Richard Stursberg is the executive vice-president of CBC Television.

As we at CBC Television continue to develop our 2006/07 season, we have taken several opportunities – including an information session held in February with the CFTPA – to share our new approach to Canadian drama and entertainment programming with independent producers, media writers and the general public.

This new approach includes an increased emphasis on Canadian drama, as well as a realignment of our entertainment and documentary programming to better reflect the program values that the largest segments of the Canadian viewing audience most enjoy. This should increase our audiences, which should in turn increase our public value, increase our potential revenue from advertisers and sponsors, and increase our profile in an already crowded and cluttered media marketplace.

Canadians everywhere have indicated strong support for CBC and its role as Canada’s national public broadcaster. Even viewers who don’t normally tune in to CBC have indicated that they would be happy to watch our programs if we would offer them something they would find more ‘entertaining.’ And this is the key: the new programs must be entertaining – they must reflect the tastes, values, sense of humor and sensibility of the millions of Canadians who pay for the CBC. We believe that if we provide this programming, Canadians will turn to us in larger numbers – and put the ‘public’ back into ‘public broadcasting.’

Critics have argued that, as the national public broadcaster, we should not compete with private broadcasters for audiences and, presumably, for revenue, and should be content instead to appeal to a select (some would say an elite) few. To do otherwise, apparently, is to ‘dumb down’ what we are offering, in a ‘single-minded’ quest for ratings.

This is an astonishingly patronizing attitude toward Canadian viewers. It suggests that they will only watch rubbish. And it conveniently ignores one simple fact: the programs that Canadians consistently watch in large numbers are intelligent, well-crafted shows. They like American programs like CSI, ER, Law & Order, The Amazing Race, Lost and House. And the highest-rated Canadian shows include titles like Corner Gas, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story and Canada Russia 72 – all wonderful, clever shows.

Nowhere is it written that accessible, entertaining television cannot be intelligent, high in quality, bold, and of significant public value. Other public broadcasters, including the BBC, have come to this very same conclusion – and are engaged in a similar process to our own. Indeed, the British government, in its recent white paper A Public Service for All: The BBC in the Digital Age, has recently instructed the BBC to place entertainment at the center of everything it does.

While CBC is a Crown corporation and therefore not operating for profit, our programming still must reach Canadians in large numbers to be viable creatively and financially. It makes no sense for us to commit hundreds of thousands of dollars in licence fees and promotional expenditures on programs that are not appealing to significant numbers of Canadians.

We want CBC Television to be the most important and popular video platform for Canadian news, current affairs, entertainment, documentary, sports and children’s programming in what is the most competitive TV market in the world.

As part of this, CBC is committed to boosting primetime drama and entertainment programming by 100 hours a year by the 2008/09 broadcast season. This means more Canadian drama series, more Canadian comedy, more Canadian movies and miniseries – and a greater sharing of Canadian stories and experiences – than what Canadian private broadcasters could possibly offer. It’s an enormous challenge, but it’s one that CBC was made for.

It’s also one that Canada’s independent production community is made for. As I’ve said many times, independent producers are our most important partners – and we are eager to hear from them and work with them as we finalize our fall programming schedule. In the coming weeks, our executive director of network programming, Kirstine Layfield, and our new executive director of arts and entertainment programming, Fred Fuchs, will be touring across the country to speak to independent producers about our programming direction and how best we can work together.