We have been hearing an amazing amount of self congratulations from CBC management about how the new National is doing well or it’s on the right track. There has been a series of hero-grams sent to staff pushing them to keep up the good work. The bosses maintain that the changes in the newscast are a work in progress and that staff is busting their butts.
All this blather in spite of the fact that I have never met a single viewer who thinks the changes in the newscast were anything other than awful. In fact many media friends, including some who still work for The National tell me they have stopped watching the program. Non media friends complain about the set, Peter’s walks, the dumb reporter interviews that add nothing to show, but really, would they notice any of this if the quality of the stories and storytelling was high enough to keep them interested in the content? I suspect not.
It has been too easy to blame criticism on unhappy former employees who are disgruntled because they were pushed out. It has been too easy to point fingers at older viewers who don’t like change. It has been too easy to fall back on “it’s a work in progress” excuses. The truth is, and the numbers are all too clear, the new National is an abject failure that has not resonated with the viewing audience and worse, has turned many loyal news junkies away.
With the help of a mathematically inclined friend who has access to the ratings I put together a table that clearly shows how poorly The National is doing. But first an executive summary of our findings:
We used 70 programs (Monday-Friday) in 2009 from the beginning of January to the second week of April. The National average was about 804 thousand, while CTV News got 993 thousand.
This year, 2010, we looked at 59 programs during the same period. (The Olympics made 11 weekdays not applicable.) This time the National averaged 644 thousand, CTV News — 1257 thousand. That’s almost exactly double. Using last year’s system — if you reasonably assume CTV News didn’t gain viewers, their ratings jump can be attributed to the new people meters — that would mean that The National has averaged less than 500 thousand in 2010 using the pre-people meter numbers, a ratings fall of almost 40%! Incredible and embarrassing…
Two other small observations. Last year, there were 9 days when The National actually got higher numbers than CTV. This season, it never got close. The other thing is that we picked a period when The National‘s ratings were actually UP! If you were to look at the September-December stretch, CTV’s numbers were regularly more than double, sometimes, even triple those of CBC’s flagship news program… The numbers are even more startling than we expected.
A few more facts to ponder. During the study period in 2009 the lowest rating at CBC was 615 thousand. In 2010 the lowest rating was 451 thousand. In fact the CBC failed to reach 500 thousand viewers four times. During that same period CTV News had four nights with over 1.5 million viewers.
Here’s the actual numbers for you to ponder:
2009 2010
Monday Jan. 5 Monday Jan. 4
CBC 681 CTV 1033 CBC 553 CTV 1057
Tues. Jan. 6 Tues. Jan. 5
CBC 857 CTV987 CBC 514 CTV 1137
Wed. Jan. 7 Wed. Jan. 6
CBC 713 CTV 855 CBC 659 CTV 1268
Thurs. Jan. 8 Thurs. Jan. 7
CBC 976 CTV 986 CBC 689 CTV 1147
Fri. Jan. 9 Fri. Jan. 8
CBC 843 CTV 855 CBC 547 CTV 1067
Mon. Jan. 12 Mon. Jan. 11
CBC 971 CTV 933 CBC 543 CTV 1175
Tues. Jan. 13 Tues. Jan. 12
CBC 807 CTV 943 CBC 733 CTV 1435
Wed. Jan. 14 Wed. Jan. 13
CBC 731 CTV 1289 CBC 675 CTV 1314
Thurs. Jan. 15 Thurs. Jan. 14
CBC 719 CTV 1013 CBC 729 CTV 1211
Fri. Jan. 16 Fri. Jan. 15
CBC 771 CTV 987 CBC 578 CTV 1231
Mon. Jan. 19 Mon. Jan. 18
CBC 808 CTV 1119 CBC 629 CTV 1140
Tues. Jan. 20 Tues. Jan. 19
CBC 1003 CTV 967 CBC 667 CTV 1070
Wed. Jan. 21 Wed. Jan. 20
CBC 959 CTV 903 CBC 685 CTV 1374
Thurs. Jan. 22 Thurs. Jan. 21
CBC 806 CTV 1087 CBC 703 CTV 1532
Fri. Jan. 23 Fri. Jan. 22
CBC 880 CTV 929 CBC 685 CTV 1327
Mon. Jan. 26 Mon. Jan. 25
CBC 928 CTV 918 CBC 628 CTV 1164
Tues. Jan. 27 Tues. Jan. 26
CBC 907 CTV 926 CBC 571 CTV 1195
Wed. Jan. 28 Wed. Jan. 27
CBC 907 CTV 1002 CBC 640 CTV 1004
Thurs. Jan. 29 Thurs. Jan 28
CBC 909 CTV 1050 CBC 678 CTV 1152
Fri. Jan. 30 Fri. Jan. 29
CBC 587 CTV 923 CBC 603 CTV 1026
Mon. Feb. 2 Mon. Feb. 1
CBC 827 CTV 983 CBC 528 CTV 1069
Tues. Feb. 3 Tues. Feb. 2
CBC 947 CTV 850 CBC 492 CTV 1183
Wed. Feb. 4 Wed. Feb. 3
CBC 1007 CTV 907 CBC 571 CTV 1477
Thurs. Feb. 5 Thurs. Feb. 4
CBC 885 CTV 1089 CBC 665 CTV 1272
Fri. Feb. 6 Fri. Feb. 5
CBC 615 CTV 694 CBC 537 CTV 1000
Mon. Feb. 9 Mon. Feb. 8
CBC 805 CTV 1061 CBC 670 CTV 1112
Tues. Feb. 10 Tues. Feb. 9
CBC 872 CTV 941 CBC 820 CTV 1174
Wed. Feb. 11 Wed. Feb. 10
CBC 716 CTV 863 CBC 791 CTV 1542
Thurs. Feb. 12 Thurs. Feb. 11
CBC 903 CTV 902 CBC 669 CTV 1320
Mon. Mar. 2 Mon. Mar. 1
CBC 686 CTV 883 CBC 707 CTV 1256
Tues. Mar. 3 Tues. Mar. 2
CBC 706 CTV 878 CBC 451 CTV 1113
Wed. Mar. 4 Wed. Mar. 3
CBC 809 CTV 996 CBC 550 CTV 1248
Thurs. Mar. 5 Thurs. Mar. 4
CBC 828 CTV 994 CBC 666 CTV 1272
Fri. Mar. 6 Fri. Mar. 5
CBC 731 CTV 909 CBC 492 CTV 1268
Mon. Mar. 9 Mon. Mar. 8
CBC 658 CTV 1108 CBC 623 CTV 1350
Tues. Mar. 10 Tues. Mar. 9
CBC 833 CTV 1023 CBC 645 CTV 1426
Wed. Mar. 11 Wed. Mar. 10
CBC 832 CTV 1273 CBC 709 CTV 1618
Thurs. Mar. 12 Thurs. Mar. 11
CBC 728 CTV 1045 CBC 669 CTV 1663
Fri. Mar. 13 Fri. Mar. 12
CBC 727 CTV 881 CBC 551 CTV 1269
Mon. Mar. 16 Mon. Mar. 15
CBC 742 CTV 940 CBC 705 CTV 1481
Tues. Mar. 17 Tues. Mar. 16
CBC 754 CTV 974 CBC 548 CTV 1456
Wed. Mar. 18 Wed. Mar. 17
CBC 953 CTV 1141 CBC 714 CTV1382
Thurs. Mar. 19 Thurs. Mar. 18
CBC 933 CTV 1221 CBC 778 CTV 1374
Fri. Mar. 20 Fri. Mar. 19
CBC 623 CTV 898 CBC 595 CTV 1161
Mon. Mar. 23 Mon. Mar. 22
CBC 837 CTV 1107 CBC 635 CTV 1308
Tues. Mar. 24 Tues. Mar. 23
CBC 875 CTV 1027 CBC 462 CTV 1341
Wed. Mar. 25 Wed. Mar. 24
CBC 826 CTV 1162 CBC 778 CTV 1240
Thurs. Mar. 26 Thurs. Mar. 25
CBC 900 CTV 1110 CBC 722 CTV 1238
Fri. Mar. 27 Fri. Mar. 26
CBC 735 CTV 882 CBC 545 CTV 1101
Mon. Mar. 30 Mon. Mar. 29
CBC 680 CTV 1097 CBC 936 CTV 1119
Tues. Mar. 31 Tues. Mar. 30
CBC 930 CTV 921 CBC 645 CTV 1219
Wed. Apr. 1 Wed. Mar. 31
CBC 849 CTV 1025 CBC 634 CTV 1347
It is pretty obvious from the numbers, The National is getting killed since the new format kicked in. Only five times in three months did the newscast have higher ratings than one year earlier, this even though the people meters have buoyed the numbers of all the big networks. Only once did the rating approach the million mark, this was after the second night of the Don Cherry movie. All in all, a most dismal showing. At this point it is fair to question the changes made at The National and the people responsible for those changes. Anywhere else in the real world the people behind this sort of failure would be looking for new jobs.
Filed under: Media Commentary, CBC News, CTV News, The National
I'm Mad as Hell 
In response to feedback we have gathered over the past few months we are making some structural changes to our assignment complex which, among other things, will merge our current Planning and Daily assignment desks. These changes begin Tuesday, May 25th.
Beginning that day, our domestic assignment producers will be handling smaller geographic areas, but tackling a wider range of responsibilities. These responsibilities include daily and short term planning across radio, television, and cbcnews.ca.
We will adjust the staffing and boundaries of these areas as we gain experience with the new structure, but the breakdown for our Assignment Producers beginning Tuesday is as follows:
Linda Kelly and Vaune Davis / British Columbia and Alberta
Michael DSouza / Saskatchewan, Manitoba, The North
David Tweedie and Allison Brachman / Ontario
Phil Park and Rita Tonelli/ Quebec and Atlantic Canada
They will be working with Senior Producers Brenda Murray and Ian Kalushner
The group can continue to be reached at 6301 in Toronto.
On the foreign side, we will also be dividing areas of responsibility. Karen OLeary will be doing multi-platform assignment in the United States and South America. Brien Christie will do the same in the rest of the world. They will be working with Senior Producer David Taylor.
On the weekends we will continue our current radio structure with Jeff Brown assigning for weekend programs, and Harmen Meinders assigning for television and cbcnews.ca.
Cathy Perry and Greg Reaume will oversee this combined daily and short term planning desk. They will also supervise a small team that will continue to do long term planning for larger events and elections.
Also beginning May 25th, our Content Units will be put together under a single assignment producer, Pat Onysko. Pat will be on leave until September and Carrie Schipper (5716) will step in until then. Joanne McPherson will now manage the units. Senior Producer Sandra Varanesi will also work with Joanne, organizing our multi-platform projects and series. And Joanne will continue to manage the Live Now desk.
Assignment structures in our Parliamentary Bureau will remain the same.
We hope these changes move us toward a streamlined operation with clear lines of responsibility and communication, and fewer points of contact for our network reporters and producers. It is also designed to help move the focus of discussion from process, to content.
We also hope the smaller geographic focus of our domestic assignment producers will help create a more functional and efficient two-way relationship with the centres. Our assignment producers in Toronto will work as a team with their regional counterparts to create coverage plans designed to benefit both our local and network programs and platforms. This stronger relationship, combined with the further integration of the desk, is in keeping with our larger one news strategy for CBC.
We will be announcing and implementing more changes over the next six months, as part of an ongoing process of evaluating how our new integrated assignment complex is functioning.
Thanks for your help (and patience!) as we continue to evolve and strengthen the Hub.
Jonathan Whitten
Executive Director of News Content
CBC News
In response to feedback we have gathered over the past few months we are making some structural changes to our assignment complex which, among other things, will merge our current Planning and Daily assignment desks. These changes begin Tuesday, May 25th.