CBC revealed its fall lineup today and it’s putting most of its eggs into the Canadian dramatic series basket.

The network announced its plans to increase the hours devoted to Canuck drama by 50% while increasing comedy hours by 10%. The big push is to place its predicted heavy-hitter dramatic titles during the Sunday and Monday night timeslots.

In dramas, CBC will debut Da Vinci’s City Hall, about a Vancouver coroner-turned-politician, starring Nicholas Campbell, while new comedies include a new stop-motion animation half-series called What It’s Like Being Alone and a new comedy special dubbed Comedy Gold. As well, mini-series abound – mainly biopics including Trudeau, Pierre Elliott, the prequel to hit mini-series Trudeau and yet another on René Lévesque, the former Quebec premier who has been billed one of Canada’s most controversial figures.

During today’s briefing session, execs at CBC said they are pushing to expand partnerships for promotions, which will hopefully be in place by September. ‘We’re making our promotions less cookie-cutter and much more tailored to the individual project,’ explains Richard Stursberg, EVP. ‘And we’re spending a lot of time on research. [Last fall] we set up tracking arrangements called the Fully Integrated Attitudinal Survey, which is a rolling panel of viewers that allows us to track the visibility of our programming and the efficiency of our ads. ‘

Stursberg goes on to explain that the network is liaising with advertisers to do more novel promotions, citing the success of the partnership between KIA and The Tournament, as well as the marriage between Lise Watier Cosmetics and Fashion File. He also says that there will be higher commercial availability on www.cbc.ca beginning the end of July.

He adds: ‘We’re looking at smarter ways to manage our PR and publicity. We’ve outsourced our publicity to Media Profile. And this will make us lighter on our feet.’