OTTAWA – The Federal government has filled two important positions at the CRTC, naming commissioner Peter Menzies as vice-chair telecom and Raj Shoan as Ontario regional commissioner.
While a formal announcement has not yet been made on either appointment by the government or the Commission, both men are shown to have been appointed to those roles on the “Apppointments” web page of the Governor-In-Council.
Menzies has been a full-time commissioner since was appointed as Regional Commissioner for Alberta and Northwest Territories in June of 2009 and his term was due to expire in June of 2014. He was…
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TORONTO – RTDNA Canada, The Association of Electronic Journalists, announced on Saturday the winners of its national and network awards which recognize the very best in programming, stations and newsgathering organizations in radio, television and on digital platforms.
“As we enter our 51st year as an association I am thrilled with the exceptionally high standard of all the entries this year,” said RTDNA Canada president Ian Koenigsfest in a release. “The innovators and pioneers in the Canadian news profession who launched this association would be proud of the quality of electronic and digital journalism that continues…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU – Profits for conventional television stations fell by 85% in 2012, according to the CRTC’s latest statistical and financial report for this sector released Thursday.
The Commission said profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) for private TV stations declined from $151.6 million to $22.9 million in 2012.
Revenues dropped by 5% from $2.14 billion in 2011 to $2.04 billion in 2012. While local advertising sales remained relatively stable at $354.6 million, down just 0.2% from the previous year, national advertising revenues decreased 7.5% from $1.47 billion in 2011 to $1.35 billion in 2012.
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BANFF – Industry reps from the Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Media Production Association presented highlights to attendees at the Banff World Media Festival being held this week on a new national promotion strategy and new branding to promote Canadian content.
CMF president and CEO Valerie Creighton, Telefilm Canada executive director Carolle Brabant, and CMPA president and CEO Michael Hennessy are part of a working group focussing on increasing awareness and interest in Canadian content and on developing partnerships with various industry leaders. The project, initially dubbed “Watch Canada,” evolved from a symposium…
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BANFF – When I first started going to the Realscreen Summit in Washington DC, almost 12 years ago, it was documentary Mecca. Today, Realscreen is a Kasbah of reality shows and ever more wacky non-scripted formats.
Non-fiction then was not what non-fiction has become.
That display of disparity was starkly evident at Banff this week. On the one hand, non-fiction format gurus and their kindred broadcasters had a good yak about what ails them, and the challenges of producing Big Brother Canada on a continent awash in Big Brother, the American original. On the other hand, Canada's National Film Board was…
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BANFF – There are two conferences here – and I suspect Marshall McLuhan would be giddy at the contrast.
(For those who don’t know, McLuhan is the pointy head Canadian who claimed advertising was worthy of academic and prescient study as an indicator of future societal and cultural behaviour.)
One conference here at the Banff World Media Festival would still be recognizable to attendees of the Pat Ferns' era Banff TV Festival (CEO of the gathering from 1995-2004). It seems modern only in its resentment that online video ad spending in Canada will outpace every other ad…
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MONTREAL – Talk about a bungled communications job.
CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Hubert Lacroix apologized to Canadians today regarding last week’s poorly-worded announcement about the Corp’s decision to rebrand French language service Radio Canada by incorporating the word “Ici” across all its platforms – a move which, after meeting with widespread criticism from government and the public, has caused the Corp to change its plans and put “Radio-Canada” back in its marketing.
“Our intention was never to distance ourselves from Radio-Canada and everything it represents. However, Radio-Canada has heard the message loud and clear that…
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TORONTO – Television, film and digital production company Temple Street Productions announced today it has launched a new digital content studio that aims to become a new cultural hub for the city's online creator community.
Boat Rocker Studios, operating under the auspices of the company’s newly created Temple Street Media Ventures division, will work with Youtube and foster a campus-like environment for online creators to collaborate, gain expertise, receive business support and produce content that speaks to the new generation of viewers. The studio will be housed in Temple Street’s newly-acquired 20,000-square-foot Sackville Street building in…
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OTTAWA – After years of hype, mobile and tablet TV is finally gaining some traction in Canada, according to a new report from the Media Technology Monitor.
MTM’s Spring 2013 Adoption Report found that 9% of Anglophone Canadians surveyed – or about 15% of smartphone owners –watch TV on their smartphone. Tablet owners are also embracing the video capabilities of their devices to watch TV, as 9% of Anglophones reported watching TV on a tablet, an increase of 50% from last fall, reads the report.
The new MTM report, which is based on telephone interviews…
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TORONTO – The idea of “TV anywhere” has not yet been realized in Canada, but it’s what consumers will demand very soon, according to industry experts who spoke during a special panel titled “The Revolution of TV: Content Anywhere and Anyhow” at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Tuesday afternoon.
“There are a lot of indications that we’re about to go through a major change,” said David Purdy, senior vice-president of content for Rogers Communications. “Today, we’re in the middle of a revolution, but it’s nascent.”
The panel discussion’s moderator, Peter Miller, chair of Interactive Ontario, quoted some statistics from CBC’s Spring…
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