Kirstine Stewart, appointed head of CBC English language services in January, is going back to basics with a promise of “homegrown stories, humour and culture” to replace the glossy American fare the public broadcaster had recently used to lure in audiences. And as the battle for rating juggernauts like the Olympics and Hockey Night in Canada looms, CBC will continue to fi ght for eyeballs, advertising dollars, and maybe even its life
You were in your new role a little more than a week when there was talk you’d be cutting Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune from CBC’s lineup. What prompted this decision?
The benefi t of something like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy is it kind of prepped us for the next stage of being able to really depend more on our Canadian programming instead of acquisitions . It was four years ago when we picked up those two shows and they were very important because they provided us with kind of a turn-key one million-plus viewership that would go straight into the eight o’clock time slot. And it wasn’t just any one million viewers. These were the [viewers] of an intelligent game show like a Jeopardy. But the strategy was always that we would have those kinds of shows in the schedule for as long as we needed them until we got the rest of the schedule up to a place where we could start making our own.
So now you can?
Four years ago we certainly didn’t have Dragons’ Den, Battle of the Blades, Heartland, Ricker Mercer wasn’t at the numbers that he’s at now, and I think we’ve kind of proven that the Canadian industry has the ability to make its own hits and make its own great shows.
What will you be replacing those two programs with?
The nice thing about seven to eight o’clock is you have a wide variety of programming genres open to you and we’re looking at everything from drama to comedy to talk to Canadian game shows. There’s a lot of opportunity in that time slot and we have quite a few things in development and we’re going to see what of that bundle comes out the best.
With Keith Pelley leaving CTV/TSN for Rogers, and Shaw hiring its fi rstever vice-president of sports, sports broadcasting seems to be in an arms race. How will CBC defend its position?
We have a great relationship with the Canadian public in delivering them the kind of sports they like, how they like it, and on a national platform basis. In the end, sports licensees defi nitely want to make the most money they can off selling licenses but they also have a sport to support. They have a reason to make sure that sport is actually seen by and experienced by a lot of people across the country in a general entertainment kind of way and that’s what the CBC brings to the table. A defi nite sports channel can’t, and someone who doesn’t have the national platform can’t. We are uniquely positioned in this new world of partnerships to be a very attractive partner for people.
Former CBC head Robert Rabinovitch recently stated that he thinks the CBC will lose all of its sports properties and is “toast” as far as renewing Hockey Night in Canada.
I think it’s a little bit out of touch in the sense that what it doesn’t take into consideration is the world of sports licensing changed dramatically this year. It isn’t an all-or-nothing situation, no sports licensee is looking for one home for everything because they have so much volume and they have so much opportunity and they want to monetize everything they’ve got. So I think it’s a bit out of date and probably a little bit myopic when you look at the opportunities we have.
What are some of those opportunities?
Partnerships, obviously. The world ha s changed from when sports licensees wanted exclusivity and one home for something. They now see the value in spreading the rights and maximizing the opportunities that they can have for audience, money and that connection to Canadian public.
Negotiations on the 2014 and 2016 Olympics are expected to start in April. How will CBC approach the bidding process?
We’re looking to see who the best partners are moving forward to come up with a good bid. We can’t go it alone, we don’t want to go it alone, and we see the benefi ts of actually going in with other partners and there’s a lot of partners to do it with now obviously. We see that as an advantage. As a national platform, again as a national broadcaster, I still think television is going to be a huge driver when it comes to big events like that.
Will the CBC partner with Shaw?
We are looking at everybody. And it’s nice there’s more people joining the party, so to speak, because I think everybody is going to fi nd out what their area of expertise is and I think there’s enough to go around.
