public broadcasting

Friday, April 11, 2014

Friday, April 11, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, April 11, 2014

CBC to cut 657 jobs, will no longer compete for professional sports rights

Funding shortfalls and revenue losses have forced CBC/Radio-Canada to cut $130 million from its budget this year, a move that will eliminate 657 jobs over the next two years and take the network out of competing for the rights to broadcast professional sports, the public broadcaster says.

“Very tough and controversial choices needed to be made and were made,” CBC president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix said at a townhall meeting with staff Thursday.

Lacroix said CBC could no longer compete against private broadcasters that have specialty sports channels and multiple media platforms. The result will mean “substantially reducing” the size of the sports department and covering fewer sporting events, including amateur sports. And the CBC will only consider broadcasting events that allow the network to break even, he said.

But the CBC will still compete for sporting events of national significance, like the Olympics.

Among the cuts, English Services will slash $82 million from its budget and eliminate 334 full-time jobs.

Lacroix said the broadcaster looked for solutions to shield Canadian programming in prime time and its commitment to the regions and digital from cuts.

“We were not able to protect these priorities as much as we would have liked to. And Canadians will now notice,” he said.

In news, the network will cut $13.3 million from its budget, resulting in 115 job losses.

Radio will also reduce some of its live music performances and some local musical performance shows will be cancelled or consolidated into regional shows.

Losing the rights to broadcast Hockey Night in Canada to Rogers was a significant loss, but only one of the factors leading to Thursday’s announced changes.

CBC has been coping with a loss of $115 million in federal government funding over three years that was announced in the 2012 federal budget. (Source: CBC News)

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Republished in iPolitics, Regina Leader Post, Thunder Bay Chronicle, The Gull Lake Advance (Saskatchewan)

 

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Wednesday, November 27, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, November 27, 2013

What the new Rogers-NHL deal means for the CBC

National broadcaster to earn no revenue from hockey

The CBC is in trouble. It is losing all of its hockey revenue – but keeping about 320 hours a year of hockey, including Hockey Night in Canada – under the NHL’s new Canadian broadcast rights deal.

Rogers is making big moves to control ever more Canadian media and the announcement on Tuesday that they’re essentially taking over hockey rights across Canada is an enormous move.

Losing hockey is a big deal for the CBC. They’ll keep Hockey Night in Canada for four years on a sub-contract from Rogers, but they don’t own the content anymore. They will not even get the advertising revenue from the broadcasts. They also will not pay for the rights to the games. All that falls to Rogers.

CBC President and CEO Hubert Lacroix acknowledged that the next season of Hockey Night in Canada will be very different.

“Starting next year, Rogers will assume all editorial control (all editorial decisions with respect to the content, on-air talent and the creative direction of HNIC – we have the right to be consulted and there is a commitment to excellence) under the new agreement,” he wrote to CBC staff in an internal memo.

“While this deal will result in job losses, the staffing impact would have been much greater had we lost hockey entirely, as CBC is still producing hockey. Preserving HNIC also allows CBC to maintain a capacity to execute a sports strategy and fulfil lits existing contractual obligations (i.e. Olympics, Pan-Am, FIFA),” he continued.

Lacroix was unclear on which jobs, and how many, would be cut as a result of this deal.

Later, in a press conference with Rogers, Lacroix tried to remain positive but had little to add.

“Rogers takes on all of the revenues from all of the properties. We have no costs that come with that. We don’t pay any broadcasting rights,” he said. “Our friends at Rogers pick up all of the revenue.”

Asked what CBC gains from the deal, he said the CBC has maintained the right “to promote some of our programs through the iconic Hockey Night in Canada.”

That was it. Rogers refused to comment on any specifics of Don Cherry’s future. (Source: Canada.com)