CMF says it is trying to ‘level the playing field’ between CBC, private broadcasters

In response to the CBC’s internal memo that it will lose $12.6-million in digital production and television program funding this year, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) says it is trying to “level the playing field” between the CBC and private broadcasters. “The policy direction to level the playing field for all broadcasters resulted in the CBC/Radio-Canada’s envelope being calculated using the same factors as other broadcasters,” Valerie Creighton, President and CEO of the CMF, said in a written statement emailed to The Wire Report. Before the new CMF was created this year, through the combination of the former Canadian Television Fund (CTF) and Canada New Media Fund (CNMF), the CBC had a guaranteed 37 per cent funding envelope dedicated to television programming. Under the new CMF, the CBC’s guaranteed percentage has disappeared, resulting in a $9-million television programming cut this year. The other $3.6-million in lost funding was money previously allocated to digital production. “CBC/Radio-Canada has been informed by the Canada Media Fund (CMF) that its envelope for the upcoming broadcast year will total $96.5 million,” the CBC said in an internal memo to staff Wednesday. “That represents a $12.6 million drop from the amount we received last year for television and digital production despite the fact that the total amount of money available has grown from $300 million to $350 million. CBC’s funding will decrease $8.9 million and Radio-Canada’s $3.7 million.” “I think the CBC is being killed by a thousand cuts,” Howard Bernstein, a former Canadian television producer who now administers a media criticism blog called Medium Close Up, told The Wire Report. “They’re hurting the only people who are serious about doing Canadian content.” The CBC’s memo to employees said the cut would result in the “loss of either three half-hour comedy series, 1.5 one-hour drama series, or 36 one-hour documentaries.” But the CBC will be eligible for more funding later this year when the CMF reviews what kind of programming the broadcasters produce. “The amount allocated to all broadcasters, including the CBC/Radio-Canada, is based on their performance during the previous broadcast year,” Creighton said. “For 2011-2012, the CMF will be adjusting the envelope calculation factors to account for prime time, first run programming, in accordance with the policy direction. These factors will be announced in June 2010.” In the memo, CBC president Hubert Lacroix said the CMF is not yet well-positioned to focus on Canadian programming. “The CMF has committed to including audiences to original Canadian programs in prime time as a key factor in calculating broadcasters’ envelopes for next year,” Lacroix said. “When that happens, the CMF will be better positioned to focus on the Heritage Minister’s objective of bringing more audiences to original, distinct Canadian programming and ensuring a healthy diversity of voices and of genres.” Bernstein said his previous experience with the CTF as a producer was problematic. “I’ve run into problems with them when I was making shows and trying to get a piece of the fund,” Bernstein said. “It just seems to me that the Canada Media Fund has given money to exactly whoever they wanted, not whoever needed it. But the CBC was always guaranteed its pot.” The CBC had a difficult year in 2009-2010 when it faced a $170-million shortfall that resulted in 800 job cuts. The public broadcaster has also faced criticism that it has not met its mandate to inform, enlighten and entertain, and that in recent years it has tried to operate more like a private broadcaster. In a short email to The Wire Report, Jeffrey Simpson, The Globe and Mail’s national affairs columnist, said the recent cuts to the CBC’s programming do not matter “as long as the CBC is an ersatz private broadcaster.” “ CBC’s mandate is to be a public broadcaster, to ‘inform, enlighten and entertain,’ as the Broadcasting Act stipulates,” Simpson wrote last year in an article titled “The Fading CBC” for Queen’s Quarterly. “The drafters of the act deliberately arranged the words in this order, with ‘inform’ first, to underscore public broadcasting’s essential mission. But CBC (we are talking about English-language CBC in these reflections, not Radio-Canada) acts like an ersatz private broadcaster in too much of its entertainment programming, its approach to news and current affairs, and its relentless pursuit of audience maximization.” Jeffrey Dvorkin, the Rogers distinguished visiting chair in journalism at Ryerson University, said he agrees with Simpson. “It wants to be a commercial broadcaster, going after ratings, but it still wants to be seen as a public broadcaster, in which it deserves funding from the government,” Dvorkin told The Wire Report. “The CBC may be forced to choose which one it wants to be.” Bernstein has been critical of CBC management, but he said the organization remains vital to Canadian culture. “I don’t think the CBC has ever been more important to Canada than it is today,” he said. “With the combination of our government and what the people running the CBC are doing to it, I can’t imagine how the CBC will last much longer.” jmigneault@thewirereport.ca

CMF says it is trying to ‘level the playing field’ between CBC, private broadcasters

Broadcast | April 8, 2010

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