CBC News shrinks radio, TV programs

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This article was published 12/12/2014 (4195 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Canada’s public broadcaster continued its downsizing of traditional news formats in favour of digital content Thursday with cuts to the supper-hour newscast and plans to do more mixing of television and radio content.

In what critics say is a massive shift away from local reporting, the CBC will cut supper-hour newscasts from 90 minutes to between 30 and 60 minutes, depending on the city. The change will take place in the fall of 2015.

Seven cities, including Winnipeg, have enough market share to warrant keeping the shows at 60 minutes long, while six cities will be cut all the way to 30 minutes.

“This is not just about changing the length of supper hours, this is about changing how we serve the audience,” Jennifer McGuire, general manager and editor-in-chief of CBC News wrote to all CBC staff in an email Thursday. “It is transforming our concentration in communities from mainly over the supper hour, to a comprehensive, four-platform local news service — across the day and on demand.”

Gabriela Klimes, regional manager of communications, marketing and brand for CBC Manitoba, said it’s not yet known whether the new Winnipeg show will have two 30-minute components, following the current model of three half-hour broadcasts in a row, or if it will be a continuous one-hour show. It will run from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

“The program development piece is something we will work on,” said Klimes.

The 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. time slot will put CBC News directly against the hour-long CTV news broadcast in Winnipeg. Right now, CBC runs from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

There will be a new addition of hourly news updates during the day and during prime-time television.

Local radio will mostly be left untouched, but Information Radio Manitoba will begin broadcasting one hour of the show on television between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. every morning.

Exactly how this will work is also not yet known, said Klimes, although it will largely be based on a recent pilot project in Calgary.

“The radio on TV piece is in development,” said Klimes.

Sources within CBC say the addition of radio content to television is likely an attempt by CBC to stay within its Canadian content requirements set by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Cutting the local evening news programs will reduce the amount of Canadian content on television.

CBC’s long-term plan is to shift resources away from radio and television and into a digital-first strategy, focusing on its website and mobile apps. Thursday’s announcement includes plans to increase local web content, and add a local mobile component with breaking news alerts.

Ian Morrison, spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, said it took a lot of “creativity” for CBC to write a news release disguising the cuts to local news with lots of “digital gobbledygook.”

He said at the end of the day, CBC is cutting back on what is most important to Canadians — local news content. He said the reduced 30-minute shows in particular will provide Canadians in those cities with very limited local news, subtracting time for weather and sports. “What ends up being cut is more serious content, the things you can’t write from a press release,” said Morrison. “They can put any window dressing on it they want; it’s cutting back.”

Morrison lays the blame squarely at the feet of the federal government, which cut $115 million from the CBC budget since 2011.

That cut, along with declining revenues from falling ad rates, has the CBC forced to slash $130 million from its budget this year. Last spring it announced 657 job cuts over the next two years, and plans by 2020 to reduce the CBC workforce by 25 per cent. That will mean 1,000 to 1,500 more jobs lost, mostly through retirements and voluntary departures.

Thursday’s announcement did not include any new job cuts.

Joanne Kelly, the broadcast journalism instructor at Red River College, said she’s actually looking forward to seeing how CBC adapts with these changes, and said she thinks it could serve her students well.

“We’re really focusing on digital and online,” she said. “Some of the changes are actually kind of exciting.”

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca