TVO: The Mid-term

Here's some of the Star's coverage on yesterday's announcements regarding TVOntario.

This is the lede of our main story by Robert Benzie and Steve Rennie:

The Ontario government is modernizing and revamping TVOntario, but the spectre of advertising now looms over the province's public broadcaster.

And this is from my pulpware column:

Despite all the hoopla yesterday, it's still not clear what the future holds for TVOntario, its employees or its viewers.

One thing did emerge: $25.4 million over two years to digitize a network, get into "multi-platform'' distribution, retrain staff and overhaul programming — all by September 2007 — is not a lot of money.

PBS, for example, is spending some $1.2 billion (U.S.) to go digital. It can cost a single local station $2 million (again, U.S.) to digitize its transmission.

Considering that TVO is already cash-strapped — limping along on a $45 million base operating grant from taxpayers and another $7 or $8 million from members — much is expected from so little.

So little in fact that, in many ways, I think TVO will be worse off than it is now.

Oh, and by the way, I am hearing that although the Liberal government-appointed TVO CEO Lisa de Wilde is the one stickhandling this ''strategic review,'' it really began under the Conservative-appointed (and Ernie Eves lady) Isabel Bassett's aegis. As someone put it to me, "It was Isabel's vision.''

Well, I am glad somebosy had vision because most TVO staffers -- including its uppermost programmers -- were kept completely in the dark.

Which brings me to this from my column:

But why cancel Studio 2, the flagship current affairs show, especially when its ratings have never been better?

It reaches about 1 million viewers a week and attracts a four or five per cent share of the adult (over 35) audience every night at 8 p.m., a very competitive time slot.

Exec producer Doug Grant said he learned the show's fate from reading my blog — then was fired at 10:30 a.m. yesterday.

"There was so little communication,'' he says of the entire "strategic review.''

"It comes as a shock. But on the other hand we had a good run."

Studio 2 will be replaced by The Agenda, to be hosted by Studio 2's Steve Paikin.

"The Agenda will be a more focused current affairs show," said de Wilde. "It will be providing more in-depth analysis. More in-depth interviews. More debates. More panels. It will be out in the community more."

All of which caught Paikin's soon-to-be-former co-host, Paula Todd, who met and married Grant at Studio 2, by surprise.

"There are so many young journalists here; I am trying not to cry in front of them," she told me. "I feel unbelievably grateful to still have (the interview show) Person 2 Person. So I am not complaining. I am much more worried about other people. Everybody's crying.''

It's still puzzling as to why the show was cancelled since there is nothing about it that is inconsistent with the new mandate. In fact, at yesterday's all-staff meeting with de Wilde, the first she ever held, one courageous Studio 2er asked why the show was being axed. (And by the way, I think rumours of government interference because the show wasn't pro-McGuinty enough are a lot of hooey.) Why not just tweak it a bit to make it more about citizenship and less about arts or business?

Here's what I am hearing, and it makes for an interesting theory. After Paikin gained national prominence for his cool and deft moderation of the party leaders debate during last winter's federal election, he was able to write his own ticket. Offers were pouring in. The choice for de Wilde was simple: lose the rising star Paikin or lose Studio 2. Indeed, the timing of the development of The Agenda -- as well de Wilde's absence from the Studio 2 premises -- all kind of coincides with the afterglow of Paikin's star turn during the election debate.

Anyway, this whole strategic review thingie raises more questions than it answers. TVO staffers will be having smaller meetings today where they're supposed to get answers. But, if I were them, I wouldn't be holding my breath. It's going to be a long summer.

Comments

[talk talk talk]

Are you suggesting that Paikin wanted to be sole host and his price for staying was to get rid of Todd as co-host? Or you are you saying that the only way TVO could afford Paikin was to fire Todd as co-host and add her salary onto his?

[Antonia Z.]

Listen, it could be anything regarding Paikin. He's very good at his job, very well-connected politically. His boss was his co-host's husband. Having had a co-host myself on Newsworld's Inside Media, who knows what problems there might have been? Who was he to turn to?

At this point, it's all speculation, as I said.

Nope. You're wrong I have known Steve and Paula for years. The commraderie you see on air was real. They were friends both on and off the set. But Steve loves face time and never likes to share so it was inevitable that as soon as he got the chance he'd grab everything. As for problems there was always a solution. Todd didn't work for her husband, she reports to and is managed by a different Supervisor. They really didn't have any problems. I having worked with many, theirs was the best relationship I have ever seen. Please withhold my name I would like to keep working.

Nope. You're wrong I known Steve and Paula for years. The commraderie you see on air was real. They were friends both on and off the set. But Steve loves face time and never likes to share so it was inevitable that as soon as he got the chance he'd grab everything. As for problems there was always a solution. Todd didn't work for her husband, she reports to and is managed by a different Supervisor. They really didn't have any problems. I having worked with many, theirs was the best relationship I have ever seen. Please withhold my name I would like to keep working.

Those of us who've worked with husband-wife teams know that it's never easy. And that's probably all there is to say on the subject.

All shows eventually come to an end (hell, even Front Page Challenge did), but certainly TVO management handled this in uniquely graceless fashion.

As for the rest of the changes, it's bloody well about time. TVO's cameras really are 20 years old and held together with chewing gum and tape. There's been talk of new ones for years, but not surprisingly it somehow never happened. And like all broadcasters, TVO has to get ready for HD and digital delivery.

Just watch, though. There will be lots of second-guessing and arguments, and they'll buy the wrong gear. It's happened before.

Funny to hear CEP/NABET cheering this on. For years and years, they've been the biggest brake on creativity at TVO. Want to see union mentality? Just visit TVO's second floor. Forget about training, at least half of them need to be pensioned off.

[Lloyd Fister]

I wouldn't put it past the McGuinty crowd. With them, everything is political. Everything is about the next election. The less people think about Ontario provincial issues, the easier it will be for them to sleepwalk back to power.

So - let me get this straight Lloyd.
You would want Dalton and the Gang to go to sleep at the wheel so that Johnny Tory can don his white hat and rescue TVO all over again - just like Isobel Bassett did?

In response to the comment about the second floor on tvo: Hello there ! I am one of those so-called "brakes on creativity" that you so boldly call out in your otherwise accurate discription of the situation at tvo. Do you wish to elabourate ? Surely, you can't be referring to the number of second floor post production personnel who regularly strive to infuse incoming material with, dare I say it, their own mark of creativity; often within tight very budgets and timelines.

I am talking about the union mentality that grips the NABET unit at TVO. I thought I'd seen the worst of it at CBC, but TVO was actually worse. There are definitely exceptions, but in my experience, far too many people at TVO wouldn't last 5 minutes on the outside. I'm talking about people who didn't raise a finger to educate themselves about non-linear editing in the almost ten years that TVO waited while EVERY other broadcaster switched over. I'm talking about people who care more about getting their smoke break, coffee break and a full-hour lunch break (remember, travel time doesn't count!) than about getting the story. I'm talking about people who get to keep their jobs despite repeated inappropriate behaviour and professional incompetence. And then of course there are managers and bean counters who waste thousands of dollars while enforcing rules that save pennies.

Tight budgets and timelines? The independent sector has tight budgets and timelines. You have no idea.

[Ivan Prokopchuk]

Studio 2:

Why did they fix it when it wasn't broke?
Studio 2 was a perfect model for any kind of journalism and Alan Gregg had people on tht truly had some ideas.
Remember when TVO was "Chalkdust" with all the inanities and teacher-speak of such time-wasting program's?
Studio 2 will probably be replaced by another show that will reinforce our society's propaganda, instead of questions posed as to where all that propaganda is comeing from. Studio 2 was good at that.

Mark my word. TVO will now become so watered down, you may as well take an online course through a community college. Like maybe Bee Keeping?

[Bill-Muskoka]

Anon,

'who didn't raise a finger to educate themselves about non-linear editing in the almost ten years that TVO waited while EVERY other broadcaster switched over.'

BINGO! The best thing that has ever happened to editing was NON-LINEAR digital!

No more AVID, Razor Pro, etc., and no more endless waits for 2400's and 2800's to sync up to bad cues! Not to mention no more degradation of the image or sound quality!

What? What is that still small voice in the distance? HDTV and 5-channel? Not there, not without moderinzation!

I can do far more today, without all the BS TBC cards, switchers, digital editors, etc., and expensive apps than 10 years ago, and it is perfect.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Ivan,

'Like maybe Bee Keeping?'

Are they offering a course in something useful like 'Proper post piercing sanitation', "Post tatoo sterility care', or CPC 'Careful Prepartion of Condoms'?

[Ivan Prokopchuk]

Ah, Bill:
Pulling an old chesnut out of the Fifties, it all sounds pretty safe to me.
I recall very nearly getting getting fired over a headline and story I wrote for the old North York Mirror, titled, "Is it safe to sell sex for safety?"
That and "Willowdale Driver Blows Gearbox at Harwood."
That last headline ended my career as a sports writer, but not before the Mirror gave me a glowing review of of my Black Icon novel.
My ex-wife used to tell me I was the Girl With the Curl.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Ivan,

'"Willowdale Driver Blows Gearbox at Harwood."'

That's as bad as the terrorist who tried to blow up a school bus and burnt his lips on the tailpipe, eh?

Some people just do not grasp physics! LMAO!

[sooey]

wow, ivan and bill - you guys should do ad headlines for the back pages of the star...

[Ivan Prokopchuk]

That's okay, Bill.
Only recently have I gotten my tongue off the cold Frost fencepost.
To get back on topic: What's with all this Brit serial detective stuff on TVO?
Fair quality, but it's still foreign content.
Rosemary and Thyme can be had for a farthing?
Is that why Canadian dramatists starve?

[Sony 800]

EVERY other broadcaster has switched to non linear? I'm sure the good people in the editing department at Global would be surprised by that one. They are still using the state of the art 1970s technology bought in the early eighties. City also still uses tape to tape.

Global and City both have AVIDs that are used for magazine shows, etc. Don't know about the nightly news.

[Ivan Prokopchuk]

Sooey:
What do you mean,jellybean?
Bill and I are so cool that even our golfish travel in seminars.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Anonymous,

Long may the A/B rolls roll, eh? LOL

[Golem]

I think Paula Todd's Person 2 Person (P2P) should have been cancelled too. Paula cynically uses her sob-story guests for self-promotion, including her P2P based book. If P2P were axed, it would be interesting to see her sob-story interview of herself on the last episode of P2P.

[Donald Blair]

I do not support the decision to axe Studio 2, or VOX.

I understand the direction the provincial government (who I do NOT support) but there's no reason why the Agenda and Studio 2 could not have co-existed.

Studio 2 is a great as far as content is concerned (real brain-food from TV if you ask me) and gets excellent ratings.

It is very disappointing.

Donald

[Ruth Cohen]

"On June 29, 2006, TVO announced the cancellation of Studio 2. Steve Paikin will host a new show The Agenda alone in the fall. Todd will continue to host Person to Person but will not be part of The Agenda." (from Zerbisias)

When this wanton act of contempt for the Studio 2 audience occurred, I was perturbed enough to want to waarn the perpetrators that the audience is not pleased.

Unfortunately I was pretty much out of it as a result of a bad fall which kept me from investigating this troubling turn of events for several months.

Now that I am better, I want to find out what on earth the people who started to mess with TVO in this bureaucratic manner were thinking when they decided to axe the most stellar program on TVO. At first there were even rumours that there would also be bureaucratic interference with other programs such as the film program and I began to wonder too how long Big Ideas would last on the weekend.

Such moves are very familiar to anyone who has lived through similar cockamamy decisions which are still threatening CBC Radio, all apparently in an attempt to reach some sort of lowest common denominator or save money, or God knows why.

I have not been able to find any hint at all of Paula Todd these days, and I would like to know where she has been shelved. Let's have the real story. While Steve Paiken is undoubtedly the best moderator in the world etc. and perhaps believes that he deserves to have his unique star quality recognized on his own, he may one day realize that this disgraceful move has not enhanced but rather hurt his career.