Source : Globe & Mail

There's a message Richard Stursberg wants to get out.

The CBC's head of English-language television has let his head programmers do the talking about the fall season, what has gone well (solid ratings for stalwarts such as the Rick Mercer Report and the fifth estate and the slow promise of newcomers Dragons' Den and Intelligence), and what hasn't gone well (such as Rumours, the Anglo version of the Radio-Canada sitcom, which sank to just 100,000 viewers one week and looks to be in the cancellation crosshairs).

A highly negative comment article in a recent issue of the trade publication Playback called the ratings "disastrous." Stursberg sees it differently.

"The thing that people seem to forget is that if you want to make a change in television, it takes a long, long time to get something done," he said, speaking by phone Thursday while driving from Toronto to Ottawa.

The broadcaster is in a transition period, he said, a time in which the CBC is still finding its feet with its new, heavier reliance on regular series and "factual entertainment" (as the CBC likes to call reality TV and talk shows). Head programmer Kirstine Layfield, eager to answer the Playback article, notes that despite the poor showing for a number of new shows, the network's total audience share has remained steady this season compared with the end of last year.

"For good or ill, we find ourselves in the most difficult television world," added Stursberg from his car, his voice trailing in and out of reception. "Competing against American shows is a daunting undertaking, not just because they are so well financed, but also because they're so damn good. These are beautifully made shows, beautifully written, beautifully constructed. . . . My own personal view is that I think The quality of television now in North America is about as good, if not better, than it's ever been."

This makes it that much more difficult to compete with Global and CTV, who stack their roster with U.S. hits, while the CBC has to rely on creating many more Canadian programs, he said.

"I don't think people fully get this," he added. "We find ourselves in a completely different world [than CTV and Global] where we have to actually go out, as the American networks do, and develop shows, commission shows. We have to get those shows made. We have to get those shows scheduled. And the economics of that are brutal."

Does Stursberg ever entertain the idea of turning CBC-TV into a smaller, niche broadcaster, showing innovative programs, aiming for only a limited, committed audience. No, he said, because the costs of making television that's "more niche and more out-there are the same as the costs of mainstream dramas." So why make it harder to raise funds and advertisers by becoming niche? Instead, he is committed to producing shows with broad appeal.

Stursberg's target for a hit CBC show is one-million viewers. Yet, many highly touted shows this season fall well below that number. CBC executives have an answer for this, though.

The network repeats some shows throughout the week in order to compete against American programs. This can obscure a program's actual ratings.

For instance, the cumulative ratings for an episode last month of Rick Mercer Report, taking into account both its Tuesday broadcast and Friday rebroadcast was well over one-million viewers. (The latest Rick Mercer episode with Prime Minister Stephen Harper did even better, attracting 945,000 viewers on Tuesday alone, and received the show's second-highest ratings ever.)

Meanwhile, the cumulative ratings for a recent episode of This Hour Has 22 Minutes had well over 900,000. Even critically acclaimed Intelligence, which many talk about as being in the ratings cellar, added nearly 140,000 viewers to a respectable total of more than 520,000 one week if you add up all the cumulative ratings for its Tuesday at 9 p.m., Tuesday at midnight and Friday at 11 p.m. broadcasts.

Ultimately, Stursberg said that the CBC simply has to produce shows for less money than competing American shows. The only way to attract audiences "are with shows that are clever, that are going to be, dare I say, brilliant, and that are going to be great television. So that's a daunting prospect, right? But that's the price of entry these days."

© Globe and Mail

Related Documents:

October 30, 2006 - Playback Magazine: CBC in ratings tailspin by Mark Dillon
Article suggests Canadians are not finding relevance in CBC's new fall shows.