pre-packaged news packages from the networks. Programming outside of the local newscasts has been all but eliminated.

So what can we do about this? Should we just shut down the conventional networks? Obviously the networks don't agree with that idea, because conventional television is still making them money.

How about a government bailout? Consumers would be opposed to that, and it creates all sorts of problems (should broadcasters be paid equally, or based on the ratings of their newscasts?). Besides, there already is one in the form of the Local Programming Improvement Fund, a 1.5% tax on cable and satellite companies' revenues that goes to help programming in small-market stations.

What CTV et al are proposing is that broadcasters and distributors negotiate a fair market value for carrying their stations. It's not entirely clear what the details are, such as whether consumers would be able to choose which conventional television stations they would pay for (they could pay for none of them and just hook up the rabbit ears to get them free), or whether they would be forced to pay for them like we're forced to pay for CBC Newsworld and CPAC whether we want to or not (such mandatory carriage would leave cable and satellite companies without a bargaining chip, making negotiation difficult).

It's the economics, stupid

The networks' prime argument in launching this campaign is this:

One of the campaign's concerns is that cable and satellite providers continue to charge viewers for our services, yet they pay nothing to local television stations. However, Canadian cable companies pay U.S. cable channels in excess of $300 million a year for their services, and these cable channels are not required to produce any Canadian content. The campaign members are standing up to change this system because they believe local stations deserve fairness so viewers can continue to enjoy local television programming now and in the years to come.

The argument about channels like Spike and CNN not producing Canadian content is valid. Of course, the CRTC takes this into consideration when approving a U.S. channel for distribution here. U.S. networks aren't allowed to compete with Canadian ones on (basic) cable, which is why we didn't have MTV to compete with MuchMusic or HBO to compete with the Movie Network until Canadian versions of those channels launched recently.

But the comparison to conventional television is based on a faulty assumption. People don't pay for conventional television stations as part of their cable bills. People get cable because they want CNN and Spike, not the local news. The bills for basic service cover the physical cable service as well as CRTC-mandated specialty channels like Newsworld and CPAC. Cable and satellite companies don't charge consumers to give them local television stations, because you can't charge people for something they already get for free.

The big irony of the argument is that the CRTC mandates that cable and satellite companies distribute local television stations as part of their basic service at the request of those television stations. In cable's infancy, local TV wanted to be on cable to reach larger markets and get more advertising revenue. They even got the CRTC to guarantee they'd get the lowest spots on the dial, which back then were considered prime electronic real estate.

But I understand times change. Things are different now, the model is broken.

At least, they say the model is broken. CTV and Global haven't released detailed financial reports showing how much money they're losing on conventional television (or if they're losing any at all). We have only their self-serving word to go on here.

The CRTC will be debating the future of local television in November.

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A side note about the "Local TV Matters" campaign: the website (which is WordPress-based) has open comments on its posts, and there's already a lot of them from incredulous consumers asking why they're being asked to pay more when their local programming is being cut to the bone. I'm a bit surprised the comments are still up there, and wonder what it will take for them to shut down dissenting consumer opinion.

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CBC funeral lacks names to mourn

May 20, 2009 – 2:21 am| Posted in Media, Montreal, photos
I'm horrible at crowd estimates. Guess for yourself how many people turned out.

I'm horrible at crowd estimates. Guess for yourself how many people turned out.

Tuesday was the day the CBC was supposed to announce which of its employees it was going to lay off. The SCRC, which represents CBC and Radio-Canada employees in Quebec and Moncton, planned for a day of mourning at noon to draw attention to those names.

Unfortunately, the CBC made no such announcement, and the people who turned out still don't know who's being fired and who's being kept on, even though the corporation has already started the process of laying people off.

UPDATE: CBC says 180 people will get the pink slip on May 27 and 28.

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Union to mourn as axe falls at CBC

May 18, 2009 – 1:40 pm| Posted in Media, Montreal, Radio, TV
Maison Radio-Canada

Maison Radio-Canada

"D-day for some..or maybe me" is how Ange-Aimée Woods describes the Facebook group she setup to spread the word about a "day or mourning" organized by her union. On Tuesday, the real brunt of those 800 job cuts hits as the corporation reveals a list of the positions deemed "redundant", and the employees it has decided it can live without.

The union, which as you can imagine is steadfast against this move, is planning an hour-long demonstration outside Maison Radio-Canada (corner René-Lévesque and Panet, metro Beaudry) at noon, in solidarity with those getting pink slips (who don't yet know who they are):

We are organizing a demonstration to mark this day of mourning.

We will be out on the sidewalk with our “redundant” colleagues, a callous classification of the employees who are the heart and soul of the CBC.

We will gather on René-Lévesque in front of the main entrance to the Maison de Radio-Canada at noon to show our colleagues that we stand with them and management that we don’t agree with sacrificing the next generation of employees for flashy equipment. Senior management likes to say that the CBC’s most valuable asset is its people.

Let’s counter their cynicism with our most valuable asset: our solidarity and our voices.

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CBC’s Search Engine moves to TVO

May 6, 2009 – 3:39 am| Posted in Radio, Technology

Jesse Brown, the host of CBC Radio's Search Engine, found out that his show was among the ones the Mother Corp. decided it would cancel blame the Conservative government for forcing it to cancel.

Search Engine, a show about the Internet, its culture and its laws (à la Geist) was created as a weekly show on CBC Radio One in September 2007, and lasted a year before getting cancelled for the first time. But a geek campaign by the Cory Doctorow Army got CBC to change its mind and bring Search Engine back, retooled (read: simpler and cheaper) as a podcast-only project for its second season. There it gained a cult-like status as a must-subscribe for Canadian podcast geeks.

But this sad story has another happy ending. Search Engine, which is described as CBC's most popular podcast (though I couldn't find numbers to back this up) got picked up by TVOntario, where it gets a home near Steve Paikin and ... we assume there's other stuff at TVO. The show will be produced biweekly until the fall, when it returns to a weekly schedule.

NOW Toronto has some back story. Torontoist also interviews Brown.

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It’s been fun, Don

May 3, 2009 – 1:29 pm| Posted in TV, Video

Sorry to see you go, Don Newman.

More Don from the Air Farce: Don and Justin, Don Newman's Situation Room, Don and Stephen Harper, and Don explains HDTV. There are dozens more where that came from, especially in seasons 11 and 12 and a running gag back in 2000, all of which unfortunately use RealVideo.

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CBC’s “renewal” cuts budget, expands newscasts

April 16, 2009 – 10:00 pm| Posted in TV

Today the CBC announced Part 17 of its huge cost-cutting operation, in which 70 people in its English news department lose their jobs.

The headlines at CBC talk about "24-hour coverage" and "better service" without giving too many details of what that means. CP has the first actual detail: regional supper-hour newscasts will be expanded to 90 minutes (you'll recall they were just recently expanded from half an hour to an hour), and would start at 5pm instead of 6. Coronation Street would fill the half-hour betwen 6:30 and 7.

This certainly makes sense for Montreal, which currently has three English-language local newscasts competing against each other at 6pm (and two of them always losing that battle). Starting earlier might be the ticket to a larger audience.

Of course the question remains how CBC is supposed to have more product with a smaller staff. We'll find that out over the coming months.

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