Saying that conventional television is working with a “broken business model,” CBC/Radio-Canada CEO Hubert Lacroix called for patience as the public broadcaster begins implementing its controversial new strategic plan.
Speaking at the broadcaster’s annual public meeting in Montreal last week, Lacroix vigorously defended the new plan, “A Space For Us All,” which puts digital at the forefront, but is expected to result in nearly 400 layoffs in 2014 and 2015 and the elimination of between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs by 2020.
The CBC’s current operating costs are “much higher” than revenues, said Lacroix, making layoffs unavoidable. He admitted to being frustrated by claims he is determined to dismantle the CBC.
“The decisions that we have made have not always been easy, they’ve not always been obvious, and they surely have not always been popular, but they’ve always been made in the long-term interest of CBC/Radio-Canada,” said Lacroix.
“Whatever people say about my intentions, I find it very difficult to make this sort of announcement,” he said. “Yes I wear a suit, I work on the 12th floor of this building, [but] I care. I care a lot.”
A subsequent Q&A session produced calls for Lacroix to resign, which he deflected by noting that many of his predecessors faced similar criticism. He accused his critics of providing no viable alternatives for generating revenue or determining the CBC’s future direction.
He called the transformation process “very difficult,” but said the aim is to help CBC/Radio-Canada meet the challenges of an “incredibly fast-changing media environment.” No conventional broadcaster is immune to the challenges faced by CBC, he stressed.
The central challenge for broadcasters, he said, is adapting to the realities of digital consumption, while recognizing that 89% of Canadians still watch an average of 27 hours of live programming each week.
He said the CBC/Radio-Canada of the future would be more soundly based on the concept of “mobility and intimacy.”
But Lacroix’s attempts to mollify furious employees weren’t greeted with much enthusiasm.
Speaking during a panel discussion after Lacroix’s remarks, Radio-Canada on-air personality Charles Tisseyre said he had seen between $600 and $700 million stripped out of the broadcaster’s budget in his 40 years with the company, but had never experienced cuts so severe.
“We don’t have enough resources to do what we do and do it correctly,” he said. “Radio-Canada is a cultural institution, which is of capital importance in French and English, and this institution has to be supported by the successive governments.”
He said cuts are robbing the public broadcaster of the young staff it needs to thrive in the digital age. “We are undertaking this digital shift, but we’ve got diminished resources,” he said to loud applause from CBC staff gathered at its Montreal broadcast centre. “The young people are being [shown] the door.”
There was also talk about the new wave of journalism being pioneered by the likes of Vice Media, which recently announced a new partnership with Rogers Communications that will see the creation of a new Toronto studio and the planned launch of a new specialty TV service.
But CBC News correspondent Diana Swain, who has spent 24 years with the broadcaster, said there is nothing for CBC to fear from upstarts. “I’m not afraid of Vice. I’m not afraid of Google. I’m not afraid of whatever else you’re putting out there,” she said. “CBC delivers a good product across the country, it always has. Bring it.”
Tisseyre said there is no reason CBC shouldn’t be able to compete with the likes of Vice Media, but that it requires adequate resources. “We’ve got an immense amount of talent in-house, we just need to be given the resources.”
Swain said that the new digital strategy and mounting job losses should be two different conversations.
“It matters to me how CBC positions itself, it matters to me how we have a CBC,” she said. “I think we’re growing, and I understand as well as anyone does that we are shrinking on some levels, but the conversations have to be separated sometimes. I don’t think going in a digital direction is a bad thing.”
These are dark days for the public broadcaster, which has been buffeted by the loss of substantial NHL advertising revenue and rocked by recent sexual misconduct charges swirling around former Q host Jian Ghomeshi.
