The Ambition to Explore

The launch of a new streaming channel is offering Canada’s public broadcaster new data insights into their audience, whose behavior is changing rapidly.

In the latest episode of season three of the Making the Media Podcast, host Craig Wilson speaks with senior figures within the organization behind the recent launch of CBC News Explore.

In the episode, senior director of digital publishing and streaming, Andree Lau, and Michael Gruzuk, who is the head of CBC News Studios, discuss the strategy behind the move, the different style which the channel delivers, and the importance to CBC of reflecting all of Canada to their audience.

In the episode, Andree says that the data they are analyzing is critical to their future direction, “You can't argue data, it's black and white, you know. It points us to the direction. It connects us to the strategy, which then allows us to all talk openly about what the tactics are and why we're making these choices and why this is a priority. So I think that's another reason the data out of all of this is so important.”

CBC has moved from providing radio and TV services to delivering podcasts and online and social media content in addition to their traditional services. The new streaming channel is a FAST (i.e. free to air advertising supported TV) channel and has a more conversational style of presentation and unique content to appeal to new audiences.

But Michael remains concerned that the rapidly changing media landscape and the developing expectations of audiences of all ages means that many media organizations are struggling to keep up.

He says, “I worry a lot about meeting the needs of everyone as quickly as we can because they are sophisticated audiences. They are smart, and they are moving faster than sometimes we're able to inside.”

Find out more on the next episode of the Making the Media podcast, available on all major podcast platforms on Monday, February 6.

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