The downsizing of the the CBC and its sister French service, Societé Radio Canada, continues.
On Thursday, the public broadcaster announced it is cutting 25 per cent of its workforce over the next five years. That’s 1,000 to 1,500 jobs by 2020.
Management says the losses will be filled–in par–by retirements and attrition.
The reductions are in addition to 657 job cuts announced in April and are a continuation of a downsizing that began five years ago. In March, 2009, CBC/SRC cut 805 posts. In March 2012, 650 jobs were eliminated.
CBC/SRC is currently dealing with a $130-million budget shortfall due mainly to federal cuts in funding, falling advertising revenue and the loss of English hockey rights to Rogers Media.
CBC/SRC says it will not close any stations across the country, but 90-minute evening television newscasts will be cut to 30 or 60 minutes.
Facing calls to resign at a town hall meeting on Thursday, CBC president Hubert Lacroix said the broadcaster must transform itself from a “producer to a multi-platform broadcaster” in order to stay afloat.
He said that advertising revenues have shifted to global players like Facebook and Google and financial support for public broadcasters has fallen. He added that even conventional private broadcasters are not profitable.
“We used to lead with television and radio,” Mr. Lacroix said. “Web came and then mobility came. We are reversing, we are inverting the priorities that we have. We’re going to lead now with mobility, we’re going to lead with whatever widget you use.”
“The system is broken,” he said. “Meantime, as these shifts are happening, large numbers continue to watch television and listen to radio in traditional ways. In fact, Canadians on average are watching more television, not less.”
The move to reduce in-house production will not include news, current affairs or radio. CBC/SRC says fewer documentaries will be directly produced by the broadcaster, but it did not say whether it would contract out all documentary production.
The executive vice-president of English Services, Heather Conway, said the documentary unit would “change” but that it would not reduce the number of documentaries on air.
The broadcaster also plans to cut its real estate presence in half by about two million square feet. In Montreal, there will be a reduction in square feet, while the Toronto studio will acquire new tenants.
Radio Canada International is part of CBC/SRC. It is unclear how the latest cuts will affect the department, which abandoned shortwave broadcasts in 2012 and now operates as a website.
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