TORONTO – Online payment processor PayPal has yanked its service from a Canadian company that helps viewers north of the border to watch U.S. Netflix.
According to a CBC News report, Paypal severed its payment processing agreement with Toronto-based UnoTelly last Thursday after indicating that UnoTelly “is not allowed to provide services that enable open and unrestricted internet access”.
UnoTelly is one of many companies that offer privacy technology that prevents online services such as Netflix or Hulu from determining what country they're really visiting from. The company’s services are also available to customers in countries such as the…
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OTTAWA – There can be little doubt that digital platforms and their subscription-based business models are having an impact on traditional television, but a group of Canadian media leaders argued that the future of TV is going to be a mix of digital and conventional, supported by a pure advertising-based model or one that combines advertising and subscriptions.
“The future is not ad-free. From our point of view that’s a key piece of the content monetization puzzle,” said Barbara Williams, president of Shaw Media, and executive VP of broadcasting. “There will be subscription models, there will be some advertising models,…
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TORONTO – CBC/Radio-Canada has named Alex Johnston as its new VP of strategy and public affairs (S&PA).
Johnston, pictured, joins the public broadcaster from Catalyst Canada where she was executive director. She also served as executive director of policy in the office of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty for eight years and has practiced corporate law at Goodmans LLP.
“Alex is a big thinker, and her energy and enthusiasm are what the public broadcaster needs as it builds its future and continues its transformation through Strategy 2020”, said president and CEO Hubert Lacroix, in a note to employees. “What’s more, she values strong…
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TORONTO – The CBC in recent years has gone from comfort food like Heartland and Battle of the Blades to high-concept shows like Strange Empire and X Company, now in its second season.
But the pubcaster's biggest audiences are coming from comedies like Schitt's Creek and Mr. D. So the CBC, with a dominant Netflix Canada in mind, is making good on its promise to push into more edgy, character-driven programming that can compete on the same turf as premium cable and SVODs.
Cartt.ca spoke to newly-hired CBC scripted programming boss Tara Ellis and creators and producers…
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OTTAWA – The Westin Hotel will play host to over 600 people from feature film, television, interactive media, broadcasting and telecommunications industries during the Canadian Media Production Association’s Prime Time conference, beginning Thursday morning.
CMPA CEO Reynolds Mastin kicks things off at breakfast, followed by morning keynoter John Penney, Chief Strategy Officer, Starz.
Other notable speakers over the next two days include Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly, the CBC’s Heather Conway, Shaw Media’s Barbara Williams, Bell Media’s Tracey Pearce, DHX Media’s Steven Denure, Freemantle Media’s Jens Richter, Shaftsbury’s Christina Jennings, and many others.
Sessions on advertising, branding, partnerships, international success stories,…
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TORONTO – CBC has unveiled a pilot project designed to make Canadian public radio available to the estimated 1-3 million deaf and hard-of-hearing Canadians.
With the help of a grant from the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund, CBC will make text transcripts of CBC Radio One’s The Current available to the public on CBC.ca on a daily basis, and will film, edit and post one American Sign Language (ASL) interpreted radio documentary from the program on CBC.ca each month, starting this week.
Hosted by veteran journalist Anna Maria Tremonti, CBC’s award-winning radio program The Current…
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GATINEAU – CBC told the CRTC on Friday that if it decides there should be a fund dedicated to supporting local news production in the Canada, then it should only open it to broadcasters which commit to produce additional news programming.
The Commission has been exploring the concept of a Local News Incentive Fund (LNIF) during local and community TV hearing and the idea has been endorsed in various forms by many intervenors.
“The purpose of the LNIF would be to provide incentive funding for incremental expenditure on and exhibition of local news programming beyond a specified threshold,” Bev Kirshenblatt (pictured),…
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GATINEAU – Many parties to the CRTC’s local and community TV consultation have proposed funding approaches (each with their own acronyms we’re having trouble keep track of) which could financially support these struggling services. Rogers Communications Inc. has now joined them, unveiling its own approach to a local programming fund.
In its appearance before the Commission on Thursday, the media and communications giant argued while it still prefers its original proposal calling for greater flexibility to move local programming funds from larger to smaller markets, it offered up another model that it says is workable and would provide financial benefits…
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OTTAWA – Radio Canada veteran Guy Gendron has been appointed CBC/Radio-Canada’s French Services ombudsman, effective March 8, 2016.
Gendron (pictured) is replacing the retiring Pierre Tourangeau who will stay on until March 31. Gendron brings over 30 years of journalistic experience at Radio-Canada to the role of ombudsman, including experience as a local and national reporter, foreign correspondent, parliamentary correspondent, investigative reporter, interviewer, anchor, and chief editor. He worked on Enquête, Enjeux and Zone libre, and hosted Tout le monde en parlait before going on to become chief editor of Le téléjournal 22 h and Les coulisses du pouvoir.
Completely independent…
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OTTAWA – The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund will award $723,500 in grants to seven projects designed to advance accessibility to broadcasting content for Canadians with disabilities.
The projects represent the first ever selected by the Board of Directors for grant awards. The inaugural recipients are:
– Accessible Media Production Course, Mohawk College: $80,000 – Student journalists will receive mandatory, intensive training in producing content that is accessible across all media platforms.
– Making CBC Radio Accessible, CBC: $62,000 – New speech-to-text conversion technology will be used to post daily transcripts of CBC’s award-winning radio program The Current to CBC.ca. The Current reaches some 2.3 million Canadians each…
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