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An internal briefing note by CBC President Hubert Lacroix on the broadcaster’s financial crisis provides some insights into its future.

The note aims to answer some of the questions raised by CBC staff following the announcement of sweeping job and programming cuts.

One area that was spared was CBC.ca as it is part of CBC’s digital strategy heading forward and its transformation from a broadcaster into a content provider. In the words of Lacroix:

All funds would (and should!) be directed toward things that push our strategic direction forward: in things that enable us to become a content company, to become the most important creator and distributor of Canadian content across all platforms, and to be deeply rooted in the regions.

This is a significant shift in strategy for what has been a traditional broadcaster, and Lacroix stressed how these principles would guide future investments.

If staffers were hoping that canceled programs would return, they were disappointed:

So, would we invest and re-invest, for example, in our regional roots, presence and visibility? Absolutely. Would we necessarily reinstate a particular program or position in a particular place? Not so much.

There was some good news, though, with Lacroix telling staff that:

Our Minister has now confirmed that CBC/Radio-Canada would in 2009-2010 be receiving the $60 million in non-recurring funding for programming initiatives that it has received each year since 2001. This amount was already included in our 2009-2010 budget. This confirmation doesn’t improve our current situation but not having received it would have been catastrophic.

These are clearly tough times at the CBC. In the words of Lacroix, “Hang tough. We will get through this.”

(Via Newslab.ca)

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