A new way for Canadian broadcasters to go direct-to-consumer
TORONTO – Roku is moving into ad-supported streaming in a big way with the launch today of The Roku Channel in Canada. The over-the-top streaming channel, which launched last September in the U.S., is targeted at cord-cutters looking for an easy way to find free movies, TV shows and more on the Roku platform.
Saratoga, California-based Roku expects the channel to be a hit with customers since it requires no subscriptions, fees or logins. It also will average about 30% less advertising per programming hour than conventional TV in Canada and won’t…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – CBC/Radio-Canada is taking steps to improve the inclusivity of its workplace culture through the addition of new internal programs as well as new metrics to monitor its diversity and inclusion track record.
The public broadcaster said that its online career section Working With Us now has details on employee initiatives and memberships with business networks like IndigenousLink, Catalyst, and SenseAbility in an effort to foster greater inclusiveness. It also detailed new initiatives such as Developing Emerging Leaders Program, unconscious bias…
Continue Reading
IT’S NO SECRET that the lack of readily available high-speed internet has long been a headache for people who live in rural Manitoba. “Lack of access to reliable high-speed internet is hurting economic growth in rural and remote areas,” the agricultural weekly The Western Producer reported in 2017 in an exposé called Out of Touch.
“Frustrated farmers, rural businesses and homeowners have said they have inadequate and expensive internet service…and for some producers without reliable data, the age of autonomous machines is stalled.” A 2016 study by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority…
Continue Reading
CE N’EST PAS UNE SURPRISE pour personne vivant au milieu rural: les difficultés d’accéder à une connexion internet à haut débit sont une casse-tête depuis longtemps. Les résidents et commerçants des communautés rurales au Manitoba en souffrent. “Le manque d’accès à une connexion internet rapide et fiable nuit à la croissance économique dans les communautés rurales et éloignées,” est-il écrit dans l’hebdo agriculturel The Western Producer, dans un exposé de 2017 intitulé “Out of Touch” (Hors Contact).
“Des fermiers, des entrepreneurs et des résidents en milieu rural ont dénoncé le service…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Total broadcasting revenues dropped 3.3% from 2016 to 2017 as television service providers (BDUs) posted negative growth for the third consecutive year, according to the CRTC’s statistical and financial results for the industry released Monday.
The Commission's 2017 Broadcasting Financial Summaries Highlights reported that overall BDU revenues dropped by 2.3% (or $202 million), falling from $8.74 billion in 2016 to $8.54 billion for the broadcast year ended August 31, 2017. IPTV revenues grew by over 10% to $2 billion in 2017, outperforming satellite for the first time since its introduction into the Canadian marketplace. Satellite (DTH) service providers…
Continue Reading
OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT promised a review of the Broadcasting and Telecommunication Acts in its 2017 budget and last week the CRTC took the first step down this path when it issued: Harnessing Change: The Future of Programming Distribution in Canada.
While it floated a number of interesting, innovative and controversial ideas, we’re all anxious to hear what Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly will have to say about it this weekend when she addresses the Banff International Media Fest. There, we hear she is likely to announce the appointment of a worthy and carefully chosen panel of experts to undertake a year-long project…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – CBC and Creative BC have struck a new funding partnership that will support the creation of short-form digital content developed by BC storytellers.
The two organizations will each contribute $150,000 to the new CBC + Creative BC Digital Production Fund, which aims to support the production of digital content from emerging creators, with a focus on “diverse talent” including female, Indigenous, and visible minority creators as well as creators with a disability. The fund aims for at least 50% of successful projects to be driven by female creators.
To be eligible, applicants must live in BC and…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Sportsnet will produce and televise over 150 English-language national hockey games throughout the 2018-19 NHL season across Hockey Night in Canada on Saturdays, Rogers Hometown Hockey on Sundays and Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey on Wednesdays.
The network is also the exclusive English-language Canadian home of the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic on January 1, 2019, the 2019 NHL All-Star Skills Competition and NHL All-Star Game on January 25 and 26, and the Coors Light NHL Stadium Series on February 23. Sportsnet’s national schedule also includes the 19th annual Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada on February 9, the 2019 Stanley…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – One in seven Canadians (13%) have pirated TV content or movies in the past month, and those without a paid TV service are twice as likely to engage in this behaviour, according to new research from the Media Technology Monitor (MTM).
Key topics this year, according to its free Sneak Peek report, include e-sports, pirating TV, early technology adopters, Francophones watching English content, and smart speakers. The MTM Sneak Peek Report is being offered as well as the English- and French-language Media and Technology Adoption Reports and the most recent spring 2018 data set, available…
Continue Reading
WE’VE HEARD LOADS OF discussion and debate since the official launch of the review of the Broadcasting Act – along with the Telecom and Radiocommunication Act – and with another year of discussion and debate on the horizon, the best first course of action to solve the tricky and complex policy challenges ahead is to ask (and answer) the right questions in the right order – and right now.
I’ve thought of five important questions which should be answered first, ahead of anything else. I’d argue much of the discussion around proposals such as combining the two Acts should come far…
Continue Reading
