Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 27th, 2007

[Robert Rabinovitch]

We'd all like to jump in, so I'll just say a bit and then ask Richard and Sylvain to respond.

The bottom line, from our point of view, is that in today's world of cable delivery and satellite delivery, it is not as expensive to build a specialty service as it once was. On top of that, the public is more and more looking at their specialty service first. For example, when my television goes on it goes to Newsworld, and from there I move to other things. So it started with sports and news, and it's now branching out into children's programming. We believe this is the future.

People want to know what's going on in their specialty area. They'll also come for the conventional stations--there's no question about it. But this gives us a unique opportunity to build specialized programming, whether it's for kids, or whether it's high-culture--in other words, programs that would not draw a large audience but would draw a good audience. They would also meet some of the diversity needs and reflect some of the diversities in this country.

We hear that in particular when we talk to les francophones hors du Québec, who feel that the service is too Montreal-centric. This would give us an opportunity. After all, 85% of the population we're serving on the francophone side live in Quebec. So it's hard to get the balance right. This would give us a lot more flexibility to work with les Acadiens, the Franco-Manitobans, etc.

Sylvain.

[Sylvain Lafrance]

We have many initiatives on the multicultural aspect of it, and one I would like to talk about is RCI.

RCI viva, which is a part of RCI now, is totally designed for immigrants in Canada and for people of all cultures. You can catch RCI viva on SIRIUS satellite radio now. If you go on the website you will see that it's really a multicultural service. It was totally designed to welcome new people in Canada and explain how we work in terms of democracy and culture. It's really interesting to look at that.

The interesting thing is that this service is actually contaminating our regular service. Some parts of those programs are broadcast on the regular radio service or the regular television service of Radio-Canada and CBC. So it's a part of it, and I think it will grow over the years. It's more and more important to talk about that. It's totally designed for that specific purpose.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you, gentlemen.

Mr. Fast.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Mr. Rabinovitch--or any one of the three of you may answer--I understand there's a plan to open 15 additional regional offices. Is that correct?

[Robert Rabinovitch]

They won't be regional offices. We have submitted a plan to open local radio stations in 15 communities. If you look at our map of services, it's very tilted toward the east, yet certain places in Ontario, such as Hamilton and Guelph--large growing areas--have no local service. We're also very under-represented in the growth areas in the west.

The result is that eight million Canadians do not get local radio service, and that's what our local radio plan is about.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Are they going to service all of those eight million, or is this just a running start at it?

[Robert Rabinovitch]

The funds we've asked for to open those stations are designed to address eight million people.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Will that provide coverage to all Canadians?

[Richard Stursberg]

It will dramatically increase coverage. As Robert was saying, for historical reasons the country started more in the east, and more recently it's been growing a lot in the west. We find anomalies, though, that very important populations in the country are not being served. We serve Charlottetown, which is fine, but we don't serve Hamilton, which is seven or eight times larger. We don't serve central Alberta. We don't serve southern Alberta below Calgary particularly well. These are enormous places compared to other areas we're serving.

So the idea behind it is to say, fine, these unserved Canadians should also have local radio service, just as people do in Charlottetown, St. John's, or wherever. That's the purpose of it. So we tried to do it by determining where the greatest number of unserved communities were and what it would cost to build small radio stations and continue to service them. As Robert was saying, there will be 15--three in French, and 12 in English.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Are these simply stations or transmitters, or are they actual offices with recorders, with technicians?

[Robert Rabinovitch]

Yes. They're actual producing centres.

The most successful part of CBC, both French and English, is the local radio service. I think we're number one and number two in 12 out of 15 communities in Canada--the largest communities in Canada--in terms of our morning shows and our afternoon driving shows, shows like Andy Barrie's in Toronto, for example. And the reason is they focus on local issues.

So if you ask a person in Hamilton to listen to CBC Toronto, he's frustrated, and rightly so. This number one show in Toronto is number seven in Hamilton. We feel we're depriving Canadians of a service that has been proven—and our numbers have gone up dramatically over the years—to be something Canadians want. Yet there are eight million Canadians who can get only a repeat of somebody else's service.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

I commend you for taking this step, because it's something we did hear from witnesses who appeared before us during this mandate review.

Do you have the funding for it, or is this just a recommendation for funding?

[Robert Rabinovitch]

We do not have the funding for it. Some people in my office would say we lowballed the funding, but the reality is we think we can pull this off with one-time funding of $25 million to build the facilities, and then continued funding because the core of our business in that area is staff. That would be $25 million per year, basically for staff salaries.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

So the $25 million for capital is a one-time expense?

[Robert Rabinovitch]

One time, yes.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

All right. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Siksay.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I wanted to come back to the integration program. Last week the next step was taken in integrating the English radio and TV services. Can you talk to us about what the next steps are after that, what remains to be done? What's next in the plan along that? Does the integration plan involve any job losses or changes in employment at the CBC?

[Richard Stursberg]

No, this integration plan involves no job losses or changes of that variety. This is not focused on economic or efficiency issues, this is focused on service issues.

The next area we'll be going to in terms of integration is further integration of news. As I was mentioning earlier on, what we've been doing in Vancouver is conceiving what I'll call a “news offer” rather than a newscast, which runs across all the different platforms and is informed by a consistent set of editorial priorities.

Now, the way that news offer works is you say here's the set of editorial priorities we want to pursue, and when you send journalists out, then ideally what they do is cover the story to the maximum extent possible for the web, the mobile platform, the television platform, and the radio platform. Then what happens is that as the news breaks through the course of the day, it goes on to whichever platform is first up and then gets pushed to the next when the news gets updated, so that it's cross-promoted and cross-extended. So if you want more details, a certain newscast comes up and says this is what's happening, and for more details you can go to the website. Then on the website you have a chance to explore it. That's the general notion.

What we're going to do now is ask, how do we take that and work it back across the rest of the country as a whole through all the newsrooms, whether they're local or national?

[Sylvain Lafrance]

If I may just add something about the integration, we did that in Montreal a few years ago, and in fact the main issue in that is a brand issue.

If you decide to go to the news on CBC on the Regina radio station, or a TV in Moncton or a website in London, I want you to recognize the same set of values and the same quality that CBC can offer to you. So it's really a brand issue more than any economic issue.

It's really important today, because of the fragmentation of media and the amount of information you can find everywhere, to have a solid brand of public broadcaster for Canada. This is the art of that strategy.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Just as an anecdote, when the committee was in Vancouver last year I think there was a demonstration piece and they were talking about the integration process of the news. The story was about the real estate market in Vancouver. I remember the committee members looking at this and thinking that it had been just a demonstration piece, not a real piece on real estate, because of the real estate prices that were indicated. Committee members thought, “You made this up, right?” But it was actual news.

[Richard Stursberg]

Not at all, that's Vancouver. Welcome to Vancouver.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Exactly.

I want to ask about Radio 2. I think it just had a major relaunch, and I'm wondering if there's any information yet about how successful that's been and what changes that has made. I speak as a Vancouverite, where I gather the Radio 2 market is very significant and always has been. I'm just wondering if there is any word on what the outcome of that makeover has been.

[Richard Stursberg]

It is very important in Vancouver. In fact, Vancouver is one of the strongest markets for Radio 2. It's not completely done. So far the indications are that people are pleased with the nature of the changes that are being made. We're trying to bring in a slightly broader pallet of music--it obviously focuses completely on Canadian music--and to do so in a way that's consistent with what Radio 2 has traditionally stood for. I think so far it's very encouraging and the feedback has been positive.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

There's been no official analysis of listeners or anything like that.