Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Ignoring the Interweb

I finally got an e-mail back from the CBC regarding jPods' cancellation. Further proof that Kirstine Layfield is a Tool. It's Generic, others are receiving the exact same letter. She even quotes herself from the Globe Article.

Thankfully, the folks over at Save jPod call her on it. Her arguement basically dismissing the value of Online Viewership has me wondering how she got the job as Director of Programming at The CBC in the first place.

Dear _____,

Thank you for your email of March 28 regarding our decision not to renew jPod for another season. I appreciate the time you have taken to write.

It is clear that you strongly support this program. And I agree with you. It was an excellent program, well scripted and well acted. All of us had great hopes that the program would find the audience it deserved on CBC Television.

Unfortunately, not enough television viewers shared our opinion. Throughout its season, jPod attracted a devoted, but very small following. And while it is true that, for a public broadcaster, audience size is not everything, you also cannot be a public broadcaster without a public. If too few Canadians are watching, we are irrelevant. And, if we are irrelevant, Canadians are right to ask why they are investing the money they do in CBC Television. In addition, the Internet is not a medium that pays for the kind of production values people expect on TV. Until the reality catches up with what people watch on line, it's difficult to justify.

More importantly, we believe we should and can produce on a regular basis quality Canadian programming that people watch in significant numbers. Audience size has an impact on CBC Television's commercial revenue in two directions: when we lose ground in viewership, we lose the means to produce or obtain excellent programs. In those situations we are forced to cut back our activity, and sometimes even cancel shows. If, however, we are able to build our audience numbers, the extra revenue goes right back onto the screen as more great Canadian programming.

I can appreciate your disappointment at losing this program. It was a difficult decision, and one made only after a great deal of consideration. Looking forward, we have what I believe are some very exciting new programs coming up on CBC Television in the next few months. I hope you will tell me what you think of them.

Again, thank you for taking the time to make me aware of your opinion.

Sincerely,

Kirstine Layfield
Executive DirectorNetwork ProgrammingCBC Television
Box 500, Station AToronto, ON M5W 1E6
416-205-3121 phone
416-205-6919 fax
layfield@cbc.ca

"the Internet is not a medium that pays for the kind of production values people expect on TV. Until the reality catches up with what people watch on line, you can't justify it."

WTF? What year does she think this is?

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