TORONTO – The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has chosen Canadian actor, humanitarian and activist Tina Keeper as its 2017 ACTRA National Woman of the Year.
The award is bestowed annually on an ACTRA member who uses her passion to support her fellow female ACTRA members and women within the audiovisual industry as a whole. Keeper (pictured) joins past recipients Shirley Douglas, Tantoo Cardinal, Sandi Ross, Mary Walsh, Jean Freeman, Amanda Tapping and Catherine Joell MacKinnon.
An active member of Canada's film and television industry for over 30 years, Keeper is well-known for her role as RCMP officer…
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We’re paying attention in all the wrong ways
Canada, we are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
On one hand, it’s never been easier for us to tell our stories and have them seen and heard by your neighbour next door and a stranger on the other side of the world. On the other, it’s never been so difficult, conflicting and costly to have our stories discovered by the audience who needs to see them most.
Discovery is broken in our digital age, and I believe Canada is in the best position to fix it.
How did we get here?
Yesterday’s gatekeepers…
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OTTAWA – A growing number of Canadians without paid TV subscriptions or antennas are still avid TV consumers thanks to the myriad online options, according to a new report from the Media Technology Monitor (MTM).
TV My Way: Analysis of the Canadian Market looks at Canadians who consume TV almost exclusively online, a group that the MTM has coined as “TV My Way.”
Highlights from the report include:
– While currently 20% of Canadians live without a paid linear TV service, 11% of the Canadian population falls into the TV MY Way (TMW) lifestyle, choosing the Internet to consume their TV content;
-…
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TORONTO – Digital radio streaming app Radioplayer Canada launched Wednesday, billed as a partnership between the country’s private radio broadcasters, CBC/Radio-Canada, and campus and community stations.
The free Radioplayer Canada app gives radio listeners access to nearly every style of music, news, talk, and entertainment content, in both official languages, on any connected device, at any time of day, from anywhere, reads the news release.
Listeners may access live and catch-up radio broadcasts across the country through Radioplayer Canada's browser-player, and on connected devices through the iOS or Android app, including integrations with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, Chromecast, and smartwatches.
CBC/Radio-Canada confirmed…
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TORONTO – A memo to CBC employees last week outlined some of the broadcaster’s plans to further automate its news production.
The memo, co-signed by CBC News general manager and editor in chief Jennifer McGuire and general manager, local services Fred Mattocks, expanded on last year’s initial announcement on the modernization project.
“Over the next year, all of News Network's daily programming in Toronto will adopt the Ross Overdrive automated production workflow and automated control rooms. The News Network evening program directed from Vancouver already uses an automated control room, and they too will adopt the new Ross Overdrive workflow. Power…
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Minister Joly says "timing was right"
GATINEAU, QC – Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly is sharing some of the input she received during her recent consultations on Canadian Content in a Digital World.
Based on feedback collected by Ipsos via the online portal, in-person events, social media discussions and mail and e-mail submissions, What We Heard Across Canada: Canadian Culture in a Digital World, released Tuesday, identified the following eight key themes and messages heard during the consultation:
– Showcasing Canada’s cultural sector: increased support for production of Canadian content as well as sustained efforts on marketing and communication will help underscore…
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TORONTO – With just under a year to go until the start of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, CBC & Radio-Canada Media Solutions has created a new integrated sports sales & marketing team in an effort to better serve its promotional partners and advertisers.
Led by Adam Mitchell in the new role of sports partnerships director, the team includes three dedicated sales reps: Rosemary Pereira (broadcast), Michael Miller (broadcast) and Stephanie Moraes (digital). Mitchell will report to Mary Kreuk, executive director multi-platform media sales & marketing.
In addition, Mark Thomas was promoted to senior team lead, sports marketing to oversee marketing team…
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WITH ITS SUPER BOWL SIMSUB decision, which finally came to pass Sunday of course, the CRTC decided that a relative few people complaining they couldn’t watch American ads (ads!) was more important than the promotion and funding of Canadian content.
The decision to set aside simultaneous substitution and, essentially, cause direct harm to Bell Media – the company which purchased the rights to the game in Canada – is a fundamental departure from what the Commission is supposed to do, which is promote, foster and enable the distribution of Canadian content and culture through the Canadian broadcasting system. It’s impossible…
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TORONTO – North American Broadcasters Association VP and former CBC/Radio-Canada exec John Lee is one of three new elected members of the World Broadcasting Unions technical committee (WBU-TC) for 2017-2018.
Lee (pictured) retired from the public broadcaster in December after serving most recently as executive director of technology solutions. He is also a vice-president of the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) and is chairman of NABA’s technical committee.
In addition to Lee, other members of the elected management team for the WBU-TC is Amal Punchihewa, ABU technical director (vice-chair), and EBU director of technology & innovation Simon Fell, who was elected…
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OTTAWA – There’s little doubt the digital sphere and alternative viewing platforms such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and others are changing the broadcast landscape. Broadcasters and programmers, though, say they aren’t shying away from the challenges, and instead are taking the long-view and experimenting with different types of content.
Some, such as Shaftesbury, are going digital first with niche content. It’s online-only Carmilla, a teen vampire LGTBQ focused program produced by its digital arm Smokebomb, has attracted about 53 million viewers over multiple platforms through its three seasons.
Christina Jennings, chair of the board and CEO at Shaftesbury, explained in the…
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