TORONTO – Viewers of CBC’s Over the Rainbow can click their smartphones, in place of ruby slippers, to travel an interactive yellow brick road via an app that syncs in real time with the new live competition series debuting Sunday, September 16 at 8 p.m.
Available for both iPhone and Android users, with a web version in development, the app automatically syncs with the show’s live broadcast enabling viewers to interact in real time, and have their comments shared with other viewers. App users can also access exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, get insider sneak peeks, plus earn more votes for their favourite Dorothy.
Canadians can…
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MONTREAL – One wants the Bell deal to purchase Astral stopped, the other doesn’t – but in the end, independent cable group CCSA and Independent Broadcaster Blue Ant both say Bell is big enough to need to be held back.
Up first on Friday morning, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance demonstrated directly how, in its view, the existing market power of Bell Canada (without Astral) negatively impacts the price and availability of choice available to its member companies’ customers. The CCSA represents independent distributors who collectively serve about 750,000 Canadians and is worried the addition of Astral Media to Bell…
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MONTREAL – One of the open questions about CBC/Radio-Canada as it heads into its CRTC licence renewal hearing in November has been the fate of its president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix.
His original five-year contract to head the public broadcaster expires in December of this year and it would be unusual to the extreme to have Lacroix lead the CBC team to a hearing with his personal job status either unknown, or to have a CEO push through a hearing knowing he won’t be in the position a month later.
However, Cartt.ca has determined through a number of Montreal media executive sources who…
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MONTREAL – We have a real soft spot in our hearts for those regular citizens, the ones with no industry background, with nothing to gain financially, who are concerned enough about a broadcasting or telecom, issue before the CRTC that they choose to appear publicly to make their case officially.
A few years ago, it was Ottawa’s Marjorie Lemieux at the fee-for-carriage kerfuffle. Thursday in Montreal it was Rahul Majumdar, just a regular Montrealer who doesn’t want to see TSN Radio 690 (formerly 990) turn into RDS Radio. The Montreal sports fan bears the French sports…
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MONTREAL – Sensing the opposition to its proposed benefits package was pretty strong, the first thing Bell Canada did Monday morning when it faced the CRTC was to boost that package – making it bigger and, in the opinion of its executives, better.
As many companies which have faced the CRTC over the years are wont to do, Bell looked at the opposition to its benefits package filed with written comments to the CRTC prior to the hearing and boosted what it originally proposed by $41 million dollars, increasing the overall value of the package to $241.3 million, to be…
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THE X-BOXES, PS3s and Wiis of the world are now the home media hub for a large chunk of Canadians, says a new research report.
With almost half (46%) of Canadian households owning one (households with teens are over 80%) as penetration increases, the game console is being transformed from a single-function technology into a media hub – allowing families to access the internet and play video and audio content on the same device they use for traditional gaming according to data from the Spring Media Technology Monitor, which is run by the CBC.
This reinvention of the game console is still…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has re-launched the public process for the renewal of CBC/Radio-Canada’s broadcasting licences, a process that began last summer but was postponed on July 8, 2011.
In the corporation's updated application, the national public broadcaster is urging the CRTC to accept two provisions it says are critical to preserving the key elements of the CBC’s 2015 Strategy:
1. A modern regulatory framework that will enable the public broadcaster to implement its strategy across all platforms and allow it to evolve with its audiences, with technology and with its changing environment;
2. Opportunity to generate new revenue to meet…
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TORONTO – CBC reporters are turning their iPhones into broadcast cameras with the Dejero LIVE+ Mobile App now being deployed to 100 of its national and international field reporters. The app integrates with CBC’s current fleet of LIVE+ 20/20 Transmitters and LIVE+ Broadcast Servers that are being used for regional and national news coverage.
CBC has placed a focus on increasing media acquisition across all of its distribution platforms and will be utilizing the Dejero LIVE+ Mobile App installed on Apple iOS devices to generate live news content throughout the organization.
“We are thrilled to be working with the CBC on…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canadians appetite for content continued to grow last year in all media including TV, radio and Internet. But increasingly that content is being purchased primarily through the five largest communications companies (Astral, Corus, BCE, Newcap, Rogers) who together captured 83% of revenues. In comparison the next five companies captured 10%.
This according to figures released in the CRTC’s Annual Monitoring Report that provides an overview of the Canadian communications industry. Given the level of industry consolidation, the commission says it has acted to ensure these companies “do not harm their competitors or restrict consumer choice.” For example,…
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HALIFAX – Canadians will have an opportunity to add their voices on the future direction of the CBC when the national public broadcaster's licenses are reviewed this fall. The public is invited to attend when the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting convenes The CBC We Want, a town hall meeting scheduled for September 6, at the Lord Nelson Hotel, 1515 South Park Street in the Regency Ballroom from 7 pm to 9 pm.
Moderated by Costas Halavrezos, former host of CBC Radio's Maritime Noon, these sessions will include opinion and ideas from experts and viewers and listeners alike. Speakers include:
Wayne…
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