Search Results for: cbc

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Home Wi-Fi, smartphones, allow more Canadians to use TV and Internet together: MTM

OTTAWA – With mobile technology allowing Internet access in different ways, Canadians are increasingly using TV and the Internet simultaneously, says a new report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM). Multitasking – TV and the Internet examines how Anglophone Canadians use the Internet while they are watching television.  It found that three-quarters of Anglophones multitask online while they watch TV, more than three times the rate from a decade ago. Highlights from the report include: – Close to two-fifths of Anglophones are considered heavy multitaskers who report using the Internet “always” or “often” while watching TV; – Heavy multitaskers tend to be young, students, and… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

BANFF 2015: Why Irish eyes are smiling!

BANFF – Ireland (the republic), has a population of roughly 4.5 million folks, and yet it was one of the first countries to create a tax relief program for independent producers back in 1987. That original approach is now much like the U.K. tax credit scheme. Although it still retains a penchant for encouraging doctors and dentists to invest, an approach Canada found illusory and awkward in our salad days of tax credits, it has succeeded – the Canada-Ireland co-pro Vikings series being a powerful case in point. The show has won eight major awards and been nominated for another… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

CBC’s ‘Format Incubator’ seeks original, exportable television formats

TORONTO – CBC is teaming up with distributor Banijay International on a project designed to foster original factual format development in the independent production community in Canada. Format Incubator is on the hunt for new unscripted concepts that have strong domestic and international appeal, and break new ground in factual programming.  Canadian producers are invited to submit their original, non-derivative prime time unscripted formats in the following programming areas: – Field-based factual: These formats take people on a journey of knowledge; have interesting characters, strong narrative, stylistic production and editing, and a unique point of view. – Studio-based entertainment: For… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

RTDNA 2015: Why it’s hard to be head of news for a big broadcaster (and when news companies make the news)

TORONTO — Juggling the daily demands of directing one of Canada’s major national news organizations, while also overseeing a structural migration to digital and maintaining journalistic integrity in the face of internal and external attempts to influence editorial decisions, is keeping the country’s top news executives on their toes. The heads of the three major Canadian television news organizations (two of which are also the biggest radio operators) took part in a panel discussion Friday that kicked off RTDNA Canada’s annual conference in Toronto. The special “Bear Pit” panel, moderated by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien, featured a lively… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

BANFF 2015: TV Is Dead, Long Live TV!

BANFF – While it has certainly morphed, like the media it celebrates, The Banff World Media Fest remains the only gathering of its kind dedicated to the global business of television – particularly in the broadband era – and this 36th chapter opened with a touch of déjà vu all over again. The Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters lamented that the six major U.S. studios controlled 72% of the Canadian market, leaving only mince for Canadian independent distributors – and there was the expected echo of Canadian Media Production Association, and others, bemoaning that change had inflicted unkind… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

VMedia first to launch skinny basic

TORONTO – Broadband and IPTV provider VMedia will launch its new basic TV package, TheSkinny on Thursday, June 4, becoming the first broadcasting distribution undertaking (BDU) to offer Canadians the skinny basic package which the CRTC has demanded, as part of the Let’s Talk TV policy hearing, that carriers launch by March, 2016. TheSkinny costs $17.95, and has all the Canadian and U.S. over-the-air networks, such as CBC, CTV, Global, CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC and PBS, and other channels required to be included in basic packages. "From our launch VMedia has been all about providing more choice and flexibility… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

UPFRONT: Post-hockey CBC hits reset with diverse dramas, comedies

TORONTO – To stretch its programming dollars, the CBC has acquired a raft of UK and Australian dramas and comedies and aims to profit from upcoming Toronto Pan-Am games coverage during the rest of 2015. Despite huge, well-documented challenges, the creative minds at the CBC aren't ready to wave the broadcast white flag just yet. The CBC, previewing its fall 2015 season at its Toronto headquarters Thursday, unveiled 11 new original and acquired series and renewed another 14. That output comes in the face of the public broadcaster, already beset by budget cuts, this past season losing due… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Social networking part of daily life for most Canadians: MTM

OTTAWA – With social networking now one of the most popular online activities among Canadians, it is vital that industry experts understand what sites are the most popular, who is using them, and the way that the sites are being accessed, says a new report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM). Social Networking: Analysis of the English-Language Market examines the use of social networks amongst Anglophone Canadians, and delves into how they are being used to share content, meet new people, and to connect with brands. Highlights from the report include: – Canadians are hooked on social networking, with 82% of social networkers being avid daily users; -… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

IT’S A LONG LIST: Three years in, has any other CRTC chair created more work than Jean-Pierre Blais?

THIS MONTH’S CRTC DECISION TO regulate wholesale wireless roaming rates is just the latest in a long line of seminal processes and decisions which have come under the tenure of chairman Jean-Pierre Blais. Just about 60% the way through his five-year term, Blais has had to digest major developments in the industry, technology, and political environment—which is pushing for more competition and consumer rights – while dealing with an often-cranky TV and telecom executives trying to steer their ships through the same choppy waters. Here are many of the key CRTC developments since Blais, a lawyer and lifelong bureaucrat, was named the… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Election debates on major broadcasters to include opposition parties; Conservatives have yet to RSVP

OTTAWA – Canada’s federal opposition parties have agreed to participate in two debates on the major television networks, but it is unknown at this time if the federal Conservative Party will also join in. The Broadcast Consortium, made up of CBC News, ICI Radio-Canada Télé, CTV News and Global News, said Thursday that they reached agreement in principle with the New Democratic Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the Green Party of Canada, and the Bloc Quebecois to stage two debates, one in English and one in French, at the height of the 2015 federal election campaign. It also announced… Continue Reading