OTTAWA – A lack of clear direction from the federal government is the biggest problem facing CBC/Radio-Canada, according to Richard Stursberg, the former head of English language TV services at the public broadcaster.
In an appearance before the Standing Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications on Tuesday, April 1, he argued that because there is no clarity on what the CBC should be to Canadians it has been pulled in multiple directions with often contradictory objectives. There have been a number of schools of thought about what the CBC should put on its network, ranging from elite programming, or as Stursberg described it to “put ballet on TV” to popular shows with broad appeal to focusing on under-served regions.
“These sets of contradictions or tensions when they’re left unresolved create an enormous number of difficulties in terms of the governance of the corporation,” he said. “And so as a result what it tries to do is it tries to do a little of this and a little of that to try to satisfy all these different kinds of constituencies. What the result is that of course its strategy is ultimately completely incoherent.”
Another problem created by the lack of direction from the federal government is it’s difficult to judge whether the CBC is meeting objectives.
“You can’t hold the CBC to account when there is no consensus on what it should do. So if you don’t know what it is that you’re trying to do, it’s hard to say whether you’re succeeding or failing,” Stursberg said. “It’s very difficult therefore to say this has gone well or this has gone badly.”
“The right way to approach this would be for the Prime Minister to write a letter to the board of directors of the CBC… that would say here’s what the government thinks the CBC should do.” – Richard Stursberg
He argued during his opening remarks that it’s up to government to step up to the plate and tell the CBC what it wants it to be and what types of programming are a priority. The broadcasting industry veteran noted that “it would be a gift” for the corporation to get some clear and simple direction from the federal government. “You want the government to come down very squarely, very cleanly and very simply on these kinds of contradictions,” Stursberg said.
“I think the right way to approach this would be in effect for the Prime Minister to write a letter to the board of directors of the CBC, which would be a sort of mandate letter, that would say here’s what the government thinks the CBC should do. It would be an open letter, and in that way it would be clear all around how these historic tensions and contradictions should be resolved,” he added.
The former executive VP of English TV services even penned a letter to serve as an example of how the federal government could instruct CBC to move forward. In his sample letter, he made four programming recommendations: abandon local (TV) markets and focus instead on international news; the prime time schedule should be comprised entirely of all Canadian dramas, comedies, documentaries and reality shows; drop sports programming; and reflect French Canada in English Canada and vice versa.
On dumping local news, Stursberg said it’s simple to understand.
“The private networks do this very well and the CBC is typically third in the markets it serves. It would be wiser to place greater emphasis on international news coverage to help Canadians better understand their place in the world,” he said.
Liberal Senator Art Eggleton wondered how the CBC can make Canadian programs that can compete with American-based shows that dominate the private broadcaster’s prime time lineup? Stursberg responded that the public broadcaster has done this before. During his tenure, three years in row CBC with its all Canadians schedule beat Global TV’s all American offer in ratings.
“So the truth of the matter is that this can actually be done and the kinds of shows you do it with are shows that are made within the conventions of television that Canadians already like,” he said referring to the ratings success of programs like Battle of the Blades and Little Mosque on the Prairie.
“Global and CTV cannot open up prime time without completely crashing their own economics.” – Stursberg
Leo Housakos, a Conservative Senator from Wellington in Quebec, asked why wouldn’t make sense to take the CBC’s Parliamentary appropriations and give it directly to film producers or Canadian content creators so they could make Canadian shows, which would then entice the private broadcasters to carry more Canadian programs.
Stursberg said the system doesn’t work that way. Producers or program creators need to be tied into a broadcaster that has the goal of getting the largest possible audiences and the two will work together on that, he added.
The challenge for Canadian programming, regardless of the broadcaster that airs the show, is that American shows are so inexpensive to purchase when compared to the cost of making a Canadian show of comparable quality. Even if all of this money were to go to the private broadcasters, their business model “will still make it very difficult for them to substitute Canadian shows in deep prime time where they put their American shows on,” Stursberg said. “Global and CTV cannot open up prime time without completely crashing their own economics.”
The Senate hearings on the challenges facing CBC continue this week and next week.
