New era at CBC

It may be that the ‘new era’ cliche gets more than its share of exposure when it comes to programming trends at the cbc, but it appears that a new era is indeed dawning within the vast atria and labyrinthine corridors of the estate on Front Street.

The signs of newness may not immediately be apparent. For instance, Phyllis Platt, cbc’s executive director of arts and entertainment, told a packed room of industry leaders earlier this month she foresees no immediate shift in the balance between in-house and independent production at cbc. And she disappointed some in her Academy Breakfast Club audience by affirming the ongoing presence of u.s. sitcoms in the primetime schedule, a presence guaranteed because ‘they make us money’ and commercial revenues continue to be a fact of life at the Corp. But then she promised to try to continue streamlining the process through which independent producers bring projects to the cbc for development and so on. And she repeated the oft-heard wish for more children’s fare in the mix.

So what’s new. Much, it seems, in the mind of Jim Byrd, confirmed last month to replace Ivan Fecan as head of English Television Networks. Coming to the job with little network programming experience and with no pre-fab ties to the Players That Be in the independent sector, Byrd takes the view that programming and scheduling decisions should reflect public wants and should not reflect a ‘one-person vision.’

He doesn’t talk about ‘our mandate under the Broadcasting Act.’ He tells it straight in saying that such factors as l.a. program buying, mip-tv and even the soon-to-be-licensed specialties will influence the schedule. In the wake of the Friday Night! with Ralph Benmergui experience, with the wounds from the critics’ slings and arrows still festering, he will even admit to plans to replace it with ‘a show playing that role in our schedule by fall.’

Good on him. Couple this sensible attitude with the knowledge that Byrd, given his background in regional stations and programming, will aim to increase ‘regional reflection’ at the network and hopes to offer ‘better attention to quality’ in those regionally produced programs, which he says make up nearly half the schedule. cbc can’t please everyone all the time. Mais non. But cbc can at least do its best to offer the people from one part of Canada a solid sense of the reality of all those other Canadas beyond. Those ‘local’ realities will find audiences around the world, as many shows have already done and many more will likely do later this week at mip-tv.

It will be hard to maintain that resolve to bring those Canadas to the screen. It’s an era of declining agency financing, increasing pressure to do international coproductions, to guarantee that u.s. or other foreign presale. And with the most loyal viewers of homegrown tv product residing in a province which daily talks of departing Canada, the ability of English Canadian television to function as a unifying force is just as often called into question.

Still, it is a new day. If Mr. Byrd can stick to his programming ethic, and if he will give the rest of the schedule the ‘whole marketing job’ he wants to employ on Prime Time News, perhaps he will confound the forecasters and see the sun by afternoon.