Regulatory, Telecom & Media News – Tait defends CBC/Radio-Canada ‘bonus structure’ before Heritage committee

Rogers Sports & Media (RSM) has released its annual Women in Production Action Plan for 2023. In the 2022-23 broadcast year, 51% of key creative, editorial, and decision-making roles in Rogers in-house programming were held by women with RSM maintaining over 50% representation of women in those key roles for the last four reporting years (2020-23), an increase from the 48% reported in its original Action Plan. RSM says while independent production represents a very small portion of its overall programming investment, within those productions, 42% of key creative roles were held by women in the 2022-23 broadcast year, representing a 4% increase from last year and a 15% increase since its first report was published in 2020. 

CBC/Radio-Canada President Catherine Tait defended the public broadcaster’s so-called “bonus structure” at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage this week. “For the record, CBC/Radio-Canada does not award so-called ‘bonuses,’ Tait asserted in her opening statement to the committee. “What we have — like every other Crown Corporation — is ‘at-risk’ or performance pay, which is a key part of the total compensation of our non-union staff, about 1,140 employees…This ‘at-risk’ portion of the overall compensation is held back until the end of the fiscal year and it is calculated based on the individual’s performance (30 per cent) and the Corporation’s performance (70 per cent).” Tait also outlined the challenges of facing a $125 budget shortfall for the next fiscal year that will result in the need to cut approximately 800 positions and $40 million in independent production spending.

Global BC has undertaken a sociological experiment that saw its male and female anchors repeat the same outfit for a week. While the male anchors wearing the same suit over the course of a week elicited zero viewer responses, the female anchors were the source of countless emails about their repeated wardrobe choices. Anchor Sophie Lui acknowledges that most of the comments were more curious than negative.