Employees have been without contracts for more than a year, and CBC is also planning to recruit new staff on a contract basis rather than full-time.

The broadcaster says it will rely on the 10% of its employees who are not union members to maintain programming.

Local radio morning shows will be replaced by a single national show and TV news bulletins will be scaled down.

The lockout took place just after midnight on Monday after last-minute talks broke down.

The Canadian Media Guild says 30% of CBC's employees are already non-permanent, but the broadcaster insists that it needs more flexibility in its workforce.

Deadlock

The lockout does not affect Radio Canada International and CBC operations based in Quebec and Moncton, New Brunswick, because employees there belong to different unions.

The guild says the stoppage is the biggest ever disruption at the publicly-funded broadcaster.

TV news anchor Peter Mansbridge, who hosts the network's flagship programme The National, is among those who have been locked out.

"The truth is it is still going to be a reasonably interesting service, but it's not going to be the service we hoped to offer Canadians," Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of CBC Television, was quoted by Canadian daily Globe and Mail as saying.

CBC can rely on BBC World Service reports for coverage of international events.