Trask, you seem like a pretty reasonable guy.
Thanks, I think you are as well.
Go outside now and ask one hundred random people if they ever watch CBC.
You'll have trouble finding 1% that doesn't watch it
I agree because of Hockey. If you ask people what they watch on CBC besides that, you'd have a very small number.
I accept that you don't support gov't funding ideologically.
But you might have to step back from saying no one (or only 1%) watches it.
My point was simply to point out that the channel is popular with a minority of Canadians beyond Hockey. That is backed up by the average viewership and the weekly ratings throughout the year.
An average viewership of 328,000 is not really a bad number for Canadian produced TV shows - it's definitely something to build on. Successful American primetime TV shows in the U.S. get audiences of 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 - about 1%-3% of total population. Successful CBC shows in Canada get about 500,000 - 1,000,000 viewers -- roughly 1% to 3% of population.
The problem with this is, that number is severely skewed due to the high number of Hockey fans that watch during the season. Without Hockey, and this year the Winter Olympics, those numbers drop dramatically. You don't get huge numbers of viewers watching "Little Mosque on the Prairie" or "The Nature of the Things."
Rarely is 33% of Canada watching the same thing at the same time. The 2009 Canadian Football League Grey Cup match (usually one of the most-watched TV programs each year in Canada) had an average audience of 5.1 million (6.1 million including the French broadcast)-- or about 20% of the population of Canada. The January 2010 Super Bowl had an audience of 6.7 million in Canada (Grey Cup was TSN. The Super Bowl was on network broadcast TV in Canada).
I didn't say they were. I just posted what the average number of viewers were for the CBC at any given time, and then pointed out how the numbers were flawed based on the fact they get huge numbers for a select few entities, and low numbers for most of the others.
Last week the top rated show in Canada was a Big Brother episode with an audience of 1.8 million. CBC's Dragon's Den gets 900,000. Global's Rookie Blue gets 1.5 million. CTV News gets about 1 million. Average TV audiences are not what they used to be. And what is considered a satisfactory audience share in the 500 channel universe has dropped quite a bit.
CBC's top drawing cards are either Sports, Reality programming or News. That is the problem. They don't create original scripted programming that appeals to the masses. What they hang their hat on, I can get anywhere and it's usually better produced. That 325,000 number I referred to is not based on individual ratings. It's an average that is severely skewed when 6 million people are watching the Hockey Playoffs every night over the course of two months.
Last weeks #1 rated TV show in the USA was The Bachelorette. It's audience was 11.7 Million - or about 3% of the population. Number one show.
Summer ratings and viewing is very different than during the times between Sept. and May. There's far fewer viewers over the Summer months.
I'd like you to take the Pepsi Challenge: Watch an hour of The Bachelorette, an hour of Being Erica (CBC), and an hour of Republic of Doyle (CBC). Honestly, tell me which of those shows is the worst?
I have sampled them all and don't like any of them, so telling you which is the worst is really redundant. Also I'm a Coke guy.
CBC TV getting 328,000 on average is not too bad. They've definitely got a chunk of the pie - certainly not a trivial audience. CBC needs to work on its image problem so that people will try out their shows. Everyone needs to be continually focusing on quality including CBC shows. But their shows are entertaining and of decent quality - including storylines, acting, and writing. At least average, I would say. And it makes me feel good to find a comedy or dramatic show that's set in Toronto, or Alberta, Saskatchewan, or St. John's when I turn on my TV. And it makes me proud when every now and then I come across comments on the web from Americans who have discovered Corner Gas, or The Border, or Being Erica that say they're hooked on our shows! I'm glad the Canadian TV industry gets some support so we can see stories featuring us on TV.
On this point we just differ on quality and personal preference. No right or wrong on this point. Everybody likes different things. I liked Corner Gas, I also liked the Trailer Park Boys, neither of which aired on the CBC. The one big elephant in the room is that I don't support any other channels with my tax money. Just one, and I'm tired of it.