After weeks of rumors and threats, and one day after the cbc board finally met over – and approved – its English-television transformation plan, the Mother Corp. has announced it will not slash 14 local, supper-hour newscasts. Instead, it will break up each hour into two blocks consisting of a half hour of national news and a half hour of local news.

Revamping the local supper-hour newscasts will save cbc $30 million less than management had envisioned in its original plan. At the same time, cbc president Robert Rabinovitch said there will be ‘significant’ job slashing, but would not give a number or indicate where precisely the cuts will be made. He did, however, assure that there will be fewer than the rumored 674 jobs cut.

The plan, he says, deals with the cbc’s ‘identity crisis and financial crisis.’ The money for the new shows, for which he refused to provide a budget, will come from internal savings and ‘workforce adjustments.’

Harold Redekopp, vp of cbc, said cutting the local news hours in half will save the Corp. about one-third of the resources, but neither he nor Rabinovitch would comment on the exact dollar figure the cbc will be saving with the new plan.

The cbc also refuses to divulge details on English-language television’s ‘deficit position,’ but Rabinovitch suggested in a speech to the standing committee on Canadian Heritage that the department is close to bankrupt.

Because the Corp. must maintain balanced books, it can’t opt for bridge financing, says Sally Southey, senior director of corporate communications and public affairs.

Asked why the cbc didn’t get rid of the supper-hour newscasts that suffer from poor ratings in the larger centres, like Toronto and Montreal, and keep the stronger ones in the smaller regions, Rabinovitch said, ‘the board decided it was logical not to play favorites…to try and make the shows work.’

Whether the new transformation plan will work, or even remain in tact after the next federal election, is still a touchy subject. While Rabinovitch has been quoted as saying that if the original transformation plan was not implemented, the cbc would be dead, he now claims that with the new plan – created to revitalize English television – ‘the cbc is on life support.’

Other highlights of the transformation plan, which remain unchanged from management’s original plan, include: a revitalized 10 p.m. national flagship information hour; increasing non-commercial children’s and youth programming to 40 hours a week; reduced commercial presence and clutter, starting with cbc’s main news programs, at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.; augmenting its Thursday night commercial-free performing arts program to two hours; and creating a ‘new voices’ program that would invite first-time filmmakers to showcase their work and replace cbc’s late-night newscast.

The new supper-hour newscasts and the expanded children’s programming block will be part of cbc’s season launch in October.

The revitalized 10 p.m. information hour will launch early next year. Other details of the plan are still being finalized.