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2008 TV

Sunday May 18, 2008 Mike Cohen — The Cavallaro effect? CBC TV gets ratings bounce

When we reported the news in this column last December that Frank Cavallaro’s contract as the CTV Montreal weather forecaster was not being renewed, we suggested at the same time that the CBC News at Six grab him for the marquee value he brings to the small screen. A month later, CBC news chief Mary Jo Barr, a former CTV staffer, signed Cavallaro to a contract and he joined the team headed by anch... Full Story

Friday 29 February 2008 OTTAWA: LONG-TERM FUNDING RECOMMENDED FOR CBC
The House of Commons heritage committee has recommended "stable, multi-year funding for the state broadcaster. Members of Parliament of all parties suggested that the government commit itself to fund the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. for at least seven years and that the funding should be indexed to the cost of living. However, MPs of the governing Conservative Party disagreed on various points of the committee report and filed their own document. The minority report disagreed with the main report's recommendation that the CBC should be obliged to televise strictly Canadian content during prime time during the week. The Conservatives went on the record with the observation that the broadcaster shouldn't be "micro-managed." The minority report also disagrees that the CBC's role should be increased in the development, promotion and distribution of Canadian feature films. Witnesses from across the country had appeared to discuss how the CBC could best survive in a satellite-dominated, Internet age. The committee's reports aren't binding on the government.

Friday Feb 29, 2008 Report divided on CBC
All-party committee emerges split. 'Tories' refusal to commit to funding sets the CBC up to fail,' watchdog says
,,,Annual $60 million "top-up" payments the government has been giving the public broadcaster since 2002 should, says the majority recommendation, be made a permanent part of the CBC's core funding, and over the next seven years the government should increase that core funding to the equivalent of "at least" $40 per Canadian. It is now $33.

Tuesday Feb 19, 2008 CBC policy split probable
OTTAWA - A political split is looming over a federal review of the CBC. The all-party House of Commons...
The committee's in-depth review of the CBC has lasted almost a year and is expected to end within the next three weeks.

2007

Wednesday 07 November 2007 The Canadian and US governments respond to the imposition of martial law in Pakistan with tepid denouncements. Montreal lawyer and sports broadcaster Hubert Lacroix is appointed the new president and CEO of the CBC. Allegations of sexual assault at Oprah Winfrey’s school for girls in South Africa inspire the TV talk show host to clean house.

A NEW KING FOR CANADA’S MEDIA CROWN CORP.
The National, the Citizen and the Post go inside with the appointment of a new president and CEO of the CBC. Heritage Minister Joseé Verner announced yesterday that Montreal lawyer and erstwhile sports broadcaster Hubert Lacroix will succeed outgoing president Robert Rabinovitch on January 1. The CBC’s online story has Lacroix stating his two main objectives in the job: “To stay relevant to a changing population and to raise funds that will keep that audience watching and listening.” One doubts that such a quote will give peace of mind to Ian Morrison, spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, who is quoted in all sources on the story, criticizing the appointment process as too political and fretting that the CBC will water down the quality of its programming as a means of “chasing audiences.” The Post has Morrison pointing to a 2003 recommendation by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that presidents of the CBC should be chosen by the crown corporation’s board, and not by the prime minister’s office, so as to avoid political pressure on the non-partisan position. Despite the Standing Committee’s recommendation, the PMO did make the final decision, selecting Lacroix from a list of several suggestions provided by a headhunting firm.

Thursday 20 September 2007
A NEW DIRECTION FOR CBC NEWS?
The National, the Globe and the Post go inside with a new boss at CBC News. John Cruickshank has been named to the newly created post of publisher for the English news operation, after a long career in newspapers. Cruickshank’s last posting was as the publisher and COO of the Chicago Sun-Times, where he had to navigate difficult waters after Conrad Black trial co-defendant David Radler was discovered to have been inflating circulation figures. Cruickshank’s role as publisher of CBC News is a departure for the network, which has decided to split the role of news chief between a publisher, who typically runs the business side of things and sets a general direction, and an editor-in-chief, who handles the news operation and manages producing the day-to-day editorial content. Cruickshank’s first task is to select a new editor-in-chief in the coming weeks, to complete the changing of the guard. His appointment may signal a right turn for the CBC, which frequently raises conservative (and Conservative) ire for its perceived liberalism (and Liberalism), and so has to walk a fine line with a Conservative government in office. Running the Hollinger-owned Sun-Times, which, under Black and previous owner Rupert Murdoch, managed to do the impossible and go further right than the traditionally conservative Chicago Tribune, could be interpreted as proof of conservative bona fides—particularly given that Cruickshank is leaving a mere two months after the Sun-Times’ decision to start leaning left again to distinguish itself from its principal daily competition. Canadian papers used to have a number of sharp-eyed reporters covering the media beat who could help us read between the lines and understand the significance of big-name media appointments, but since Antonia Zerbisias of the Star was put on lifestyle duty, we’re largely left to fend for ourselves.

Listen to The Current: June 14 2007 Part 1

To search for shows that have been on the Current click here.

Wednesday 29 November 2006 GATINEAU: PRIVATE NETWORK ALSO WANTS SHARE OF CABLE FEES
The private television network TVA has joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in demanding to receive a share of the subscription fees paid to cable and satellite-TV firms. TVA CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau presented the demand at the hearings being held on the future of television by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. On Monday, CBC President Robert Rabinovitch made the same demand, saying that a "grave disparity" would be created in the event of a refusal. Speciality channels receive a share of cable fees, but broadcasters like CBC, CTV and Global do not.

Wednesday 29 November 2006 maisonneuve. WILL CBC BE PAY-TV?
The National and CTV News go inside, the Globe’s Report on Business leads, the Post and the Citizen go inside their business sections and the Star goes inside its entertainment section with news that we could soon be paying more on our cable bill if Canada’s major broadcasters get their way. At the start of a week-long hearing of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, the CBC, CTV, Global and Quebec’s TQS television networks argued that increasing competition in the form of internet and cable TV is making their business model obsolete as advertising dollars become diluted. They want to levy a fifty-cent-per-channel surcharge that would be paid by cable TV subscribers, in much the same way they are charged for specialty cable channels. The idea’s proponents point out that last year the revenue from cable fees amounted to some 6.2 billion dollars, while ad revenue was roughly half that. But, as the Globe and the Star point out in their coverage, the broadcasters’ plea for more money from consumers got a chilly reception from the CRTC yesterday.

Monday 10 July 2006 Time to rethink CBC as public broadcaster
Scarcely a month seems to go by without some news of a major study, an internal reform, or a governmental review concerning the CBC.

maisonneuve.org WITHER THE CBC?
by Joe Boughner
June 22, 2006

Say what you will about their effectiveness, one has to love the Senate’s timing. Yesterday morning, it was reported that CBC intends to bump its flagship news program, The National, to 11 p.m. every Tuesday night this summer to make room for a US reality-show-cum-American-Idol-knockoff called The One: Making a Music Star. Enter the Senate. This morning, both fans and foes of the Mother Corp. were greeted with coverage of a Senate committee report on the state of the media in Canada—a report that calls for, among other things, the elimination of advertising from CBC television and a retreat from its fledgling commercial mandate. As reported in the most detail by the Post, the Senate report says CBC should scrap professional sports and the Olympics, do away with advertising and focus instead on being a true national broadcaster. While the two-volume report was drafted long before the decision to bump The National, Senators Joan Fraser and Jim Munson (a former CTV News correspondent) pointed to the decision as an example of the dangers that CBC faces in pursuing a commercial mandate. Asked Mr. Munson, “Why is the CBC going there?”

Never the sort to pass up an old-fashioned journalistic dog-pile, the Big Seven seize on the ill-fated timing of the CBC’s latest foray into the news and focus primarily on the Senate’s suggestions for the venerable institution. In so doing, however, they conveniently gloss over the report’s other, more plausible suggestions. It goes without saying that one can hardly imagine Stephen Harper forking over an additional $400 million to Mansbridge and Co. to offset lost advertising revenues. But the cost of implementing the report’s other recommendations – such as legislating an automatic review of proposed media mergers in major markets, or requiring news media to openly identify their controlling stakeholders – would be downright digestible. Given legitimate concerns about media concentration and convergence, it is shocking to see that recommendations dealing with such issues didn’t gain much traction within the Big Seven. An entity more cynical than MediaScout might conclude that Canada’s major news outlets didn’t want Canadians to get any crazy ideas about their controlling corporate masters. Tsk, what would Senator Munson say?
A NEW KING FOR CANADA’S MEDIA CROWN CORP.
The National, the Citizen and the Post go inside with the appointment of a new president and CEO of the CBC. Heritage Minister Joseé Verner announced yesterday that Montreal lawyer and erstwhile sports broadcaster Hubert Lacroix will succeed outgoing president Robert Rabinovitch on January 1. The CBC’s online story has Lacroix stating his two main objectives in the job: “To stay relevant to a changing population and to raise funds that will keep that audience watching and listening.” One doubts that such a quote will give peace of mind to Ian Morrison, spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, who is quoted in all sources on the story, criticizing the appointment process as too political and fretting that the CBC will water down the quality of its programming as a means of “chasing audiences.” The Post has Morrison pointing to a 2003 recommendation by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that presidents of the CBC should be chosen by the crown corporation’s board, and not by the prime minister’s office, so as to avoid political pressure on the non-partisan position. Despite the Standing Committee’s recommendation, the PMO did make the final decision, selecting Lacroix from a list of several suggestions provided by a headhunting firm.

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Thursday Jun 22, 2006 OTTAWA: CHANGES RECOMMENDED FOR STATE BROADCASTER
A report introduced in the Canadian Senate on Wednesday recommends changes to deal with the concentration of media ownership in the country. It also calls for changes to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation of which Radio Canada International is a part. One of the recommendations is for broadcasters to give a clear priority to Canadian news and information programming. The recommendations also call for a long-term budget for the CBC that would allow its television operations to stop carrying commercials. Another recommendation would require all media outlets in Canada to state regularly in print or through broadcast the identity of the controlling shareholders.

Wednesday Jun 21, 2006 Senate report proposes ad-free CBC
A Senate report on the state of Canada's media will recommend that CBC-TV become a truly public, commercial-free broadcaster, The Canadian Press has learned.

Monday Jun 19, 2006 "So, where are we today?" she continues. "We have 160 people working for the website. We have 750,000-plus pages of material online. ... Over the years, I think we've won every major award out there. ... Our audience over the past year has increased 60 per cent ... and we are the Number 1 news media website in Canada since December, and still holding steady at the Number 1 spot ...

Thursday May 18, 2006 Virginia Heffernan at the Television Upfronts The Times's television critic reports from this week's upfront presentations, where the networks debut their new schedules. More Coverage

Tuesday Mar 14, 2006 nyt As Internet TV Aims at Niche Audiences, the Slivercast Is Born By SAUL HANSELL
Thousands of producers are creating programming for the Internet aimed at very dedicated small audiences, on everything from vegan cooking to poker.

Sunday Mar 12, 2006 CBC needs ‘critical mass' of drama, president says
Robert Rabinovitch argues it is not enough to have one or two good shows
....Last month the CBC cancelled three of its critically acclaimed but low-rated series — Da Vinci's City Hall, The Tournament and This Is Wonderland — prompting accusations that the broadcaster was placing too much emphasis on viewer numbers .
But in his speech Rabinovitch said CBC-TV should be "taking risks and producing programs that innovate — Canadian equivalents to The Office from the U.K. or Six Feet Under from next door."
....CBC operations need a makeover as funding remains its biggest hurdle, said Rabinovitch. Government operating funding is now under $1-billion — which is $335-million less than in 1985 after inflation, he said.

Arts Home | nyt year 05
		TELEVISION • The Shows: Alessandra Stanley • The Characters: Virginia Heffernan • The Serial Dramas: Kate Aurthur

Sunday Nov 6, 2005 ts Far from over
There has been a great deal of commentary recently about the CBC, almost all of it based on subjectivity, questionable polling data and an incomplete understanding of TV viewing data. Since politicians and policy analysts tend to pick up on this subjective commentary, rather than studying the facts, there is little understanding of viewing patterns, public opinion about TV, especially CBC TV, and what Canadians want from their public broadcaster.

Monday Oct 31, 2005 ts Let technology be catalyst for CBC's much-needed renewal
The return of the CBC to the airwaves has sparked a national discussion about the future of Canada's public broadcaster. Funding is the key issue for the CBC's management, which last week used a House of Commons committee hearing to note that it has not received a major budget increase in more than 30 years. Media commentators have focused on the need for new business models, citing the potential for pay-per-view or subscription opportunities, the elimination of commercials, or the emulation of the widely applauded CBC Radio by its television counterpart.

Tuesday Oct 25, 2005 ts Blueprint for CBC's future is right before our ears
It's not really clear exactly what hauling CBC's top management before the House of Commons Heritage Committee Thursday will accomplish.

Sun 10/9/2005 Employees of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation have voted to accept their tentative deal with management. The vote officially ends a bitter, seven-week labour dispute. A management lockout focused on job security and the use of contract workers. The deal caps contract workers at 9.5 per cent of the full-time work force. It also allows for wage hikes of 12.6 per cent over the life of the contract through to March 31, 2009. Most of the CBC's 5,500 unionized workers are expected back at work on Tuesday. However, it could take days and weeks before programming returns to normal.

Friday Oct 7, 2005 Most of the CBC's 5,500 unionized workers who were locked out for seven weeks will be heading back to their posts on Tuesday if they ratify the tentative deal reached last weekend.

Wednesday Oct 5, 2005 ts CBC president chastised over lockout
On his first day as chair of the CBC board, Guy Fournier yesterday appeared to put corporation president Robert Rabinovitch on notice, questioning his judgment and criticizing his decisions.

Wednesday Oct 5, 2005 rci The recently named chairman of the board of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Guy Fournier, says board might have needed more information about the CBC's labour situation before a seven-week lockout of 5,500 employees began. Mr. Fournier says the conflict might have occurred anyway, but that a better-informed board would have been in a position to examine all the possibilities. The lockout affected CBC employees outside of Quebec and Moncton, NB. After the intervention of the federal labour department, an agreement in principle to end the conflict was negotiated on Sunday.

Tuesday Oct 4, 2005 rci A tentative agreement has been reached between the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and its estimated 5,500 employees who have been locked out for seven weeks. It's not immediately clear when the CBC workers would return to work because both sides must still work out a return-to-work protocol. The CBC locked out its employees across most of Canada in a contract dispute that centred on a CBC plan to hire more contract workers, a move the union said would destroy job security. That issue has been worked out to the satisfaction of both sides. Also, the agreement would increase wages by 12.6 per cent over the life of the contract to March 31, 2009. The lockout did not affect CBC employees in the mainly French-speaking province of Quebec and the city of Moncton, NB, because these regions have different unions. Radio Canada International, a member of the CBC family, continued to broadcast because of its union affiliation in Quebec.

Sunday Oct 2, 2005 nyt On Television, Brands Go From Props to Stars
By LORNE MANLY
Product placement on television no longer means using brand names as mere props. Advertisers are working with writers to incorporate products into story lines.

Monday Oct 3, 2005 ts CBC, union continue talking
OTTAWA—The two sides in the seven-week-old CBC lockout continued negotiations late into the evening last night as speculation mounted that a tentative agreement is near.

Saturday Oct 1, 2005 ts Minister seeks a deal, not PR in CBC talks
OTTAWA—Labour Minister Joe Fontana yesterday criticized both sides in the CBC lockout, saying they are spending more energy trying to convince the public of their position than trying to reach an agreement.

Thursday Sep 29, 2005 maisonneuve.org I WANT MY, I WANT MY C-B-C
The Globe fronts and the Citizen and the Post (not available online) go inside with the latest development in the CBC lockout of 5,500 of its employees. Under pressure from Labour Minister Joe Fontana’s office, management has now tabled an offer that limits the number of contract positions the corporation would hire per year—one of the main sticking points—but the Canadian Media Guild is so far unimpressed. Meanwhile, in spite of the talks having been relocated to Ottawa this week, Liberal MPs at yesterday’s caucus meeting expressed their frustration at the lack of progress in the seven-week-long dispute. Some Liberals suggested that either labour laws or the mandate of Crown corporations should be re-examined because of the frequency of lockouts CBC management has orchestrated in recent years (three in the last five years). Still, MPs didn’t have much to offer except their hopes that both sides can work something out. Essentially, they remain, like the rest of us, spectators in this ugly confrontation between management and employees.

Federal Labour Minister Joe Fontana called both parties to the six-week lockout at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation into his office on Monday to discuss ways to end the conflict. Mr. Fontana says he'll keep them "locked up" in the office until they agree to end the lockout. The talks continued into the evening on Monday. The employer locked out 5,500 journalists, writers and technicians on Aug. 15. CBC employees in Quebec and Moncton, NB, are not involved. The chief issue in the conflict is the CBC's wish to hire more employees on contract.

Sunday Sep 25, 2005 ts Where is the CBC money going?
OTTAWA—The federal government may launch a probe into how the CBC has been using the money it's been getting from Ottawa during its 41-day lockout — and perhaps ask for some of it back, says the Heritage department's parliamentary secretary. Sam Bulte is also intending to push for back-to-work legislation for the CBC when Parliament resumes next week, even though Labour Minister Joe Fontana said yesterday he doesn't favour that option.

Friday Sep 23, 2005 ts CBC lockout shakes Liberals
OTTAWA?Frustration with the 40-day lockout by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is on the rise within Prime Minister Paul Martin's government, with the parliamentary secretary for Canadian heritage, Sam Bulte, now warning she can no longer defend management's position in the dispute.

CBC must explain reason for lockout
Yesterday marked the start of the sixth week of the lockout of 5,500 employees by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. With no end in sight, it is time senior CBC management fully explain to the public the reasoning behind its decision to precipitate the labour dispute and what it will take to restore CBC radio and television services across the country.

Tuesday Sep 20, 2005 ts Michael Moore wants CBC to pull doc
American filmmaker Michael Moore does not want you to watch his Oscar-winning documentary Bowling for Columbine tonight. At least, not on the CBC.

Sep 17, 2005 ts Referendum too close for comfort
Talk about reality TV. Quebecers got a jolting dose a week ago from Point de Rupture, a four-hour Radio-Canada special on the referendum of 1995. The English version, Breaking Point, seems to have had little impact outside Quebec because of disruptions at the CBC, but it's bound to come its stomach-turning way again as Canada approaches the 10th anniversary of the day the music almost died. Or, if you prefer, the day a new country was almost born.

Sep 17, 2005 ts MPs want CBC head to report
OTTAWA—Conservative MP Bev Oda wants CBC president Robert Rabinovitch to appear before a parliamentary committee to report on the CBC's lockout of 5,500 employees.

Tuesday Sep 13, 2005 ts CBC lockout has gone on long enough
Some things reach the end of their useful life, run out and get thrown away. The manufacturers of the Bic pen, for example, announced last week that they had manufactured their 100 billionth pen, meaning an unimaginably huge pile of thrown-away pens somewhere.

Monday Aug 29, 2005 ts CBC future at risk in labour dispute
For nearly 70 years, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has been the principal champion of Canadian culture in the face of a steady barrage from American broadcasters. An unrelenting parade of U.S. programs on Canadian private networks and cable TV is proof that in a world of 500 channels, a strong CBC is even more important to our national identity as it was before the days of satellite television and the Internet.

Monday Aug 29, 2005 rci A new opinion poll shows that most Canadians are not disturbed by the labour strife that has silenced most television and radio programs on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Some 5,500 workers were locked out on August 15 over a dispute relating to the company's desire to use more contract employees. The poll shows that 61 per cent of those surveyed said that the lockout had no impact on them at all. Ten per cent called the strife a major inconvenience, while 27 per cent said that the inconvenience was minor. A labour union spokesman, Arnold Amber, dismissed the poll results, saying that pollsters targeted all Canadians rather than focussing on those who regularly tuned in to CBC programs. Employees in Quebec---Radio Canada International and Radio-Canada---as well as in Moncton, New Brunswick, are not directly affected by the lockout because their staff belong to a different union. [shut it down it is not worth ....]

Tuesday Aug 23, 2005 ts Scoring hot on-the-job action
This has been the summer of strikes, threats and lockouts. From Hydro to garbage workers to the LCBO to the CBC lockout, there's been more job action (or threats) in the past few months than actually takes place when everybody's tidily tucked away at their desks and supposedly working.

Media rivals feed on CBC lockout
CBC management couldn't be doing more for its private sector competition if it personally picked up audiences members and drove them over to rival networks and radio stations.

Friday Aug 19, 2005 ts CTV News wins with CBC lockout
CBC workers may be locked out but CTV is striking.