Ottawa: CBC's Richard Stursberg fired back at critics at the CFTPA Prime Time conference last month, defending the performance of CBC president Robert Rabinovitch within hours of presenting his own plan to revive the pubcaster with mainstream shows looking for big audiences.

"Since [Rabinovitch] has come [six years ago], English radio is stronger than it's ever been," Stursberg, EVP of CBC Television, told the press. "French radio is stronger than it's ever been. French television, which was in a death spiral, has completely recovered and has gained four to five share points - depending on which season you're talking about - and the share erosion that was going on for CBC English services was completely halted. He's done this in a circumstance where, over the last 15 years, the net amount of money coming from the government to CBC has gone down $400 million in real terms. That's an outstanding accomplishment."

The comment came in response to a press release issued by ACTRA and Friends of Canadian Broadcasting on Feb. 17, the final day of the producer powwow. The release, titled CBC Drops the Drama Ball, sharply criticizes both Stursberg and Rabinovitch for their recent cancellation of the scripted series Da Vinci's City Hall, This Is Wonderland and The Tournament.

It includes figures indicating that the pubcaster lagged behind CTV in terms of Canadian drama series aired between September 2003 and August 2005. According to the data, compiled by Canadian Media Research, CTV aired 219 hours worth of Canadian drama series, compared to 122 for the Ceeb.

"These numbers should embarrass CBC's management who appear to be ignoring CBC's mandate to showcase Canadian programs, especially in the powerful drama genre," writes Ian Morrison, spokesperson for lobby group FCB, in the release.

However, the same data also shows that when including primetime domestic movies, MOWs and comedy programs, the Ceeb comes out on top of CTV, 620 hours to 400. In terms of overall Canadian primetime programming, CBC wins hands down, 2,353 to 871.

Morrison describes last year's lockout of 5,000 CBC staff a "calculated decision" by management and calls on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to relinquish the government's power to appoint the CBC president and board members.

"CBC management is unaccountable for their poor performance because of Prime Ministerial patronage," says Morrison.

While the statement calls for change only in terms of how top CBC management is selected, ACTRA national executive director Stephen Waddell clarified its underlying point.

"[Heritage Minister Bev Oda] and the Conservative Party have been talking about reforming the CBC," Waddell told reporters at Prime Time. "This is an opportunity - a message to the government to replace Stursberg and Rabinovitch."

As for his bailiwick of English television, Stursberg acknowledged that a fix was needed. Since his arrival at the network more than a year ago, exec director of network programming Slawko Klymkiw was replaced with Kirstine Layfield and exec director of arts and entertainment Deborah Bernstein was shown the door.