Which CBC Programs Should Be Saved?

[NovaMan]

"There will be six fewer series on the CBC television network, meaning 175 fewer hours produced, the network announced, but no specific programs were mentioned as decisions are still being made."

...http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/20...-programs.html...

I was wondering which shows you think should be safe from the cuts that are coming. My wife and I enjoy "Republic of Doyle" and "Arctic Air" and like most Canadians we watch "Hockey Night In Canada". So, these are the 3 shows that I wouldn't want to see cancelled. I would bet that even those people who claim to hate the CBC would have at least one show that they would not want to see cancelled.

I might as well add "The National" to the list. Say what you want about CBC, they have always done an excellent job of staying unbiased in their news content. When both liberals and conservatives hate them, they must be doing something right. LOL

I lived in NS, as a child in the 50's, when CBC was the only network that we could get on our old black and white TV, and when I moved to rural NL in the mid 70's until we got cable in the late 80's, CBC was the best source for news and keeping us connected to the rest of the country. CBC is like an old friend to me.

Now, living back in NS, I have had Shaw Direct since it was Star Choice, and dozens of networks at my command, but I still find myself coming back to the CBC for my Canadian content. Lets face it, we are not going to get very much good Canadian content from CTV or Global....they are too attached to their sim-sub content...

[cooper83]

My gf & I watch Dragon's Den, Fifth Estate, Marketplace, and of course Hockey Night in Canada. Used to watch The Hour quite a bit, but haven't tuned in to George's new format. Other than those shows and the odd National for a few minutes here and there, I don't watch anything else on CBC.

[Corizzle]

Hockey Night in Canada will only end in the case that the NHL wants to end it.

Personally, Mr. D and Dragons Den are the only shows I watch on the network, I hope they renew Mr. D (Dragons Den already was)

[Lindsay649]

Not a big viewer of the CBC.........watch a few hockey games during playoffs.......rarely watch the National.........enjoy Republic of Doyle.......Marketplace......the odd documentary. Frankly would not miss anything in particular if the whole network was scuttled and the funding going to health care.

[Tridus]

Originally Posted by Lindsay649

Not a big viewer of the CBC.........watch a few hockey games during playoffs.......rarely watch the National.........enjoy Republic of Doyle.......Marketplace......the odd documentary. Frankly would not miss anything in particular if the whole network was scuttled and the funding going to health care.

Wrong level of government. The funding would go to really important things, like fighter jets of unknown cost and "Economic Action Plan" advertising on CTV.

[Tridus]

Originally Posted by Corizzle

Hockey Night in Canada will only end in the case that the NHL wants to end it.

Personally, Mr. D and Dragons Den are the only shows I watch on the network, I hope they renew Mr. D (Dragons Den already was)

HNIC will end if someone else shoots the moon on the rights fees to take it over, which has been a rumor that won't go away for some time now. CBC can't afford a bidding war on it since they use the profit it makes to fund other stuff, whereas Bell probably can if they can throw in exclusive mobile rights and some other nonsense.

[chillonhill]

Me too, CBC is like an old friend, was our only english channel when I was a kid, yeah grew up with friendly giant and Mr dressup, casey and finigen!!

I still watch a lot of CBC, even though have all the new stuff, TMN, AE ect.

Enjoy Dragons Den, The National, Hockey, Market Place, Fifth Estate, Doc Zone, watch them regularly, and now and then Nature of things, also liked the comedy show about the Spy's or CSIS, forget the name now. Some of the cooking shows weekday afternoons. Never watched Republic of Doyle or MR D, dont really know about those, I tune into Newsworld also, and CBC Radio 1 Talk, Sad Goat, Rex Murphey. Some good interviews on there.

Guess it is embedded in me as it was a lot of what we watched when I was young, Front Page Challenge, Wayne & Shuster, Tommy Hunter, ect

[57]

I watch:

22 Minutes (although it's getting tired)
Rick Mercer (also getting a bit tired)
MarketPlace
Nature Of Things
Doc Zone
Best Recipes Ever
Passionate Eye
Some Fifth Estates
Various Documentaries like "The Cove"
Some Filmography
Beautiful Noise
Books Into Film
Abbey Road
Various Comedy Specials
Various other Specials
An occasional Movie

As you can see, the CBC represents a significant percentage of my viewing. (PBS, TMN, F1 and IndyCar filling in most of the rest)

I'm not interested in Hockey but a few people seem to be.

[nakedgord]

Originally Posted by Tridus

Wrong level of government. The funding would go to really important things, like fighter jets of unknown cost and "Economic Action Plan" advertising on CTV.

Indeed it would but more could be put into transfer payments for healthcare on the fed level...if the current fed gov't was interested in stuff like that.

Personally I like the idea of the CBC but it's become so watered down in the last few years out of, I assume, fear of being privatized by the moral minority crowd.

Where's the risque humour of Ken Finkleman? Gone to HBO, Where's the next Kids in the Hall? Instead we've got family friendly programming like Heartland.

Frankly I'm at the point I'd rather the $1 Billion going to the CBC was just given to the BBC under contract for them to run things in Canada. Then perhaps we'd start seeing more interesting programming.

[classicsat]

I am of two thoughts.

One, I have mentioned before, is a Canadian TV license, and have a national public broadcaster the class of the BBC.

The other, not so know, is to shut down the CBC broadcast network and stations. The remaining funding goes to CBCNN, radio, and production. CBC TV productions will be obligated to to be carried on commercial networks. Some countries in Easter/Central Europe work that way (where the national "broadcaster" is just a production house for commercial broadcasters).

[PokerFace]

Keep ...

Must haves:
1) Marketplace
2) The Lang and O'Leary Exchange (reruns from CBC News Network)
3) The National

As long as the ratings remain high:
1) Dragons' Den
2) The Rick Mercer Report
3) Battle of the Blades

Trim the Fat (fewer episodes per season):
1) Heartland
2) Sports (No Hockey Night In Canada until after the All-Star Break)

Extra Note: When the CBC moved from the AM band to the FM band in my area ... I stopped listening. I'm too lazy to flip the AM/FM switch on any of my radios (plus my bedroom radio has faulty FM reception). Occasionally, I will listen to FM radio (including the CBC) while in a car.

---------------------------------

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/art...147190235.html
[Suggested CBC cuts and keeps from Canadian Press TV columnist Bill Brioux]

KEEP INTACT
"Hockey Night in Canada": For 60 seasons, the broadcast that still means the most to Canadians and brings in the most commercial revenue. Keep at all costs.

---------------------------------

I will leave you with some quotes from the now cancelled CBC series Being Erica:

Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

For everything there is a season and a time. – Ecclesiastes 3:1

It doesn’t work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps. – American Proverb

To succeed in life you need two things: ignorance and confidence. – Mark Twain

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire Cat. “Which road do I take?,” she asked. “Where do you want to go?,” was his response. “I don’t know,” answered Alice. “Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.” – ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll

Let your net always be cast, and in the pool which you least expect, there will be a fish. – Ovid

There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. – Leonard Cohen

There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain. – Aeschylus

[Tridus]

Originally Posted by PokerFace

2) Sports (No Hockey Night In Canada until after the All-Star Break)

1 - The NHL is not going to go for that.
2 - HNIC is a money maker. It brings in significantly more then it costs and pays for other shows. Less of it means you need to cut extra stuff, AND fill that time on Saturday night with things that won't bring in the money HNIC does.

I've never understood why people think they can improve the budget at CBC with less hockey when hockey is a profit generator.

[PokerFace]

Half an NHL season for the CBC is better than no season at all (which is something that the NHL might have to one day accept and approve -- unless the NHL is willing to cut the CBC a "special" reduced rate for a full season and playoff schedule), so whether or not it makes good business sense to reduce the NHL content airing on CBC, it isn't necessarily something that the CBC will get to debate if the cutbacks make it too difficult to obtain the broadcasting rights for the current level of NHL content that the CBC is accustomed to.

I'm assuming there will eventually come a time when the CBC won't be able to afford the expensive broadcasting rights for any of the major sports -- regardless of the advertising dollars and audience they bring to the Corporation. Then what?

Can the CBC survive without big-time sporting events? Will the CBC have to eventually ask for the CRTC's permission to reduce its Canadian content requirements, so that it can then add more US content (assuming that the NHL content will one day be greatly reduced or completely absent from the CBC lineup) that will hopefully improve the ratings and keep the advertising dollars coming in?

Can the CBC afford to keep the NHL at all costs as Bill Brioux suggests, without having to greatly sacrifice the quality and frequency of its original programming?

I get the feeling that if the CBC lost virtually all of its sports programming, it would be forced to become another version of TVO -- perhaps with even more pledge breaks.

Over half of the NHL players are Canadian, and many of the games are played here, but I still find it hard to think of the NHL as Canadian content.

If over half of the players in the NFL were Canadian and the Buffalo Bills relocated to Toronto, would that suddenly make the NFL on CTV, Canadian content? Perhaps it would, but I'd still think of it as "American driven."

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/...ord-break.html
[Hockey Night In Canada breaks all-star viewership record]

Jan 30, 2012

This past weekend's all-star festivities in Ottawa resulted in a record-setting broadcast for CBC's Hockey Night In Canada.

The 2012 NHL All-Star Game on Sunday drew a record average audience of 2.461 million viewers, an increase from the previous record set last year of 2.389 million people. Overall, more than 7.3 million people tuned in for all or part of the game.

"The numbers make it clear the NHL All-Star Weekend on CBC's Hockey Night In Canada continues to be a must-see event for Canadian hockey fans," said Julie Bristow, executive director, studio and unscripted programming, English services, CBC. "To see record audiences tuning in year after year exemplifies our dedication to producing the best in Canadian sports programming and to increase the game's fan base in partnership with the NHL."

It wasn't just the game itself that broke a record.

Saturday night's NHL All-Star Skills competition brought in 2.468 million people, also setting a new record.

Roughly 30 per cent of the population tuned in to some or part of CBC's broadcast this past weekend — 10.2 million Canadians.

-------------------------------

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...rticle2386612/
[CBC searches for someone to take Hockey Night’s helm]

Mar. 29, 2012

CBC Sports rethink?

The new federal budget, in which the CBC’s funding was slashed by $115-million beginning in 2014, had folks in the public broadcaster’s sports department apprehensive. The once-powerful department is trying to obtain new properties and keep the ones it has. With the cost of major properties escalating recently, the prospect of a 10-per-cent cut from the government being passed on to CBC Sports is a formidable challenge in the first year of a new NHL deal.

The cuts take place alongside an existential discussion of how CBC Sports should function in the future. While some within the CBC are arguing for keeping the department intact, others have suggested that it might be organized more on a per-contract basis with staff for, say, Hockey Night in Canada, only working the nine-month NHL season or those working a world soccer event disbanding at the end of the tournament. This is the “big event” strategy.

Needless to say this would shake up CBC Sports, which is, curiously, moving up three floors within the CBC headquarters in downtown Toronto despite a cash crunch at the Corp. CBC Sports is making efforts to employ its staff in other branches of the CBC, with on-air talent Scott Russell, Brenda Irving and Andi Petrillo doing sportscasts into local TV suppertime shows. But it will take more that that to save the department if it loses Hockey Night in the next negotiations for the fall of 2014. Estimates say that advertising purchased for Hockey Night constitutes as much as half the annual CBC ad revenues.

[Tridus]

Originally Posted by PokerFace

Half an NHL season for the CBC is better than no season at all (which is something that the NHL might have to one day accept and approve -- unless the NHL is willing to cut the CBC a "special" reduced rate for a full season and playoff schedule), so whether or not it makes good business sense to reduce the NHL content airing on CBC, it isn't necessarily something that the CBC will get to debate if the cutbacks make it too difficult to obtain the broadcasting rights for the current level of NHL content that the CBC is accustomed to.

The NHL only has to accept anything if they can't find another buyer for the rights, which isn't an issue. They'd have no problem replacing CBC entirely, and if CBC actually tried to say "we're only going to start broadcasting in January" the NHL would tell them to buzz off.

I'm assuming there will eventually come a time when the CBC won't be able to afford the expensive broadcasting rights for any of the major sports -- regardless of the advertising dollars and audience they bring to the Corporation. Then what?

There's already a lot of speculation that if TSN/CTV really want the next NHL contract, the CBC won't be able to keep it. It's only a question of how high it's going to go.

Can the CBC afford to keep the NHL at all costs as Bill Brioux suggests, without having to greatly sacrifice the quality and frequency of its original programming?

CBC could afford to pay significantly more for HNIC and still break even on it. It's the necessity that it be a profit driver that funds their unprofitable activites that really does them in.

Over half of the NHL players are Canadian, and many of the games are played here, but I still find it hard to think of the NHL as Canadian content.

If over half of the players in the NFL were Canadian and the Buffalo Bills relocated to Toronto, would that suddenly make the NFL on CTV, Canadian content? Perhaps it would, but I'd still think of it as "American driven."

As opposed to Entertainment Tonight Canada, or So You Think You Can Dance Canada, or any of the other crappy imports that pass as Canadian content? I don't see why hockey broadcasts produced by CBC with Canadian talent wouldn't qualify given how much garbage does.

[Bayguy]

Gord Heartland isn't instead of Finkelman or Kids theres been a family show at 7 on Sundays for as long as we've had BEV and I'm sure before that with Avonlea etc. The grownup shows were on different times.