CBC rumblings

[ibezdechi]

It has now beeing way over a month that CBC personnel have been locked out by management. Are there any rumblings?

I can't help but feel this whole unresolved thing will hurt CBC terribly in the long run. We had a similar situation here in Southern California when the grocery clerk's union struck all of the major foodstores here. After six months the Union clerks were on their collective stomachs and the grocery chains were dying as well... And now, two years later, the grocery chains have never been able to get back all of their regular customers because the consumers had learned to go elsewhere for their food needs.

Letting this situation linger is bound to have negative repercussions on both sides of the aisle as viewers get used to alternative programming sources.

I continue to be surprised the lack of board traffic on this question especialy in that we are talking about a major television network and two national radio networks. Even the Canadian press when you do a web search on Yahoo news seems to be not very interested in this fracas. It's like someone declared war and nobody came!

 

[rugrats1]

> I continue to be surprised the lack of board traffic on this
> question especialy in that we are talking about a major
> television network and two national radio networks. Even
> the Canadian press when you do a web search on Yahoo news
> seems to be not very interested in this fracas. It's like
> someone declared war and nobody came!
>
Wait until hockey starts next month -- if the CBC lockout isn't resolved by then, you're very likely to see some press about it.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Rugrats 1 commented:

> Wait until hockey starts next month -- if the CBC lockout
> isn't resolved by then, you're very likely to see some press
> about it.

Rugrats 1, you've hit the nail on the head!

At this writing, it's T-minus 21 days and counting to the season premiere of "Hockey Night In Canada".

If HNIC isn't broadcast on October 8th, and/or if only one (or two) of the three scheduled games that night are broadcast, and/or games are broadcast without announcers, then all of Canada will notice and the CBC labor dispute will finally get page-one attention.

Outside of hockey season, CBC television is all but ignored by many Canadians. It's my understanding that "HNIC" is almost always at or near the top of the Canadian TV ratings; but most other CBC shows don't have much viewership. "HNIC" is usually the only CBC show that makes the BBM list of Canada's thirty most popular primetime television programs (although sometimes, a CBC entertainment show might barely make it into the top-30). The rest of the top-30 list consists of shows on CTV and Global, and with a couple of exceptions, are American imports.

As for CBC radio, while they do have an audience, CBC radio stations have fewer listeners than most "private" stations.

 

[mjlarochelle]

> Outside of hockey season, CBC television is all but ignored
> by many Canadians. It's my understanding that "HNIC" is
> almost always at or near the top of the Canadian TV ratings;
> but most other CBC shows don't have much viewership. "HNIC"
> is usually the only CBC show that makes the BBM list of
> Canada's thirty most popular primetime television programs
> (although sometimes, a CBC entertainment show might barely
> make it into the top-30). The rest of the top-30 list
> consists of shows on CTV and Global, and with a couple of
> exceptions, are American imports.
-----------
Sunday Report (retooled last year as Sunday Night) gets fairly high ratings as well. I've seen it sometimes in the BBM ratings, even when it was top 20 or 25, whatever it was before they went to 30. The odd special also gets high ratings on CBC, in addition to American movie broadcasts. Local newscasts are successful on CBCT (Charlottetown) and CBNT (St. John's), and until some of the massive cuts of the past 15-20 years, apparently CBRT (Calgary) was number one in its market. People will watch CBC if there is something worth watching.

I think honestly that the CBC has been shooting itself in the head by trying to eliminate private affiliates. If they had the large base of private affiliates that they had in the 80s, there would be a much greater possibility of keeping the network afloat at a time like this. Suddenly, with an almost completely owned and operated network, they have almost nothing to fall back on. They try to sell the "full CBC schedule" stuff to people when stations are disaffiliating (such as CKRD, now CHCA in Red Deer), but the full CBC schedule is not watched, nor is local programming in place during a labour distruption. Next time there's a disaffiliation hearing, I'll be intervening to the CRTC.

> As for CBC radio, while they do have an audience, CBC radio
> stations have fewer listeners than most "private" stations.
------------
At the local level, CBLA in Toronto has the highest-rated morning show in the market, according to the BBM.

 

[Bob1370]

> > As for CBC radio, while they do have an audience, CBC
> radio
> > stations have fewer listeners than most "private"
> stations.

In many of the major Canadian markets, the CBC Radio One station is format-dominant in news-talk broadcasting according to the BBMs. In Toronto, Andy Barrie's Metro Morning show is the top morning radio show in terms of listenership. CBC Radio One is a major national player...when it's running normally. You do have to wonder if it'll ever get that back if the lockout lasts much longer...and you also have to wonder if some of its best talent might not migrate either to private radio, or south of the border if this thing lasts much longer. (It's been rumored that National Public Radio tried and failed to persuade Barrie to come to Washington as replacement for Bob Edwards on Morning Edition, and given the lackluster performance of the hosts they settled on, that offer could be renewed before too long---would Barrie, a Baltimore native, be more interested this time if it is?)

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

M.J. Larochelle commented:

> I think honestly that the CBC has been shooting itself in
> the head by trying to eliminate private affiliates. If they
> had the large base of private affiliates that they had in
> the 80s, there would be a much greater possibility of
> keeping the network afloat at a time like this. Suddenly,
> with an almost completely owned and operated network, they
> have almost nothing to fall back on.

Let's engage in "What-If":

What if Barrie's CKVR-3 (which I believe was, until it dropped CBC affiliation, the closest CBC affiliate to Toronto) were still a CBC affiliate??

During the current labor dispute, could CBC have asked CKVR's local news department to take over producing "The National", by airing reports on Canadian news produced by privately-owned CBC stations, including CKVR sending crews to cover Toronto, and (assuming CBC correspondents and news crews in bureaus outside of Canada were also "locked-out") buying reports on stories outside of Canada from BBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC??

Now the reality:

CHEX-12 Peterborough is the nearest privately-owned CBC affiliate to the network's headquarters in Toronto (and has an Oshawa transmitter; I suspect they have a new bureau there too), even though Peterborough is further away from Toronto than Barrie is. If the lockout extends further, could CHEX be asked to produce a nightly Canadian newscast to replace "The National" with taped reports on domestic stories furnished by stringers and what private CBC affiliates still exist and foreign news stories purchased from ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN and NBC??

 

[mjlarochelle]

> Now the reality:
>
> CHEX-12 Peterborough is the nearest privately-owned CBC
> affiliate to the network's headquarters in Toronto (and has
> an Oshawa transmitter; I suspect they have a new bureau
> there too), even though Peterborough is further away from
> Toronto than Barrie is. If the lockout extends further,
> could CHEX be asked to produce a nightly Canadian newscast
> to replace "The National" with taped reports on domestic
> stories furnished by stringers and what private CBC
> affiliates still exist and foreign news stories purchased
> from ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN and NBC??
-----------
CHEX in Oshawa is a separate television station with its own programming, offices, and studios, so technically that station is closest to Toronto. However I don't know what kind of facilities they have, so CHEX Peterborough might be the best option.

The CBC would never do this though. Outsourcing to their affiliated stations is a taboo to them, because the private stations are just a nuisance to them that they are determined to rid themselves of. In the United States this doesn't happen, because networks don't own 95% of their stations. In Canada stations don't have recourse with their network anymore because they are too insignificant.

 

[e-dawg]

Re: CBC Montreal CBC New Brunswick,

Since CBC in Quebec and New Brunswick have different Unions. Why not have CBC Montreal or CBC Moncton or Fredricton to produce the National Newscast. Hey Radio-Canada was able to produce the national edition without any glitches.



> > Now the reality:
> >
> > CHEX-12 Peterborough is the nearest privately-owned CBC
> > affiliate to the network's headquarters in Toronto (and
> has
> > an Oshawa transmitter; I suspect they have a new bureau
> > there too), even though Peterborough is further away from
> > Toronto than Barrie is. If the lockout extends further,
> > could CHEX be asked to produce a nightly Canadian newscast
>
> > to replace "The National" with taped reports on domestic
> > stories furnished by stringers and what private CBC
> > affiliates still exist and foreign news stories purchased
> > from ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN and NBC??
> -----------
> CHEX in Oshawa is a separate television station with its own
> programming, offices, and studios, so technically that
> station is closest to Toronto. However I don't know what
> kind of facilities they have, so CHEX Peterborough might be
> the best option.
>
> The CBC would never do this though. Outsourcing to their
> affiliated stations is a taboo to them, because the private
> stations are just a nuisance to them that they are
> determined to rid themselves of. In the United States this
> doesn't happen, because networks don't own 95% of their
> stations. In Canada stations don't have recourse with their
> network anymore because they are too insignificant.
>

 

[rugrats1]

Re: CBC Montreal CBC New Brunswick,

> Since CBC in Quebec and New Brunswick have different Unions.
> Why not have CBC Montreal or CBC Moncton or Fredricton to
> produce the National Newscast.

In New Brunswick's case, only the Moncton studios are under a separate union. The other English CBC studios in New Brunswick are under the same, locked-out union.

 

[mjlarochelle]

Re: CBC Montreal CBC New Brunswick,

> Since CBC in Quebec and New Brunswick have different Unions.
> Why not have CBC Montreal or CBC Moncton or Fredricton to
> produce the National Newscast. Hey Radio-Canada was able to
> produce the national edition without any glitches.
-----------
You'd think so, but even CBMT's local newscast is off the air right now. Last week however I spotted Le Telejournal Ontario in a web schedule for CBLFT.

 

[rugrats1]

Re: CBC Montreal CBC New Brunswick,

> > Since CBC in Quebec and New Brunswick have different
> > Unions...

> You'd think so, but even CBMT's local newscast is off the
> air right now.

Apparently, CBMT's master is in Toronto with the rest of the CBC-TV network, instead of being mastered by SRC in Montreal. As a result, CBMT is also suffering, even though they have a different union than the rest of the CBC.

 

[ED1]

> I think honestly that the CBC has been shooting itself in
> the head by trying to eliminate private affiliates. If they
> had the large base of private affiliates that they had in
> the 80s, there would be a much greater possibility of
> keeping the network afloat at a time like this. Suddenly,
> with an almost completely owned and operated network, they
> have almost nothing to fall back on. They try to sell the
> "full CBC schedule" stuff to people when stations are
> disaffiliating (such as CKRD, now CHCA in Red Deer), but the
> full CBC schedule is not watched, nor is local programming
> in place during a labour distruption. Next time there's a
> disaffiliation hearing, I'll be intervening to the CRTC.

I really don't understand why you would intervene if a private CBC station disaffiliates. It takes two to disaffiliate, and in the case of CHCA/CKRD, they wanted to get out of CBC. They wanted access to the revenue that was being generated in primetime, instead of giving it to the CBC. In any event, CBC programming at the time was terrible and it hurt the station. Plus CKRD needed to get on satellite so it can be seen by rural viewers - which more and more of them are subscribing to.

So the advertisers in Central Alberta(local and otherwise) saw the following of CKRD pre-disaffiliation:
- Poor CBC programming
- Lack of rural coverage on satellite

If you were a local business would you advertise on CKRD if a lot of the audience you were trying to aim at can't even see your ad? No. And I heard that RDTV was charging bargain basement prices for airtime... now really, do you expect the station to continue producing its current local programming when they're barely making a profit? At the end of the day, television is a business... if you don't make money in something, you bail. It was crucial for CKRD to disaffiliate with the CBC to survive - if not, everyone would end up being the losers... the employees of CKRD/CHCA, local businesses, and Central Alberta viewers.