"IT'S NOT OUR FAULT" doesn’t work as an explanation with a group of Mexican-Canadian soccer fans who want to watch their team take on the imposing Germans, reigning world champions, in their own language.
The last time I spoke up on this issue here, my trepidation that we would be penalized turned out to be unfounded. Instead the fine people leading CBC Sports reached out and the result was an announcement reported here that CBC/Radio-Canada has named Telelatino Network Inc. (TLN) as an official licensed broadcaster for coverage of the Olympic Winter…
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BANFF – I know HitTV is a youth oriented television network in Kazakhstan, and that in Anglo-Canada, "hit TV" – as reflected in the ratings – is pretty much something else that comes from away.
Not (yet) near-Asia, but certainly from the U.S.A.
With incredible exceptions such as Vikings and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, rarely does an English-language Canadian TV show make the weekly top 10 in ratings.
Moreover, even through the 1950s, when the CBC had a virtual monopoly on our market, two-thirds of the primetime viewership was generated by American fare like Ed Sullivan, I Love Lucy and Father Knows…
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TORONTO – Journalist and broadcast executive Trina McQueen was inducted into the CBC News Hall of Fame Friday afternoon at an event that included speakers such as CTV News president Wendy Freeman, CBC News editor in chief Jennifer McGuire, CBC executive vice-president of English services Heather Conway and McQueen herself.
The CBC News Hall of Fame was established four years ago to honour individuals who have "demonstrated a lasting impact on the CBC and Canadian journalism”, and includes Knowlton Nash, Joe Schlesinger and Barbara Frum.
A trailblazer who was one of the most powerful women in Canadian TV, McQueen had a career of…
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THE PROBLEMS START WITH the title.
Harnessing Change (the report on the future of programming and its distribution in Canada) reflects a long history of Canadian governments and the CRTC sticking fingers in holes in the dike of broadcasting policy and regulation, to keep out invading hordes, while communications technologies undermine the dike's foundations — from without and from within — because Canadians have consistently been early, eager and rapid, adopters.
Little wonder that it was Canadian Marshall McLuhan who coined the phrase "the medium is the message": Communications media influence societies more than the content that…
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OTTAWA – The Federal Government has ordered a public inquiry into the alleged high-pressure sales tactics used by the country’s biggest telecommunication companies.
Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, said Thursday that the Feds have directed the CRTC to conduct the inquiry and ensure that “Canadians have an opportunity to be heard and these issues are carefully considered”. The Commission will have until February 28, 2019 to complete the inquiry and file a report that must contain potential solutions to ensure Canadian consumers are treated fairly.
The Minister Bains also asked the Competition Bureau to assist the…
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BANFF – The internet is terrifying enough to me as an adult dealing with its underbelly of malice, lies, trolls, and subterfuge.
For unknowing children it’s too often a madhouse of horrors running the gamut from inappropriate content, to lurking strangers, to personality theft, to terribly wounding comments, to outright predators. Some times these web injuries even lead to suicide.
Yet from the minute they’re born, young ones are now exposed to digital surroundings that will inevitably be their way of life and since the World Wide Web plays an increasing role in our children’s and grandchildren’s lives, how do…
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BANFF – Last year the new owners of the Banff World Media Festival arrived only just in time to snag the last few hotel vacancies.
But for 2018, Brunico Communications is placing a discernible stamp on this storied Canadian event. At the outset of the 39th annual edition much is being made of the new Diversity of Voices Initiative, a fresh commitment to nurture diverse creators – specifically francophones, Indigenous peoples, and women.
This year Banff welcomes 1500-plus delegates from more than 25 countries.
And a goodly number of them showed up as invited guests on Sunday morning…
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BANFF – Federal Heritage Minister Melanie Joly, as she has done for each of the last three years, delivered the opening keynote address at this year’s Banff World Media Festival and while in large part it was political self-congratulation for having reversed 10 years of cuts by the previous Conservative government, it was also an ample response to those in the industry who persist with the query, “what exactly has Joly done?”
Turns out she’s done a fair bit… not so much on substantive policy but quite a bit on the expenditure side.
Joly reminded delegates that last year at Banff…
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TORONTO – The second season of the CBC/Netflix original series Anne With An E will return to the public broadcaster on Sunday, September 23, but will stream outside of Canada on Netflix starting July 6.
The series, which has expanded to 10 episodes this season, will also be available to steam via the CBC TV app and cbc.ca/watch. The season 2 trailers were shared on social media Friday and are available here on Facebook and here on Twitter.
Inspired by the timeless Canadian novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, the second season will…
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GATINEAU – On the empirical side, unsurprisingly, data compiled and released today by the CRTC in response to a government request, show the slow decline of the popularity and revenues of traditional media.
But for the future, the report called Harnessing Change: The Future of Programming Distribution in Canada identifies four options available to the federal government as it mulls its promised overhauls of the Broadcasting Act and Telecommunications Act:
Status quo
Deregulate traditional players
Apply the existing regulatory approach to new players
Develop new, adaptable and innovative approaches which engage new players. This is the one the Report recommends.
“To ensure a vibrant domestic…
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