TORONTO – CBC News violated its journalism codes when it enlisted minors to break the law for a story on purchasing alcohol underage at Vancouver restaurants says Kirk LaPointe, CBC Ombudsman. The ruling highlights concerns how in the age of social media stories can take on a life of their own.
LaPointe found that while the issue of underage drinking is important “more could have been done to minimize the potential harm of CBC’s technique without sacrificing the objective of its journalism.”
He was responding to a complaint regarding a November 16, 2012 CBC.ca Continue Reading
TORONTO – Kraft Canada, along with TSN and RDS, have announced an exclusive media partnership for Kraft Hockey Goes On – a program announced in November that will recognize volunteers in the hockey community. As first reported by Etan Vlessing for Cartt.ca, Kraft has pulled its funding from the CBC’s Kraft Hockeyville program for 2013, and instead will be awarding $1 million in prizes and donations to Hockey Canada affiliated minor hockey associations across the country.
The partnership officially kicks off on January 5 during TSN and RDS’ pre-game show leading into live coverage of…
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OTTAWA – On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada will release its ruling on whether or not the CRTC has the jurisdiction to let conventional, over-the-air local broadcasters pursue a fee for the carriage of their signals by subscription television providers. The appeal was heard back in April, as Cartt.ca reported.
The ability for local broadcasters to charge a cable, satellite or telco TV provider a wholesale fee (and by extension of course, Canadian subscribers) has been something TV station owners have pursued off and on for decades. The CBC asked for the ability to pursue…
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TORONTO – In hockey-mad Canada, the continuing NHL lockout has turned the pro league toxic with fed-up hockey fans. But what about broadcasters and NHL sponsors now facing cancelled TV games through December 30 during stalled labour talks?
“We miss it every night that we don’t have a live game. We miss the audience that it brings to our network,” TSN president Stewart Johnston, told Cartt.ca. On weekends, the sports channel had offset much of the impact of the NHL lockout by counter-programming CFL games against Hockey Night in Canada’s older games on the CBC.
Stewart said the real crunch has…
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TORONTO – An improvement in how the CBC responds to Access to Information requests has bumped up its grade from an F to an A, and all it took was for senior leadership to get on board says Suzanne Legault, Information Commissioner of Canada. But at least one other major media company believes Legault is giving the CBC too much credit for just showing up.
On Thursday Legault released a special report to Parliament ranking the progress the CBC and Canada Post have made over the past two years on federal compliance with the access…
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MONTREAL – Bell has expanded its sports line-up on its Mobile TV service with the addition of both NBA TV Canada and NBA on TSN.
"Bell Mobile TV's addition of non-stop basketball action from NBA TV Canada and NBA on TSN means keeping up with your favourite sports, anytime, anywhere, just got better," said Wade Oosterman, President of Bell Mobility and Residential Services, and Bell's Chief Brand Officer.
Through NBA TV Canada, Bell Mobile TV customers will have access to basketball programming including games from around the league and original shows such as NBA Game Time, Open Court and The…
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CALGARY – Telus is adding Movie Central and HBO Canada content to its Optik on the go service, offering the latest seasons of HBO Canada and Movie Central programming to customers who subscribe to Movie Central. First launched in 2011, Optik on the go allows customers to view a selection of TV On Demand shows and movies on their mobile devices, tablets and laptops, at home and on the move.
With the addition of Movie Central and HBO Canada programming, Optik will now offer subscribers new seasons of popular HBO original series such as Game of…
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GATINEAU – Having heard nine days of complaints, plaudits and the general direction of questions being asked by commissioners CBC/Radio-Canada committed to air more programs of national interest (PNI), regional French-language programming and children’s TV shows during the reply stage of its CRTC licence renewal hearing which wrapped up on Friday.
Some of the new proposals in French language services include 100 hours of per year of original Canadian programming, a commitment to do its best to reach 10 hours of local production in the Windsor market beginning in September 2013, and a willingness to accept a condition of licence…
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OTTAWA – On its final day before the CRTC to consider its licence renewal, CBC/Radio-Canada once again called for a flexible regulatory framework to allow it to “evolve with the landscape.”
In concluding two weeks of public hearings the corporation used the opportunity to reiterate its commitment to the “essential and unique role that the public broadcaster plays in the Canadian broadcasting system,” the challenges it faces in fulfilling that role, and the need for regulatory flexibility and additional revenue opportunities to meet those challenges.
"We have a clear mandate from Parliament and a…
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GATINEAU – On the second to last day of the CBC license renewal hearing, we heard perhaps the most blunt opposition yet to the public broadcaster’s request to be able to sell ad time on Radio 2 and Espace Musique, from Moses Znaimer’s company.
MZ Media, a division of Znaimer’s Zoomer Media which owns Classical 96.3 and 103.1 FM and AM 740 (as well as Vision TV and some other television assets) told CRTC commissioners Thursday that letting another station in the Toronto market sell advertising will make an already tough market, worse. And, to allow an organization already funded…
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