CBC Vice President Richard Stursberg was a controversial figure at the CBC until the announcement of his departure yesterday. He was controversial because he wanted to air content that people would want to watch, like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune (which ironically are two of the best rated shows on the entire network). This shook things up because the conventional wisdom among the CBC brass is to ignore ratings and force their idea of good programming upon those who happen to tune in. If you ever listen to CBC radio (cross country check-up notwithstanding), you know what I'm talking about. The controversy is should ratings be important, or should ratings be ignored. Should you provide programming that people want to watch, or should you tell them what they want?
I don't know how much input Stursberg had on the Soloman Show, but if that was his idea of what Canadians want to watch, clearly his judgment is lacking. I'm kind of torn on what to think of him. I can't say that I agree with his vision of quality programming, but on the other hand he pissed off a lot of the right people for me. He downsized the unionized CBC workforce last year, and ruffled many of the feathers that I like to see ruffled. The CBC has not said whether he quit or was fired, and he does raise the question of whether or not it is ethically permissible for a Vice President to wed someone under his sphere of influence.
We will see what direction his replacement takes the network. If they start by cancelling Jeopardy and other programs that draw ratings, then we should be concerned. I don't watch Wheel of Fortune, but obviously other people do. The higher the rating, the more that advertisers will pay. It allows the network to generate revenue. If they turn back towards shows that nobody watches, then they will generate less money in ad revenue and require more money in parliamentary appropriations to make up the difference.
I don't understand why our tax dollars are necessary for the CBC to buy American Programs and unfairly compete with the private Canadian broadcasters.
ReplyDeleteThey need to dump foreign produced Game shows and move from Toronto to lower their production costs.
The CBC market share is so small if they moved to serve the niche or smaller markets they might survive the future rounds of cuts or freezes as we move to balance the federal books.
Perhaps Harper could advise the man he put in there to look after it..seems to me that is what is happening!
ReplyDeleteI found it a bit curious that the CBC actually published a story about itself that was more or less washing dirty laundry. Makes me think there is absolute chaos inside the otherwise watertight ship. Can a shipwreck be far behind?
ReplyDeleteHe founded and supported "Little Mosque on the Prairie"? If so then he ought to be fired for minimising the damage that Mohamedans do in the name of the that man who made up the religion.
ReplyDeleteIf Canada had a legitimate, small-c fiscal conservative Prime Minister and/or Heritage Minister, they would eradicate the far-left bias, extremely unbalanced CBC TV and its equally pathetically hopeless radio network.
ReplyDeleteThe massively overfunded government network dislocates the free market with unfair competition by squandering its multi-billions of tax dollars without being compelled to produce an product that customers will pay to watch. If the far-left, bias, unfair and unbalanced CBC didn’t have $1.2 of tax dollars to squander it wouldn’t even have the pathetically low rating that it currently ensnares.
In an age of numerous Canadian television and radio networks, satellite networks, and the internet, there is no longer any necessity for a government-owned, and tax payers paid for, TV and/or radio network especially one ran by left-wing affirmative action bimbos and watched/ listened to mostly by the far-left, but paid for my people who actually work for a living and pay taxes.
If Harper was a genuine small-c fiscal conservative he would immediately begin to eradicate the deficit/debt by shifting this embarrassment to a private pay for view station, sell the complete far-left bias CBC with its pretensions of objectivity, and force the bimbos to get a real job, or simply shut down this bimbo-driven humiliation to humanity.
---machiavelli
Out of idle curiosity, what are the ratings for the much-touted "Little Mosque on the Prairie"?
ReplyDelete