A blow-up Edvard Munch ‘Scream’ doll, resting placidly on a pale wood shelf in Trina McQueen’s office, where little is out of place and all is serene, is a perfect reflection of the industry turmoil that plagues the ever graceful and controlled CTV president and COO.

Having just launched seven new digital specialty channels into an overly saturated market and dealing with a slumping ad market that has given way to major cutbacks at CTV, McQueen conveys confidence the broadcaster is well-positioned to face the challenges ahead.

Being part of such a highly integrated corporation as BCE, and in particular Bell Globemedia, she says, should provide the broadcaster with the leverage to remain on top, notwithstanding the fact that 150 jobs were eliminated in mid-October.

‘Nobody wants to have big ugly broadcasters controlling everything, but on the other hand, you have to sit back and say the ambition is to produce top-quality programs that will attract Canadian audiences. It may be that having a lot of players in the market brings creativity. But it’s also possible that having a lot of players in the market means nobody ever has enough capital to produce first-class programming.

‘I think one of the problems, and this will not be a popular thing to say, is that there are too many small companies.

You have to be big enough that you have some capital to do some development. We don’t have the kind of protection in this country that we had against foreign competition. We are in foreign competition [and] you can’t be going toe-to-toe with someone who is a hundred times bigger.’

On the ‘Boys Club’

McQueen’s insights come from decades of working in the business and serving as the pre-eminent trailblazer for women in broadcasting. After getting her career start at the Ottawa Journal, she spent 25 years at the CBC, where among her many roles, she was VP of television news, current affairs and CBC Newsworld. The presidency and launch of Discovery Channel followed. She was also the first woman hired by CFTO three decades ago, eight years before another woman was hired. ‘I don’t know if not being one of the boys helped me or hurt me,’ she says.

‘If you’re not the kind of person who goes down and has a beer, what’s the point of trying? People are more likely to have respect for you if they see that what they see is what they get.’

Despite the equanimity with which she talks about her early days, there were for McQueen moments when the company of women would have been much appreciated. ‘This was in the days when we did not have sensitive supporting guys with little pictures of their babies. These were hard-bitten guys. I don’t know who was biting them,’ she says, laughing.

‘It makes it more stressful to be the only woman. Part of working is the camaraderie and companionship. You want to go into an office and put your feet up and let your hair down and you’d like to do that with a woman – someone who has the same children issues, aged parent issues, or relationship issues, or even shoe-buying issues that you have.’

Times have changed with women like Phyllis Yaffe and Loren Mawhinney, among others, ascending the ranks. Still, she says, ‘the titans are all men.’

On diginets

With competition between broadcasters increasing exponentially, McQueen says it will be a long time before any of the diginets are profitable. ‘There will be fallout,’ she warns. ‘Even with the branded ones, it’s very hard to break through and have people be aware.’

The recent elimination of 150 positions at CTV is part of the fallout, she confirms.

On Cancon

In addition to taking part in the biggest launch of TV programming in Canadian history this fall, CTV, along with rival Global Television, had its licence renewed.

Licence conditions, which McQueen describes as ‘onerous,’ include a commitment to air 60% Cancon.

One concern is that the current regulations might be changed at any point during the seven-year licence. ‘What I really want is for [the CRTC] to give this regime enough time to see if it works or not.’

While McQueen champions the CRTC with the Category 2 licensing model and the eight hours of priority programming in primetime regulation, she says, the commission is at its worst when it’s micro-managing.

‘Seeing TV made by Canadians that reflects the country is integral to the development of the country, but the financial flip side is that a Canadian production should ideally aim to recoup 70% of its investment in Canada and 30% in the U.S.’

New initiatives

CTV is considering moving into the distribution business as a result of the 20% share it recently acquired in L.A.-based Artisan Entertainment. In exchange for its 50% stake in the Bob Cooper-helmed Landscape Entertainment, CTV received a cash and share payment from Artisan that essentially rolls its interest in the year-and-a-half-old production company into the U.S. entertainment company.

‘[Bell Globemedia president and CEO] Ivan Fecan’s basic premise on that one is that we needed to have some interest in production and distribution,’ says McQueen.

Part of the impetus of the acquisition is made possible by changes to Telefilm funding guarantees, which allows a broadcaster who has invested in a Telefilm-supported project to be a distributor.

On convergence

Planning for such future integration is in keeping with the advantages CTV expects to derive from convergence. McQueen is careful to clarify that convergence primarily means technical convergence. ‘Ivan [Fecan] always said that a clock radio is convergence.’

But taking it a step further, parent company BCE recently announced that next year it will release the ComboBox, a home entertainment unit that will combine high-speed Internet access, digital television and the personal video recorder.

As for corporate convergence, one of the ongoing challenges is the merging of disparate cultures. ‘It’s just like marriages,’ McQueen says. ‘Some work, some don’t, some odd couples manage to thrive and survive.’

She points to the example of CTV and The Globe and Mail. ‘CTV is a populist organization, The Globe is a bit more up-market. That’s important. What’s not important is that the assignment editor at CTV does something a certain way and the assignment editor at The Globe does it differently.’

But beyond the melding of disparate cultures, merging corporate operations translates to employment redundancies.

Over the past three years, CTV has added 1,000 employees, increasing its stable 40%, with among other things, the acquisitions of Netstar, CKY Winnipeg, CFCF Monteal and the licensing of seven new diginets.

‘We never really took a forensic look at the situation, at the overlapping and duplication. At the areas we could cut back on,’ says McQueen. ‘We didn’t move the Netstar people in with CTV until this summer, and we’re still not finished. The ability to have our people in one single location also [spurred the restructuring].’

But the recent cuts are not exclusive to Netstar personnel. McQueen affirms the layoffs were across the board. The graphics, audience research and promotion department, for example, were centralized.

‘The economy is really, really bad for us. The most important thing is, will consumers hunker down, turn the heat down, put on extra sweaters, not go out for dinner? It’s just too soon to tell. There isn’t any good economic news.’

-www.ctv.ca

With files from Samantha Yaffe