Repeats galore and no Peter by Guy Dixon

Both sides agree: The quality of CBC programming will be badly hurt if no settlement is reached between the broadcaster and its main union this weekend and CBC staff are locked out Monday. But CBC management insists it has a backup plan and that its most popular programs will continue on air.

So what can audiences expect?

At worst, industry watchers foresee temporary anchors reading stories rewritten from newswires, lots of repeat programming, possibly made-in-Hollywood filler and non-updated CBC websites.

The CBC's top brass is averse to publicizing what programming would look like without its 5,500 staff members at the English language networks represented by the Canadian Media Guild. These include producers, directors, technicians, on-air talent -- even Peter Mansbridge.

Instead, spokesman Jason MacDonald, handling all calls for an unusually elusive CBC management, would merely say that the broadcaster will offer "a respective radio, television and on-line service." Still, "we want to get a deal done so that the service that people see come Monday morning is the service they are used to seeing," he said. By midday Friday, talks remained tense and no settlement was expected until late Sunday, at the earliest, according to people close to the discussions.

Despite management's insistence that it would rather not rely on back-up plans, an e-mail sent to CBC staff this week by the broadcaster said that contingency programming and other stop-gap arrangements "is the plan we are prepared to implement if necessary."

Canadian Football League games will continue to be broadcast, as will National Hockey League games if the labour disruption were to continue into the hockey season. But there's the possibility that all football and hockey games could be aired without sound. CBC television, however, doesn't plan on resorting to airing Hollywood blockbusters such as Raiders of the Lost Ark in place of Hockey Night in Canada, as it did during last season's NHL lockout.

Some feel that the hockey lockout set a precedent for the CBC. Hollywood blockbusters aired during the usual hockey timeslot proved to be popular and could be used this time around to plug other holes in CBC TV's schedule, said Ian Morrison, spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, the media watchdog group.

As for CBC News, speculation is that The National will still air, although Peter Mansbridge and other union-represented anchors and reporters likely won't appear. "We will deliver respectable and professional news programming" is all MacDonald would confirm regarding the telecast.

But Morrison and others expect the quality of news broadcasts to deteriorate badly. "You tend to get more reading of wire-service copy and less original reporting," he said.

On CBC Radio, regular listeners will start to notice a stark difference if the lockout proceeds for more than a few days. Management admitted to staff this week that it would have to scale back programming on radio and the Internet. Repeat programs are already commonplace on CBC Radio, and nearly one in three hours is usually a repeated segment or show. This is expected to worsen if the labour unrest continues.

Repeats may not be immediately noticeable "to somebody who tunes in for the first time," Morrison said. In fact, CBC Radio is already expert at camouflaging repeat radio segments by adding updated introductions or eliminating some time elements. "But to people who are their faithful, key listeners, it's just more repeat programming," he added.

"For a short period of time, probably the audience won't notice a lot. But if things drag out for a while, we the viewers and listeners become the victims," he said.

The negative effects on the CBC can be long term. For instance, Morrison points to another disruption that regularly weakens some of the CBC's audience: The National typically loses viewers in the West after the hockey-playoff season, because playoff games tend to pre-empt broadcasts of The National in Western time zones, and viewers there often get out of the habit of watching CBC news and don't immediately return.

"It takes a very long time for the CBC to win back its viewers and listeners, who are there largely because [the network] is distinctive and Canadian," Morrison warned.

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