VANCOUVER – British Columbians will have a chance to weigh in on the future direction of the CBC when Friends of Canadian Broadcasting convenes a town hall meeting entitled ‘The CBC We Want’ this Sunday in Vancouver.
The event, scheduled for August 12 at the Visitor Centre of the Van Dusen Gardens from 3 pm to 5 pm, will be moderated by Saltspring Island writer, broadcaster, and former host of CBC Radio's Basic Black, Arthur Black.
Other speakers include Dr. Kathleen Cross, assistant professor, School of Communication, SFU; Anne-Marie Dekker, member, steering committee, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting; Joseph Elworthy, executive director, Vancouver…
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LONDON – CBC/Radio-Canada has been awarded the Canadian broadcast rights for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games and the Rio 2016 Olympic Summer Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Wednesday.
While financial terms of the bid were not officially disclosed, a source with direct knowledge of the talks who asked to remain anonymous told Cartt.ca late Wednesday that the amount CBC committed to for the rights to both future Games is “less than half” of the $153 million which then-CTVglobemedia paid in 2005 for the Vancouver Winter Olympics and the London Summer Olympics. (Ed note: CTVglobemedia later brought in…
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TORONTO – Corus Entertainment said Tuesday that it will join CBC/Radio-Canada, Rogers Media and Shaw Media in the Canadian Premium Audience Exchange (CPAX).
Unveiled in April, CPAX is an online, real-time bidding exchange service that provides advertisers and agencies with access to premium digital inventory.
With the addition of Corus, CPAX now provides buyers with a central gateway to premium Canadian digital advertising inventory across more than 150 domains in both English and French, reaching an audience of more than 16 million Canadians. Each media company maintains their unique, direct sales operations with a portion of their inventory flowing directly into…
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OTTAWA – Industry stakeholders are lamenting the anticipated shutdown of 623 CBC and Radio-Canada analog transmitters on Tuesday, a move that ends free access to the national broadcaster over the air in hundreds of small Canadian cities, towns and rural areas.
Despite the protests of more than 2,000 Canadians and a proposal by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) on how the equipment could be repurposed, the CRTC approved CBC/Radio-Canada’s plan to mothball the transmitters and repeaters with no conditions and no requirement to reach out to the affected communities.
"The CBC-TV and Radio-Canada analog transmitter shutdown…
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KITCHENER-WATERLOO – The CBC will open its next local digital service this winter in the Kitchener-Waterloo area of Ontario.
CBC News said that its new broadcast centre, at 117 King Street West in Kitchener, is located in the heart of the area’s core plus close to City Hall, which will assist with its goal of providing strong local news, radio current affairs, and a vibrant digital offering to area residents.
"We are delighted to bring CBC to the Waterloo Region this winter", said Susan Marjetti, managing director of CBC for the Ontario Region, in the announcement. "With this new location, we’re…
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TORONTO – CBC English Services is merging its Drama and Comedy departments into a single division as a result of its recent budget cuts, the national broadcaster announced Wednesday.
The reorganization, which is effective immediately, will “focus the department’s resources on content creation and ensure a streamlined, cost efficient business model is in place”, the announcement reads. “Consistent with this new direction, production executives will now be responsible for development and production in both Drama and Comedy”.
The move means that CBC’s Commissioned and Scripted department will trim three positions, including Creative Head of Drama, Tom Hastings.
The new division, to be called Scripted…
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TORONTO – Stornoway Communications has named Kate Tinnerman as director of sales and affiliate relations.
Tinnerman has over 20 years of expertise in sales, marketing and customer relationship management. Her expertise includes profitable content acquisitions, production, distribution, customer relations, brand development, partnership and retail marketing for international artists and brands including Disney, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, MTV, CBC, CTV, Corus, Sony Wonder, Marvel, Mattel, and Hasbro.
Her primary focus in this new role will be to support all aspects of affiliate relations with Stornoway’s broadcast partners, develop new partnering opportunities, and to assume responsibility for the direction and management of all sales revenues.
“Kate has…
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OTTAWA – The CBC is moving forward with its plan to shut down 620 over-the-air analog television transmitters, a move announced in April as part of its budget reductions.
The national broadcaster received CRTC approval this week to have its broadcasting licences and transmitters revoked for CBIT Sydney, which operates as a re-transmitter of CBHT Halifax, and CBKST Saskatoon, which operates as a re-transmitter of CBKT Regina.
The Commission also agreed to amend the licences for 23 English- and French-language CBC television stations to delete all references to analog transmitters. These amendments are effective August 1st, and the CBC said…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The controversial Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) will be phased out by August 31, 2014, the CRTC announced Wednesday.
Citing the advertising market’s recovery and the completion of the digital transition, both of which have helped to improve the financial situation of the country’s local television broadcasters, according to the Commission, the Fund’s contribution rate will be reduced from 1.5% to 1% for the 2012-2013 broadcast year, and to 0.5 % for the 2013-2014 broadcast year before being discontinued entirely effective September 1, 2014.
“While the implementation of the LPIF was appropriate to address the issues facing local stations at the…
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OTTAWA and TORONTO – Reaction from the broadcasting industry to the CRTC’s plan to depose of the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) was swift and virtually unanimous.
Mirko Bibic, chief legal and regulatory officer and EVP at Bell, told Cartt.ca that while his company is still “analyzing the new model and its financial impact”, the decision could serve to reignite the value-for-signal/fee-for-carriage debate.
“There’s no doubt, however, that local stations in small and medium-sized markets will receive significantly less revenue”, he said. “At a time when conventional television continues to be under tremendous financial pressure, including from a soft advertising…
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