Broadcaster.com featured an interview with Richard Stursberg, Vice-President of English Services at the CBC, this week. Really nothing all that new — basically the same arguments and explanations as we’ve heard, but, for the record, a brief summary of the interview is after the jump, below.
Plans For Radio 2
We are attempting to broaden the musical mix available on Radio 2. Everyone likes the intelligence & the quality of the station, but the content will be broadened outside of classical music.
In this country every year 30,000 songs are released commercially; only 240 get airplay. The changes at Radio 2 are meant to showcase the full musical spectrum in order to give more Canadian artists a chance.
The whole range of music that is made in Canada will be made available; the test will be “is it great”.
Emerging Artists & Radio 2’s New Format
The CRTC just announced recent policy on emerging artists. We don’t have any place for emerging artists right now. When you go back to the 60’s, and people who have become iconic like Mitchell or Cohen, CBC was fundamental in their founding. We want to go back to that.
Overall, we want Radio 2 to provide an authoritative intellectual setting for the kind of music people want to hear.
Plans For Radio 1
Radio 1 is in good shape. Best share ever in the last books. Morning shows and drive-home shows are #1 in most markets, #2 and #3 in others. The strategy is to focus on local character of morning and drive-home shows. Meet Canadians where they want to be met. No shift in direction such as Radio 2.
Our Vancouver station is doing particularly well, even with the AM format. We are not going to stick with AM for any stations in future. We made a deal with Global to get FM licenses in BC. We are going for coverage of Nanaimo across the Island, which we currently don’t have.
We are hoping to hear from the commission soon on these applications.
AM is a dying medium, the signal quality on FM is so much better. In parts of Vancouver right now you can’t even get the AM signal.
AM/FM – What’s Next – Digital Alternatives
CBC has an experimental license to do HD radio; that is an interesting medium to explore. 10-11% of all radio is done online right now, with demographics skewed by age. I think this will accelerate when people can get wi-fi in their cars. Ford is already experimenting with this; essentially you will have a computer in your car.
Radio 3
We are very pleased with the way Radio 3 has gone. It has become a model as online listening has become important. It is less expensive than doing it with towers. We are spending a lot of time in satellite radio with the involvement with Sirius.
CBC has got the greatest music library in the country and the greatest expertise in the country as well. CBC wants to meet people in whatever way, and whatever device, they are most comfortable with.
CBC Sports
CBC Sports has a strong heritage. Hockey Night in Canada is the oldest media franchise in the world. It was on the radio for 30 years before it started on TV in 1952.
We recently had curling on. We are still finishing up the curling contract this year. We have shifted emphasis in the sense that there is no football; that has gone to TSN. We have made a very big commitment to soccer. We were recently the broadcaster for the International Men’s Under 20 Championship in Canada, and we are the broadcaster of the Toronto FC. More kids play soccer than any other sport; big growth area.
Broadcasting Blue Jays, Raptors, and we remain committed to amateur sport. We will be broadcasting 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
What problems has Don Cherry caused?
Over the course of the last 2 years, there has been no criticism of Don Cherry’s remarks. Iconic figure of our country, lovely guy, wears his heart on his sleeve. Over the years he has been a great booster of CBC and a great part of Hockey Night in Canada.
Digital Specialty Channels
Landscape will change fundamentally over the next 2 years. Hearings have been going on in Ottawa as per what the role of HD channels will be, that will have a big impact. The transition off of Analog has been set to 2011. By then everyone needs a digital box who will receive cable.
When everyone has a digital box, then all channels are on the same footing. Channels that prosper in that environment will be those have had more of a following. That will be powerful in terms that they are responsive to the marketplace.
Environment won’t be determined by market share as per conventional television, but by demand for particular channels.
If you look at Canadian conventional television landscape, overwhelming majority of content gets made by conventional television channels. Specialty channels then buy that content and run the wheels off of it – conventional television will still be the content producers.
Television on Demand
Three years ago you couldn’t get television shows in a video store – now they are all over the place. Right now we have the #1 on demand show in Canada, which is The Tudors.
25% of revenue for feature film is in theatrical, 75% in DVD & television. The first window will be increasingly less important as time goes on. That will only apply to a certain kind of genre, like drama. This will not be true of hockey – more real time properties such as quiz shows, news, sports will not be subject to this model.
On-Demand & How it will Change Advertising
30 second spot is becoming a commodity. Agencies are now interested in engagement, want viewers that are engaged. How do you measure this – how long do they watch the show, do they go to the website, do they play the game associated with the show. CBC thinks very hard about the issue of engagement, and how to build the offer that underpins the show.
We are in a unique place in Canada, as we make our own shows and in the US they buy them, so the shows can be made to a certain offer and engagement level.
Cable Carriage Fees
Absolutely, conventional networks should be on the same footing as specialties, should qualify for a fee. Fee should be tied to programming commitments. When broadcasters come up for license renewals, fee needs to be tied to programming commitments, and Canadian content should be paramount.
I am lost by Rogers’ financial concerns; they have been jacking up basic cable rates for number of years. They have argued that the service is price elastic, if you put in more of a fee, people will drop off of network; clearly untrue. Make for a very small basic package which will collapse the price. To get cable you have to buy basic, we are forcing Canadians to buy US channels.
CanCon
Radio 1 very close to 100% CanCon, Radio 2 will be much more CanCon, a little tougher with Classical music; going to go to 60%. Kids programming in TV now 100% Canadian, prime time is 70-80% Canadian.
Multiculturalism
In order to serve audiences have to better reflect who they are, and the people that you employ are people from all of those different communities.
The best way of doing this is to go where the people go. Speak to people in their own terms.
Satellite Vs. Cable
I used to run a satellite television company. Satellite will have problems penetrating urban markets, as cable can compete with bundled services where satellite companies can’t do that. It is expensive to do high speed internet access by satellite.
In rural markets they will still be #1, but they are maxed out in terms of numbers of viewers they can get.
Future of Public Broadcasting In Canada – CBC in 5 Years
Future is good, right now where we are, this year in television, we took 7.8 share in primetime 2 plus, best we have done in many years, and CBC beat Global. Beat them with Canadian shows.
Radio services enjoying best share ever.
Website #1 News & Info website in country.
We are #2 in television sports
Newsworld is the strongest all news network in country.
We like where things are going, and want more properties and formats. We bought the Documentary channel, introduced Bold, and we are interested in expanding across all platforms, especially in internet area.
Personal Highlights & Memorable Moments
When I came to CBC just over 3 years ago, my first concern was entertainment shows. Television is entertainment medium, shows weren’t doing too well. What counted was Canadian shows had to have Canadian audiences; if nobody was watching that was a measure of failure.
Doing Little Mosque on the Prairie, we were looking at launching Sept. 2007, rushed for launch in Jan of 2007, put a lot of promotion and effort into it. I was in Venice on holiday when it launched. I was sitting there with Blackberry looking at the numbers as they came in. The Blackberry said “210,000”; decimal was misplaced and it was actually 2.1 million viewers.
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