Year in Review

Programming Highlights

French Services

More Distinctive: Delivering quality, innovative and engaging content

In 2014-2015, we continued our leadership in the Canadian French-language broadcasting market. In a rapidly changing multiplatform, multiscreen environment, we maintained focus on providing Francophones across the country with quality Canadian content, when and how they want it.

ICI Radio-Canada Télé saw a number of successful prime-time shows continue to draw average weekly audiences of over one million viewers.⁽¹⁾ The edgy Unité 9 did even better than last season, with an average of 2.1 million viewers.⁽¹⁾ And the comedic year-end review Bye Bye 2014 broke its own record set in 2013, with 3.94 million viewers tuning into ICI Radio-Canada Télé on New Year's Eve 2014.⁽¹⁾

ICI Radio-Canada Télé audiences can now access a host of original interactive offerings and web/mobile experiences tied into TV programs such as 30 vies (enhanced app with video), Les Parent (blogs posted by the series’ three kids), Les pêcheurs (humorous fishing e-zine for iPad), and Nouvelle adresse (iPhone and Android mobile app and webseries). Moreover, as part of Season 3 of Unité 9, 13 videos, providing a snapshot of life in Canada’s female prisons, were posted on ICI Radio-Canada.ca in January 2015.

News and Current Affairs continued its in-depth transformation, accelerating the shift to digital. Le téléjournal aired more exclusive content and feature segments, while strengthening its presence on digital platforms and social networks. A number of multiplatform initiatives were developed to explore topical social issues such as retirement, the middle class and oil prices. The News team also produced a range of original and innovative digital content (e.g. Jérusalem, une poudrière devenue religieuse, La maladie de Lyme – Un visiteur qui est là pour de bon, Montréal peut-elle s’inspirer de Philadelphie?). Finally, our special week dedicated to foreign correspondents in early January 2015 captivated audiences with multiplatform programming and multiple opportunities for interaction between viewers and our seasoned reporters.

With partnerships becoming even more essential to delivering the best possible content, we joined forces in October 2014 with FOX International Channels to enrich our lineup of National Geographic programming. The agreement will give ICI EXPLORA and the educational platform Curio.ca access to National Geographic’s catalogue. In March 2015, we pooled our expertise with ARTE France to coproduce and broadcast programming, exchange web content between our digital platforms, and provide exposure to each other’s film productions.

The efforts initiated in 2013 to keep our radio offerings fresh and relevant are continuing to pay off. Over the year, ICI Radio-Canada Première and ICI Musique achieved a combined audience share of 21.4%, coming close to matching the record from 2013 of 21.5% despite the persistent decrease in the French-language market’s overall listenership.⁽²⁾

Once again, we participated in several cultural events that received coverage on our various platforms. A couple of examples include: the 16th Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival (where ICI Radio-Canada Première and CBC Radio One staged the Série littéraire Radio-Canada / CBC Blue Literary Series for festival goers) and the 33rd Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois (where a new episode of Nouvelle adresse was previewed for audiences, followed by a panel discussion with the show’s production team on ICI Radio-Canada Première).

More Regional: Enhancing our presence

Our regional news teams covered the tragedies in Moncton, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ottawa so that audiences across Canada and around the world could follow developments as they were happening, proving once again the effectiveness of the multiplatform news production model adopted in regional centres.

Over the past year, our regional stations delivered comprehensive, innovative multiplatform coverage of the provincial elections in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick, as well as the municipal elections in Manitoba, Ontario and British Columbia. Our websites and mobile apps provided a variety of digital content, allowing users to get the most out of the election coverage, including access via a personalized interface and interactive results maps.

On Quebec Election Day, April 7, 2014, ICI Radio-Canada.ca recorded the highest traffic in its history, with nearly 1.2 million site visits, of which 34% came from a tablet or mobile device.⁽³⁾ In addition, the popular online Vote Compass, which allows voters to match their own priorities to those of the different parties, was used almost half a million times during the Quebec election campaign.⁽⁴⁾On May 27, 2014, the Toronto and Ottawa stations teamed up with TFO, Ontario’s French-language educational channel, to produce their first Ontario election debate in French.

Since fall 2014, we have started expanding our multiscreen offering in all regions by developing new regional websites that are fully accessible on mobile devices. Regional teams were behind the interactive web projects Le dernier voyage de l’Empress of Ireland en 20 questions, which became the worldwide go-to reference on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of this ship, and Mon enfant, mon héros - Un succès collectif, on young Canadians who had followed an unusual path. The ICI Manitoba team also produced its first webseries, Tire-toi une bûche, for the 46th annual Festival du Voyageur in Winnipeg.

Finally, we delivered multiplatform coverage of major sports and cultural events for the country’s Francophones, particularly those in minority-language communities, including the 2014 World Acadian Congress and the 2015 Rendez-vous de la Francophonie.

More Digital: Reaching our audiences on multiple platforms

Interactive web/mobile apps and original digital productions are key components of our digital strategy, and they earned respect in the industry in 2014-2015. At the 29th Prix Gémeaux, we garnered six awards for digital productions, including two for the apps developed for Océania on ICI EXPLORA, and Qu’est-ce qu’on mange pour souper? on ICI Radio-Canada Télé. The e-book Sur les traces de Kerouac, designed to provide companion content (photos, videos, etc.) for the radio series of the same name on ICI Radio-Canada Première, has now become a digital cultural product in its own right.

To help make our wide range of content more easily available, we are experimenting with new multiplatform distribution channels. Three all-new episodes from the winter 2015 season of Nouvelle adresse premiered on ICI Tou.tv in December 2014. Given the enthusiastic public response, each subsequent episode was also posted on ICI Tou.tv’s Extra service one week before its broadcast on ICI Radio-Canada Télé. In this same spirit of increased availability, our content licensing strategy is also evolving to reflect new audience consumption patterns. The approach is getting results – iTunes named Série noire the best French-language series of 2014.

ICI Tou.tv continued to enhance its free offerings with original, exclusive webseries. For example, on March 30 and 31, 2015, ICI Tou.tv streamed the first five video capsules (of a total 30) of season two of the hit series Camille raconte and the first six episodes of the new comedy 7$ par jour (of a total 12).

In specialty services, the ICI RDI all-news channel celebrated its 20th anniversary on January 1, 2015, with a series of specials. To get closer to audiences, RDI Économie partnered once again with École des sciences de la gestion de l’UQAM (ESG UQAM) to organize a special day and live broadcast on March 30, 2015, where Canadians could ask tax experts for advice on filling out their tax returns.

ICI ARTV’s multiplatform offering was strengthened with an eye to innovation. For instance, the popular shows ARTVstudio and C’est juste de la TV incorporated more exclusive web content, interactive features, online videos and more. In the summer, viewers were encouraged to watch the pilot of the new TV comedy show PaparaGilles on ICI.ARTV.ca and submit ideas for improving it before the official launch in the fall. Lastly, ICI ARTV continued to support the next generation of artistic talent by launching the series Rendez-vous (public art), Les contemporains (visual arts), and Danser!

Capitalizing on a rapidly growing subscriber base, ICI EXPLORA set out in 2014-2015 to expand its program offering and raise its profile in the market. To this end, in fall 2014, audiences were treated to three original new productions: Le monde de demain, Génie extrême and Planète techno. To promote them, the ICI EXPLORA team scheduled a “futuristic weekend” over Thanksgiving, airing four episodes in four nights of Le monde de demain and two episodes of Planète techno shot in Tokyo.

Once again, CBC/Radio-Canada was involved in celebrating Black History Month in February 2015. To highlight the occasion, the Radio Canada International (RCI) microsite RCInet.ca/histoiredesnoirs became a go-to destination for a wide range of multiplatform content. Over the past year, RCInet.ca also produced a number of in-depth features, including Finding Refuge in Canada and a blog on Cuba documenting the thaw in relations with the United States, which was updated by Radio-Canada’s foreign correspondents.

On February 25, 2015, RCI celebrated its 70th anniversary. After decades of broadcasting its content on shortwave and satellite, RCI began a digital transition in 2012 to become a multilingual web service (RCInet.ca is available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin). For this special anniversary, RCI invited audiences to share stories, anecdotes, photos, audio recordings and articles that spoke to the shift in RCI’s services, along with their role and relevance.

• (1) Source: Numeris (BBM Canada), Portable People Meter (PPM), Quebec Francophones, 2 years +.
• (2) Source: Numeris (BBM Canada), diaries, average of spring and fall 2014 surveys, Francophones, 12 years +.
• (3) Source: Adobe Omniture SiteCatalyst.
• (4) Source: ICI Radio-Canada.ca