TORONTO – Robert J. Ross has been tapped as the new president of the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA), taking over from Robert Briskman, technical executive for Sirius XM Radio, who has served as NABA president since 2012.
Ross, who is CBS’ SVP of East Coast Operations, is also a longstanding member of the NABA Board of Directors and Executive. According to the announcement, he comes to the NABA presidency at a time of "ongoing change for the broadcasting industry and with it, an array of new challenges and opportunities regarding how broadcasting is distributed to a digital multi-platform world".
“Bob…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Registration is now open for Content Industry Connect, a one day event that promises to bring together television, film and digital media leaders for a day of visionary keynotes, entertaining and informative discussions, facilitated networking, and face-to-face meeting opportunities.
Presented by the Banff World Media Festival, Content Industry Connect will take place March 6 at The Ritz-Carlton in downtown Toronto.
Confirmed speakers include executives at Google, Microsoft, AOL, Twitter, CBC, Bell Media, Corus Television, Rogers Media, Shaw Media, a special sneak peek from the creators and stars of Orphan Black and the advance premiere of Spun Out.
For more information or to…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – More than 31.1 million Canadians have tuned in to CBC’s TV or online coverage of the Sochi Winter Olympics since the Games began on Feb. 6, and more than 8.4 million Canadians watched the Canadian men's hockey team beat Norway on Day 6, CBC announced Saturday.
CBC’s ratings for Thursday, Feb. 13, Day 6 of the Games, have been the highest day of the Games to date, including the opening ceremonies on February 6, with 22.8 million viewers across all platforms.
Television ratings for the opening ceremony on Feb. 6 was at about 19 million Canadians, and includes ratings for the…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Bell Media will open two new regional production development offices in Vancouver and Winnipeg, the company announced Wednesday.
Bell Media has hired senior industry executive Michele McMahon (pictured) as a development manager to run the new Vancouver office, which is set to open on Monday, Feb. 17.
The office in Winnipeg will open on March 3, and will be headed by new development manager Brandice Vivier.
Both McMahon and Vivier will report to Susan Makela, Bell Media’s director of independent production and Canadian programming management.
“These appointments reiterate Bell Media's commitment to Canada's creative and vibrant independent production community,” said Corrie Coe, SVP of independent production,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – A Senate committee turned to a former broadcast regulator for insight on how to address the challenges facing CBC/Radio-Canada in light of its loss of Hockey Night in Canada to Rogers Communications last year.
Appearing via video conference from Florida, former chair of the CRTC Konrad von Finckenstein told the Standing Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications what he believes could be done to improve the chances for success of Canada’s public broadcaster. He pointed to unloading the corporation’s vast over-the-air broadcast network, refocusing of the public broadcaster’s content as well as changing the governance structure and oversight…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Tuesday’s federal budget is being characterized as a “do-nothing” budget by opposition politicians and the “one before the big one” by business journalists, as Canada prepares for an election year in 2015. The small advances made in Budget 2014 to wireless telecommunications and broadband Internet policies would seem to support those views.
Tabled in the House of Commons along with Economic Action Plan 2014, the Canadian government’s Budget 2014 provided little real news value for the telecommunications sector. What was included amounted to a re-announcement of the federal government’s intentions with regard to capping wholesale domestic roaming fees…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Bell’s 1.2 million-plus Bell Mobile TV subscribers now have full access to live and on-demand coverage of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games on their smartphones and tablets, the company announced Thursday.
As part of Bell’s announcement of the kickoff of its Olympics marketing campaign, the company said that the number of Bell Mobile TV subscribers has increased by 66% compared to over a year ago.
Thanks to a licensing agreement with the CBC, Bell customers now have access to CBC/SRC’s Winter Olympics coverage, as well as from affiliate channels TSN, TSN2 and RDS, Sportsnet, and TVA on their…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CBC has upped the ante on its Olympics coverage, announcing today that its “every hour” coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics will now also be accessible virtually “everywhere,” thanks to new licensing agreements with Bell, Rogers, Telus, Videotron, and YouTube.
The public broadcaster said that live and on-demand English- and French-language Olympic Winter Games content from CBC/Radio-Canada will be “top of menu” for the telcos, and will also be prominently featured on popular digital portals including MSN.ca and YouTube.
CBC says the agreement with YouTube represents one component of an expanded alliance that will see a renewal of CBC/Radio-Canada’s presence on the…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – A complaint before the CRTC accuses a big Canadian TV broadcaster of behaving poorly by giving itself an undue preference by outright refusing to air advertising from a radio competitor.
The culprit? The CBC.
Leclerc Communication, which bought Quebec City radio stations CJEC-FM (WKND 91.9) and CFEL-FM (CKOI 102.1) from Cogeco when the latter acquired Corus Quebec stations in 2011, says that it has tried and failed to buy local advertising on Radio-Canada's Quebec City television station because of a policy the public broadcaster has to refuse advertising to competitors.
"We believe that it's imperative to promote WKND 91.9 on…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Look for up to seven nationally televised Hockey Night In Canada games on Saturdays next hockey season, expanded content across multiple platforms, other exclusive windows for national broadcasts, and “Hometown Hockey” every Sunday night, adding up to more than 500 NHL games on TV next season.
And that’s before the playoffs begin.
Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet and NHL at Rogers Media, made the announcement Tuesday afternoon at an upfront presentation to media, ad agencies and buyers as the Mattamy Athletic Centre in downtown Toronto (which is housed in what used to be Maple Leaf Gardens). Readers will recall…
Continue Reading
