Locked-out CBC throws bone to advertisers by Keith McArthur

The CBC is enticing advertisers to stay put by offering extra commercial spots to make up for lost viewership during its labour dispute.

Advertisers have been told that they will be further compensated if viewership declines more than anticipated.

"The CBC is working very hard to maintain the advertisers," said Mark Sherman, chief executive officer of media buying company Media Experts. He added that as long as the labour dispute remains a short-term issue, his clients will likely remain with the CBC.

"At some point, if the thing starts dragging on and we believe that the advertisers are going to lose dramatic value, then of course we're going to take the actions that we need to take to protect our advertisers' interests," Mr. Sherman said.

Media buyers say the broadcaster is estimating how much its viewership will fall as it fills its schedule with foreign newscasts, documentaries and sports broadcasts without announcers, then providing free commercial inventory to advertisers to more than make up the difference.

CBC spokesman Jason MacDonald said not a single advertiser has pulled ads as a result of the dispute, which began three days ago.

Media buyers said marketers may actually benefit from the labour dispute. That's because the CBC is making up for lost eyeballs by offering the extra spots, while other networks may post stronger-than-anticipated viewership numbers.

Still, most observers think any gains by other networks would be marginal, because the CBC represents such a small percentage of television ad revenue.

"Sad as it may seem, the CBC is not as significant a television channel as it was a few years ago," said Bruce Claassen, chief executive officer of Toronto-based media buyer Genesis Media Inc.

"We sent information to all our clients. . . . None of them have called back with any real degree of concern," he said.

David Kirkwood, CHUM Ltd.'s executive vice-president of television sales and marketing, said it is too early to tell if the CBC lockout will have any positive impact on his network and other broadcasters, but so far there is no sign of a shift in ad dollars.

He, too, noted that the public broadcaster is currently "not really a huge player" in television advertising.

Still, he added, "we'll take anything we can get" if the lockout continues and there is some movement in ad placement.

Early Monday, the CBC locked out all its producers, technicians, behind-the-scenes support crew, reporters and on-air talent, with the exception of English-language CBC employees in Quebec and New Brunswick, who aren't members of the Canadian Media Guild.

Meanwhile, the broadcaster is using its scarce management resources to supply newscasts to Air Canada, but relying heavily on foreign newscasts from the British Broadcasting Corp. for television news.

That decision has left some critics questioning the broadcaster's priorities during the dispute.

"If they attach a priority to that [Air Canada] contract, it shows that they're behaving more like a business than like a public service. It suggests that they think of the Air Canada passengers as more important than the viewers and listeners who are the shareholders of the corporation -- the 32 million Canadians," said Ian Morrison, spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

The CBC's Mr. MacDonald said there are plans to replicate the Air Canada newscast on the television airwaves. But he said the Air Canada newscast came first because the dated news package does not pose the same technical and timing challenges as live television news.

"We're working as quickly as possible to get that fixed, but we're also working with a lot less people. Most of the people have come from -- even though they're now management -- a journalism background. There's a bit of a learning curve, too," Mr. MacDonald said.

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