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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TORONTO – CBC’s digital music service and TD are joining forces on a new music portal to help keep music fans up to date on the Canadian live music scene, whether at home or on the go, via desktop, mobile and tablet.
Visitors to CBCMusic.ca -TD Live Music will be able to explore and enjoy Canadian live music through hundreds of videos of in-studio and in concert recordings, weekly concert listings, music news and reviews, photo galleries and more. CBC Music will curate all of the content on the site with frequent updates on the latest music news.
The portal is being promoting…
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TORONTO – CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada wants to get fans even closer to the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs by providing near-instant video highlights through Twitter Canada.
Throughout the NHL playoffs, CBC’s official @hockeynight account is posting sponsored clips from the live TV broadcasts using SnappyTV, a cloud-based social video publishing and distribution platform. SnappyTV’s platform features a suite of tools allowing CBC to edit and share video clips of any length instantly.
Using the Twitter Amplify platform, fans are also able to watch and share highlights during and after every CBC broadcast from wherever they are.
This partnership is a first…
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OTTAWA – Canadians are spending an increasing amount of time online, both in their homes and while on-the-go, and Netflix subscribers watch more video content than those who do not have the service, according to two new reports from Media Technology Monitor (MTM).
The report Internet Use in the Home and On the Go focusses on how Anglophones are utilizing the Internet in their homes, tracking the type of Internet connections they subscribe to, and delving deeper into data on hours spent online, with a focus on demographic trends.
Highlights from the report include:
– Internet use in Canada continues to rise and…
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ANOTHER ROUND OF LAYOFFS has led inexorably to another spasm of handwringing, navel gazing and a week of “what are we going to do about the CBC?” The reactions have largely been predictable, eye-rolling and boring – generally a waste of everyone’s time.
It was shocking when last Thursday’s big town hall meeting called by CBC leadership turned out to be, for the most part, just about cutting the public broadcaster’s head count yet again – with a vague promise about a new vision for the pubcaster to come sometime before the summer. Many honestly believed…
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