CBC, and the upcoming budget
 

Interesting articles in several papers.
How will the suspected budget affect the CBC?
And how to fix it?
CBC has some good series and over the years there are some that were seen all over the world like Beachcombers.
We need Hockey Night in Canada, and the nightly news.
Any thoughts or views?

No we don't.

Any reason why you would say this?
Is it because of the announcers??? Don Cherry? The Leafs being on every Saturday?

They are going to lose the rights to hockey night in a couple years anyways because they can't compete with the billions that bell ctv has. The only 2 programs people watch are the news and hockey. The rest of cbc is garbage no one watches.

In most markets, CBC News is near the bottom of the barrel in ratings.

Actually, CBC News Network is by far the highest rated news channel in the country.

I still miss Air Farce.

22 Minutes has gone downhill over the past few years. Wouldn't be too sad to see it go, but keep the Rick Mercer Report!

I also like Dragon's Den. Hope it stays too.

I find CBC's local news coverage to be terrible, and I refuse to watch it.

The National is the only national newscast I'll watch, however. My pitiful basic cable TV is left on CBC News Network 90% of the time.

The NHL may give CBC a good chance to renew based on the fact they always have playoff hockey on the main network, while I guarantee CTV & co will push as much as they can to TSN/TSN 2 and keep it off their network to have American sitcoms instead.

Kinda like the CFL...no wait, the Brier...no wait, The Olympics...oh wait...


TSN deserves a huge round of applause for the rebirth of the CFL...rather than siphon of revenue and dump it into shit nobody but old people and people who live in the middle of nowhere watch, bell has reinvested back into the programs that draw ratings. Is it perfect, no. But CBC couldn't provide decent sports HD coverage because they were to busy funding shit like On the Road again.

Plus, any network that justifies itself by selling the idea of Canadiana lost all my respect when they wouldn't pay for the rights for the old HNIC theme. That has more canadiana than 20 seasons of Land and Sea.

We need the Beachcombers. Nick. Jesse. The Persephone. Molly's Reach. Relic. Good times.


http://www.thebeachcombers.ca/

The National is excellent, and the local coverage here in Halifax is pretty good too. I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but I do sometimes tune into Dragon's Den, Rick Mercer Report and 22 Minutes. CBC News Network is easily the best news station in the country. Overall, CBC's TV services are pretty good.

CBC Radio, on the other hand, is absolutely essential to the cultural well being of Canada. Q, DNTO, Wiretap, Spark and Under the Influence are consistently awesome. As for Radio 2, DRIVE is always great, The Strombo Show is cool and interesting, and The Signal is one of the best contemporary music shows in North America.

I don't see why the CBC shouldn't continue to receive subsidy, it has always worked to help spur Canadian content and keep the newscasts more news oriented.

But what's the point if no one watches the news casts and "Canadian content" does nothing but wear people down, after having it crammed down their throats?

People do watch it.

How exactly is Canadian content crammed down people's throats? No one is forced to watch Canadian television shows and films or listen to Canadian music. A shitty Cancon song coming on the radio is hardly enough to wear anyone down, particularly when stations that play shitty Cancon songs usually spend the rest of the time playing songs just as shitty.

What a quandary. I think that CBC has some valuable and essential programming, both TV and radio, and a lot of crap as well.

As bad as some of it is, it's still nowhere near as bad as most US TV

Though I really don't care for CBC television (too much flash, not enough information), CBC radio is absolutely incredible: everything from the shows to the documentaries to the reporting is just great (well, that last one could be debatable - it's all gone a little downhill, but not as much as on CBC tv).

CBC would probably be better off focusing less on trying to compete with the other networks, and more on being a unique option from them. Instead of copying what CTV and Global do, CBC should go in a more information and education direction. Drop the commercials, as that is the primary reason the private companies dislike the CBC. It forces advertisers to spread their advertising budget around more parties.

CBC Radio and the web arm of the company are great products, though. It's really just the network TV side of things that is causing issues.

CBC is obsolete and its budget should reflect this fact (i.e. zero). At best, CBC has only ever had two mandates:
1) Provide service to remote areas where commercially provided service would not be viable
2) Promote development of Canadian content

Technology has rendered both irrelevant as content from almost anywhere in the world can be accessed almost anywhere in the world via broadcast satellite or Internet, and individuals (Canadian citizens included) face far fewer barriers in developing and distributing content.

I would actually be insulted to be segmented as a target market for Canadian content. That an individual should be interested in particular content based on nationality rather than personal interests is superficial to the point of being demeaning.