Richard Stursberg Interview - Part Two

Richard Stursberg Interview - Part Two

Inside Television # 601
Publication Date: 4-27-12
By: Hubert O’Hearn


In case you missed it, last week we started looking at the recent interview I had with Richard Stursberg, head of CBC’s English services from 2006-2010. He has written a book describing and defending those years called Tower of Babble. Onwards to the second, final part of that interview.

CBC Sports has been diminished to a shadow of what it was. During its glory years, it regularly hosted the Olympics (gone to CTV), the Grey Cup (gone to TSN) and the Brier curling championship (ditto). This was not a corporate or Board decision by CBC - although there are Board members who do believe that CBC should be right out of the business of producing professional sports. Rather, it was and is a question of money.

CBC is not allowed to turn a profit, build up a nest egg, or go to capital markets for a loan without the express consent of the Federal Cabinet; and good luck with that. In contrast Bell Media, the owner of CTV-TSN has lots of money, which a quick glance at cell phone or cable bills will confirm. One has to note that for all the occasional conservative grumphs and harrumphs about ‘the cost to the taxpayer of the CBC’, it’s not like you’re been given a free ride on your other telecommunications either. Canadian cell phone rates, the third highest in the world after Japan and the City of London, are effectively a subsidy to Bell, Shaw etc.

What this means is that Bell and CTV’s President Ivan Fecan (who is a marvelous sort of Rasputin figure lurking through Tower of Babble) can bid on sports properties far, far beyond what those properties can ever return in advertising revenue. It’s the exact same model NBC Sports has used in the US, paying a ridiculous fee in order to promote other shows. CBC cannot do that. CBC’s contract with the NHL expires after the 2013-2014 season. Oh dear.

Joining the ranks of the unemployed in 2014?

As Stursberg notes, ‘It’s not just that Hockey Night in Canada supplies about half of CBC television’s advertising revenue, there’s over 400 hours of primetime programming that’ll have to be filled. What are they going to fill it with? Re-runs every Saturday night?’ I started to realize that TSN picking up the old Hockey Night in Canada theme music wasn’t an echo of the past, it was a trumpet of change.

What most startled me was when I asked Stursberg if there had ever been any political influence from Ottawa from either the Liberal or Conservative administrations. He said, ‘No, never’, which I partly believe and mostly don’t. And then he said, ‘I wish Ottawa would take more of an active role.’ What? Why? Huh?

His point was that if Ottawa would establish a clear mandate for CBC - high art, regional programmer, sports or no sports - then agreed to fund that mandate and appoint Board members to carry it out, the Corporation would run without the endless conflicts that hamper it to this day. As well, if the Board had the power to hire the President of CBC that alone would avoid the head-butting which mires internal debate.

As far as that goes, he’s right, however the last thing on Earth I would want to see is an agenda-driven government deciding the programming mandate for public broadcasting. On the other hand, when i broached the idea of a Ralph Nader style Audience Network wherein the committed audience members choose the Board (see the April 13 edition of this column), Stursberg’s summary opinion was that would be a Board of unqualified hobbyists. I beg to differ, but that is the joy of an interview. One can disagree respectfully. You can’t get much more CBC-ish than that.

Be seeing you.