Official Languages committee  That is my answer, actually.

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  It is not the first time that we have broadcast this gala. We only show it on television; it is not aired on radio. The musicians that the anglophone audience is most familiar with are anglophone.

Official Languages committee  Is that a question?

Official Languages committee  You know, we can go through this three or four different times, and I'm sorry if you don't like my answer to the question, but I think you have to grant one simple premise—well, two. One is that we actually know something about how to program radio and television networks in a way that works best for our audiences, and two is that in the context of attempting to actually build bridges between French and English Canada, we want to do so in a way that is going to be most effective.

Official Languages committee  Right now, we are thinking about what will happen at the gala. But I must come back to the fact that, as I said to Mr. Coderre, we have made a real effort at the CBC to reflect the reality of our country and build bridges between the two cultures. Think about all the shows I mentioned and all the activities on TV and even on the radio.

Official Languages committee  The rules of the game were clear for everyone. We did the same show three years ago. We have focused each time on musicians and singers who are known in English Canada. There has been no change in policy. When we signed our contract with Mr. Dubois, we clearly indicated the broadcast conditions.

Official Languages committee  The best way to build bridges is to respect both our audiences' tastes, customs and languages.

Official Languages committee  Precisely. Our viewers are anglophone. As I said in my comments this morning, if I broadcast someone that nobody knows, then people will change the channel. It has to be said because this is very important.

Official Languages committee  We have tried to build bridges by co-producing documentaries with our colleagues from RDI and Radio-Canada, by producing musical shows, shows for children, and many other initiatives.

Official Languages committee  You know, it's very interesting; just to put this in perspective, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, the entire thing was on radio. When we cut it down to 44 minutes for television, what we were.... Obviously, when you cut three and a half hours down to 44 minutes, a lot of stuff has to go--a lot of stuff, good stuff.

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much. My name is Richard Stursberg. I am the head of English services for the CBC, including television, radio, websites, and so on. Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to come and talk with you today. I understand that you've invited me here as head of CBC's English services to discuss our March broadcast of this year's Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame gala.

Canadian Heritage committee  I was going to say to Sylvain's point with respect to these extra minutes that the only place they will provide an advantage in English Canada will be with U.S. shows that command big premiums. The danger is that more of the advertising revenue will migrate to those U.S. shows. When that happens, they will migrate away from lower-value shows--i.e., English Canadian shows.

Canadian Heritage committee  This is complicated. When it comes to those properties that we build ourselves, by and large the rights issue doesn't arise because we're making them ourselves. We control all of the rights from the very beginning. Where the issue arises is when we're working with other people, particularly independent producers.

Canadian Heritage committee  To be honest with you, it's a little bit early days and it will be a little bit clearer once we've concluded the relaunch, but that will not be until sometime later this spring.