TORONTO – Veteran CBC broadcaster Knowlton Nash passed away Saturday night at the age of 86 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease more than a decade ago.
Best known as the long-time anchor of The National, Nash spent 37 years at the public broadcaster. CBC's chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge followed in Nash's footsteps, assuming the anchor role for The National back in 1992.
"Knowlton was unquestionably a giant of Canadian journalism but he was so much more to so many”, Mansbridge said in a statement issued by CBC. “To his colleagues he was a true friend and a valued mentor, and to…
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OTTAWA – Friends of Canadian Broadcasting (FCB) has launched a new social media campaign designed to head off a new round of programming and service cuts at CBC.
According to the self-proclaimed independent watchdog of Canadian programming, CBC executives will present a plan to the board on June 17 and 18 that will recommend pulling the plug on CBC Radio 2 in favour of distributing music exclusively online, and propose further cuts to CBC TV’s primetime and children’s programming. FCB credits unnamed sources within the CBC for the information.
The campaign, called ‘Free the CBC’, is highlighted by a satirical video that…
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TORONTO – Channel Zero-owned CHCH is gearing up to offer Southern Ontario viewers extensive on air and online coverage of the upcoming provincial election.
The channel will air the Ontario Leaders’ Debate on June 3 from 8:00-9:30 PM ET commercial free, providing viewers with an alternate timeslot to the currently scheduled 6:30 PM slot on CBC, CTV and Global. The Leaders’ Debate will be followed by Your Home Your Vote: The Leaders’ Debate, a 30-minute CHCH exclusive post-analysis.
Election Night coverage will begin at 8:00 PM ET on June 12 and include up-to-the-minute news from across the province with reduced commercial breaks,…
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OTTAWA – The Copyright Board of Canada has set the royalties that Internet music streaming services must pay for their use of sound recordings between2009 to 2012, an amount estimated at close to $500,000 per year.
Friday’s decision authorizes Canadian collective society Re:Sound Music Licensing Company to collect the royalties payable under Tariff 8 and distribute them equally (50/50) between performers (singers, musicians) and makers (record labels).
The tariff rate for commercial webcasters was set at 10.2 cents per 1,000 plays, which according to Board estimates, means that a large music streaming service with annual revenues of about $130,000 will…
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TORONTO – With a number of provincial and municipal elections scheduled for this year, Canada’s biggest news organizations have laid down the law on the use of their footage in political ads.
In an open letter dated April 22, representatives from CBC, Radio-Canada, Bell Media, Shaw Media and Rogers Media forbade the use of their respective content in political advertisements without their express consent.
“Accordingly, in anticipation of the upcoming elections, we wish to advise that effective immediately our organizations will not accept any political advertisement which uses our content without our express authorization”, continues the letter. “Additionally, we will not…
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IT IS UP TO CEO HUBERT LACROIX to show whether he believes it is his good fortune – or his utter misfortune – to lead the CBC at this point in time. Despite all the talk about a new, five-year strategic plan to get to 2020 and a silly new “conversation” with Canadians he announced Monday, Lacroix must know already what he wants, and must, do. And, is it ever going to hurt. The changes that must be made to the CBC will run far deeper, and wider, than the 650 layoffs which were announced last month.
It will alter…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – Canadian local television stations saw profits plunge in 2013, according to the CRTC’s latest statistical and financial report for this sector released Tuesday.
According to the report Conventional Television – Statistical and Financial Summaries 2009-2013, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) for private local TV stations dropped from $22.9 million in 2012 to -$2.3 million, and the PBIT margin decreased from 1.1% to -0.1%.
Revenues dropped by 4.6% from $2.04 billion last year to $1.94 billion for the broadcast year ended August 31, 2013. While revenues from the sale of local advertising declined 1% from $355 million in…
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MONTREAL – CBC President and CEO Hubert Lacroix isn’t sugar-coating the news. He isn’t going to pretend that the 657 full-time equivalent jobs being cut this month — and the 2,107 total since he started on Jan. 1, 2008 — won’t seriously damage the organization.
Nor does he pretend to have the answer for how to fix the public broadcaster while all the media world shifts around it. Which is why, during a speech at The Canadian Club in Montreal, Lacroix announced that he wanted to have a “conversation” with Canadians about the future of the public broadcaster, and invited…
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OTTAWA – CBC received a little help from its friends Tuesday when Tous amis de Radio-Canada officially unveiled the ‘White Paper on the future of the CBC/Radio-Canada’ at the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
Written by trade union Syndicat des communications de Radio-Canada president Alex Levasseur, the document raises several fundamental issues of funding, governance and programming concerning Canada’s public broadcaster.
"This document is part of the tradition of white papers that describe a situation objectively and factually, thus helping to take a stand and make smart decisions”, said Levasseur, in a news release. “In addition to the history and description of services…
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TORONTO – Alan Dark is leaving CBC’s Revenue Group to become vice president of national sales for Rogers Media, effective May 26.
In this newly-created role, Dark (pictured) will be responsible for implementing a compelling and differentiated go-to-market OneCall strategy to drive advertising revenue that leverages Rogers’ media assets and brands. Based in Toronto, he will also set the strategic direction for the national sales teams, including the five national agency teams, sports, and specialty.
Dark has more than 16 years of experience in broadcast and digital media sales, integrated media development, sales strategy, strategic planning, and business development, most recently…
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