CBC to cut budget by $130M; 657 jobs to go in 2 years

CBC President Herbert Lacroix

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC/Radio-Canada) is cutting Cdn$130 million from its budget this year due to funding shortfalls and will be forced to cut 657 jobs of the next two years, the CBC reported Thursday. The state broadcaster also stated that it would no longer compete for the rights to broadcast professional sports.

"Very tough and controversial choices needed to be made and were made," CBC president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix told staff at a townhall meeting Thursday.

Lacroix said CBC cannot compete against private broadcasters that have specialty sports channels and multiple media platforms. It means the corporation would be "substantially reducing" its sports department and will cover fewer sporting events, including amateur sports.

However the CBC chief said the corporation would still compete for sporting events like the Olympics.

Lacroix said English Services would lose $82 million and suffer a loss of 334 full-time jobs. News would lose $13.3 million and 115 job losses. 

The CBC Brooadcast Centre in downtown Toronto

CBC news reported that the corporation has been coping with a loss of $115 million in federal government funding over three years that was announced in the 2012 federal budget. 

Its bottom line has also been affected by "a softening of the advertising market and CBC’s poor performance in attracting the important 25-54 age demographic to its prime-time TV schedule". That caused the CBC to suffer a revenue decline of $47 million
 
Among the changes:

• Television will have one less original series, to be replaced with a Best of the World series.
• High cost reality series, like shows like Battle of the Blades, will be replaced with lower costing shows.
• George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, which is ending its 10-year run, will not be replaced. Instead, existing dramas will fill the time slot.
• Cancellation of late night news in the North.
• Service expansion into the London market shelved