By Sara Bannerman and Charnjot Shokar
FACEBOOK'S APOLOGY TOUR made a stop in Europe last week, but did little to soothe concerns about the threats that social media platforms pose to privacy and election integrity.
Compared to other regions like Europe that have proposed relatively robust measures, the Canadian response has been, so far, lacklustre.
The European Union’s tough new privacy laws came into effect last week. The United States government has introduced the Honest Ads Act to address social media election manipulation. Australia is investigating Google for tracking Android users’ location and web histories.
Meanwhile in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is reaching out to tech…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Bell Media set to cancel Discovery's Daily Planet next week after 23 seasons and Space's Innerspace after nine cycles, and the CBC ending its daytime lifestyle series The Goods marks no major retreat from in-house production, both broadcasters insist, only a practical acceptance they must move faster to check Netflix, Google and fast-expanding digital platforms.
Here, the shift from traditional TV to digital video, while certainly not happening quickly or seamlessly, does have Canadian broadcasters tackling production costs amid falling TV ad revenues and growing streaming competition. “This decision is part of CBC's ongoing redirection of programming budgets…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – RTDNA Canada recognized journalistic excellence over the weekend, announcing the winners of its Network RTDNA Awards of Excellence.
“With a record number of entries this year, the competition was as tough as ever and our valued judges presided over some truly remarkable submissions” said RTDNA Canada president Ian Koenigsfest, in the announcement. “The exceptionally high standard of entries from all regions and all market sizes indicates that quality of journalism continues to thrive in Canada. Winning an RTDNA Award of Excellence once again indicates the pinnacle of our craft on all platforms. Congratulations to everyone involved in producing…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Former Le Devoir exec Luce Julien is returning to Radio-Canada as executive director of news and current affairs to take over from the retiring Michel Cormier, the public broadcaster announced Friday.
Julien (pictured) spent 23 years working for Radio-Canada, where she headed up radio news, ICI RDI, as well as digital and multiplatform coverage before being named editor-in-chief of Le Devoir in February 2016.
She will work alongside Cormier during a transition period before officially taking the helm on July 31, becoming the first woman to hold the role.
"Known for her thoroughness and strong journalistic ethic, Luce has a keen…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Despite a spike in listening options, AM/FM radio continues to play a major role in the media consumption habits of Anglophone Canadians, says a new report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM).
Radio: Analysis of the Anglophone Market looks at Anglophones' use of AM/FM radio content on traditional receivers, consumption of satellite radio, and accessing radio content online.
Highlights from the report include:
– Nearly 9 in 10 Anglophones report listening to AM/FM radio;
– The majority of AM/FM radio stations now offer their content online, and Anglophones just over one fifth of Anglophones currently listen to AM/FM radio online;
– While many…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Five new Canadian scripted series will join the 2018-19 fall programming slate at CBC, including the reboot of ‘80s legal drama Street Legal, the public broadcaster announced Thursday.
Original Canadian programming will include drama, comedy, factual, arts, music, kids, sports, news and documentary programming across television, radio and digital platforms, the Corp added.
“CBC is thrilled to bring Canadians such a wide range of original programming produced by Canadian creators for Canadian audiences,” said EVP English Services Heather Conway, in the news release.
New CBC original Canadian series confirmed for the 2018-19 season include:
Cavendish – a comedy from the minds…
Continue Reading
HEATHER CONWAY, CBC EXECUTIVE vice-president, English Services, likes drinking from the Netflix co-production tap.
The pubcaster hit ratings gold with high-profile Netflix collaborations like Alias Grace and Anne as it grows its originals slate and on Thursday the CBC unveiled another upscale, internationally driven series co-produced with Netflix in Northern Rescue, which stars William Baldwin and Kathleen Robertson, for its 2018-19 schedule.
The way Conway tells it, a CBC steadily breaking free of its traditional linear TV moorings and floating in an expanding digital space atop its new OTT app has found offering homegrown property – or talent-driven content to Netflix,…
Continue Reading
YES, A MUST-CARRY TV license is not the lottery win it once was and yes, making a linear ethnic programming service in various languages work as a business within the Canadian TV system has always been a challenge which has only grown more difficult of late.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t people who think they can make a national ethnic TV channel work. In fact, including the incumbent, there are eight companies with some pretty bright ideas.
OMNI has long been the mainstream ethnic channel, serving up a mix of Italian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi and other programming over the…
Continue Reading
TORONTO and MONTREAL – A group of broadcasters along with the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) have filed a complaint against the Bell Fund pertaining to the guidelines of its new TV Program and the composition of its Board of Directors.
A not-for-profit organization founded in 1997, the Bell Fund invests in Canadian digital media and TV content and is certified by the CRTC as an independent production fund eligible to receive and administer contributions from broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs). It receives annual contributions of approximately $17 million from Bell TV as part of its BDU contributions.
Blue Ant Media, CBC/Radio-Canada, the…
Continue Reading
AS NETFLIX STRIVES TO keep pace with its monumental growth over the last decade, one aspect of the streaming giant’s success which took its leadership by surprise is how important original programming has become to its operations and success.
This, quite frankly, will be one of the primary challenges facing Canadian broadcasters (who are in California right now attending the LA screenings, where they will try to figure out whose American content is best to rent for this fall) in the next decade.
Just last month, Deloitte’s Duncan Stewart opined that by 2028, Netflix’s budget for content creation could be…
Continue Reading
