TORONTO – Heather Conway, CBC’s Executive Vice President English services, has announced her departure from the public broadcaster to pursue other opportunities, the company announced today.
She will remain in her role until December 7, 2018.
"Heather has been instrumental in spearheading CBC's digital transformation on all of our platforms and across all genres, helping us meet our goal of doubling our digital reach, two years ahead of schedule," said Catherine Tait, president and CEO, in the release announcing the departure. "She has been passionate about reflecting Canadian diversity in our content, ensuring that it is more distinctly and identifiably Canadian.”
Prior…
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OTTAWA – The final segment of the 16th Annual Conference of the International Institute of Communications, held in Ottawa on October 31st and November 1st, was unusually staged with the chair of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel (BTLR), Janet Yale, at a lectern on the right-hand side of the stage and moderator Lawson Hunter, senior counsel, Stikeman Elliott and a legend in the regulatory realm on the left lectern.
The remaining six members of the expert panel, Hank Intven, Monique Simard, Monica Song and Pierre Trudel, Marina Pavlović and Peter Grant were seated on high chairs between these…
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When U.S. studios go direct to consumer, will anything be left of the Canadian TV industry?
I HAVE A Plan A, and a Plan B.
Plan A is a solid, workable, and absolutely necessary approach. One I and others have been advocating for almost 20 years.
Unfortunately, I am very much afraid that it is now too late. By the time the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review (BTLR) Panel presents its interim report (due June 2019), and then we have an election, and then the Final Report is delivered at the end of January 2020, and then assessed by a new government,…
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OTTAWA – Jack Nagler, currently CBC’s senior director of journalism (public accountability and engagement), has been appointed as the public broadcaster’s new English Services ombudsperson.
Current CBC ombudsperson Esther Enkin, who has held the role since 2012, will stay on until her retirement at the end of December.
Completely independent of program staff, the ombudsperson reports directly to the Corp’s board of directors through the president and CEO, and handles complaints from members of the public who are not satisfied with the response they receive from the news department. CBC has two: one for English Services and one for French Services,…
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OTTAWA – With ad dollars and attention moving away from traditional media outlets to the subjects everyone knows and frets about (Google, Facebook, et al) and with those same platforms being used to spread lies and hate and disinformation, it’s time to put away the brickbats directed at the CBC and instead pull together, said the public broadcaster’s CEO Catherine Tait.
“Canadian media companies are struggling. Advertisers are increasingly moving their ad dollars to Google and Facebook. Newspapers are folding and broadcasters have had to reduce local news operations,” she said in her Wednesday keynote address to the International Institute…
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OTTAWA – At the International Institute of Communications (IIC), 16th annual Canadian conference Wednesday morning, we quickly got into the heart of the matter with two panel discussions to tackle the Review of Canada’s Broadcasting and Telecommunications Acts.
Two bi-lingual panels of four people each got to have their kicks at the can for almost three hours to offer their points of view, perspectives on how the two Acts needs to change.
To structure the debate, the moderators (Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien and University du Québec à Montréal professor Catalina Briceño) suggested that participants outline what they would definitely…
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RCMP AND A CBC MARKETPLACE INVESTIGATION are being credited with helping to tip off Indian police to illegal call centres accused of targeting Canadians with the so-called CRA scam.
The CRA scam typically begins with a robocall from a spoofed number that claims to be the Canadian Revenue Agency. The calls tell the recipient that they owe taxes, and ask that they call back or face arrest and imprisonment. Those who call back are offered the chance to pay to settle the matter, often by BitCoins, gift cards or prepaid credit cards.
According to a CBC report, the call centre…
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OTTAWA – The majority of Canadians are concerned about fake news, especially with regards to upcoming elections, and continue to put the most trust in traditional, mainstream media, says new research from the Media Technology Monitor (MTM).
Information Disorder – Fake News & Trust: Analysis of the Canadian Market delves into the issue of fake news, traditional vs. new platforms, and potential impacts for the upcoming Federal election. The results are based on a Spring 2018 mixed-methodology survey (telephone and follow-up online surveys) of 4,100 Canadian respondents across the country.
Highlights from the report include:
– Three-quarters of Canadians indicated…
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The TV tax battle
By Phil Lind with Robert Brehl
FEW THINGS GET ME SEETHING like the Canadian television networks’ attempted fee-for-carriage cash grab, the so-called “TV tax.” After everything cable did to increase their TV licences’ value over the years, in 2006 the broadcasters ignited a six-year battle to get us to pay them for carrying their signals. It went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and they came very close to winning.
Just writing this raises my hackles. Ken Engelhart and Jan Innes would joke that fee-for-carriage was my “Wullerton.” I had no idea what they meant…
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TORONTO – CBC is serving up a new podcast that promises listeners a deeper understanding of the news of the day, from a distinctly Canadian perspective.
Hosted by award-winning investigative journalist Jayme Poisson, CBC News: Front Burner is available to download daily from Monday to Friday at 6:00 AM ET. The first episode is available now on the CBC Radio app, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
“Jayme and Front Burner will build on CBC’s success as Canada’s leading podcaster to provide focus and depth to the stories shaping our country and the world each day, asking questions from a Canadian…
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