CBC will reduce suppertime newscasts on its local stations from 90 minutes to 30 or 60 minutes beginning Oct. 5, and will compensate by adding news inserts throughout primetime, says president Hubert Lacroix.
The public broadcaster first announced its plan to scale back local newscasts last year, signalling its intention to shift from a broadcast centric to a digital and mobile-first model.
Speaking at CBC’s annual public meeting in Winnipeg on Tuesday, Lacroix said the ongoing transformation of the public broadcaster under its 2020 strategic plan A Space for Us All “hasn’t been easy,” but it is beginning to show results.
He told the gathering that CBC has succeeded in improving its financial stability despite an “industry-wide weakening” of TV advertising, largely by reducing its first quarter expenses by $105 million. Lacroix said this has “more than offset” a $74 million decrease in revenues created largely by the loss of lucrative hockey advertising.
“We are keeping a close eye on our financial position given the decline in the advertising market,” said Lacroix. “However, our employees are now starting to see the results of their efforts and sacrifice.”
He said CBC was able to reinvest the $23 million in savings in Canadian programming, the first time it has reinvested in its schedule since 2009.
He said public broadcasters around the world have been focusing on managing various crises such as reductions in government funding and drops in revenue or ad dollars, because that’s what public institutions are expected to do. He said while CBC has previously resisted informing the public about the threats to its future, it now has an obligation to do so.
Lacroix also reiterated CBC’s “ambitious” goals to double its digital reach to 18 million Canadians by 2020, and have 75% of Canadians – up from 50% currently – say in surveys that the service is important to them personally. “Yes, we believe they are achievable,” he said. “They are what Canadians expect of us.”
CBC also recently shot down reports it plans to sell all of its property across the country, saying it is looking at its facilities on a “location-by-location basis” to evaluate the costs and benefits of selling its buildings to move into modern leased facilities.
The broadcaster said many of its buildings are old, in need of repair, cost too much to maintain and in many cases don’t suit its needs. It said it has sold nine buildings since 2011, bringing its portfolio of owned buildings to 19. Proceeds have been reinvested in programming.
