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Speaking to Parliament's Heritage Committee on Monday, April 27, 2009, the president and CEO of the CBC, Hubert Lacroix, says he doesn"t anticipate any further declines in ad revenues in 2010-11, which should mean the public broadcaster will be "stable" for next year.
Lacroix noted there would likely be " 'no increase in ad revenue, but perhaps a little ad decline,' " after 2009. The CBC"s predicted $171 million shortfall for 2009-2010 has resulted in cost-cutting measures.
Expenses will be down next year with these cost-cutting measures, so the CBC should not find itself in the same precarious financial position as it does this year, Lacroix stated. " 'But if ad revenues decline further, we"re looking at more job losses.' "
Like the private networks, the CBC was also asked by MPs about its reliance on foreign programming, such as Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Lacroix said these shows were needed to bring in revenues that were re-invested in Canadian programming.
Jeopardy gets a million viewers, and is an important lead-in to the Canadian programming that follows, Lacroix explained. " 'It"s not the best of decisions, but it generates revenues and lifts our audience figures.' "
Ian Morrison, spokesperson for the broadcasting watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, said the CBC partly finds itself in financial trouble because after a bidding war with the private networks, it overpaid for multi-year deals for shows, like Wheel of Fortune, that are not delivering the anticipated audiences.
With the decline in advertising, Lacroix said the over-the-air business model was broken not just for the private networks, but also for the public broadcaster.
" 'The collapse in television advertising in the past six to eight months has taken huge chunks out of the operating budget of Canadian broadcasters, both private and public. The corporation is no exception,' " Lacroix said in his opening remarks. During questioning, he stated, " 'We"re trying to make sure we can find a long-term solution.' "
Lacroix urged the government to ensure the CBC wasn"t excluded from any solutions implemented for the private broadcasters, such as fee-for-carriage or the CRTC"s Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF).
Although we have a different mandate, " 'our business plan doesn"t work either,' " he said. " 'Don"t exclude us from any new initiatives, just because we get public money.' "
Along with these solutions, Lacroix renewed calls for the establishment of an agreement with Canadians that would guarantee the public broadcaster long-term funding in exchange for delivering agreed upon programming and services.
Lacroix also tried to assure the politicians that the CBC remains committed to local programming. In making its recent cutbacks, he said regional broadcasting was protected disproportionately to the rest of the areas. The CBC spends 38% of its total budget on regional services, but the regions are bearing only 20% of the total cuts, he said.
Source: Cartt, 04/28/2009
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