CMG staff representative Glenn Gray met with the CBC’s Brett Abram and Mary-Beth Cronin today to discuss the Corporation’s plans for television archive sales.

The CBC’s representatives said that they were operating under the premise “We have a gold mine and how do we let the world know it?”. They went on to confirm that BBC representatives are looking at the archive sales operation so that they can develop a proposal. CBC assured the Guild that no job losses would result from any deal. The objective is to implement any change as of summer 2006.

The Guild pointed out that the International Sales department already exists for the purpose of marketing programs internationally and asked why CBC would not look at using it as the solution. CBC responded that this was considered.

The Guild has expressed concern about the department’s flexibility to assist budding Canadian filmmakers. The Corporation acknowledged that there are issues that will still have to be addressed.

For further information please contact Glenn Gray at glenn@cmg.ca or call 1-800-465-4149 or 416-591-5333.