LAS VEGAS – CBC and Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC) are among the 13 international television broadcast organizations that signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday forming the Future of Broadcast Television (FOBTV) initiative.
Announced during the NAB convention, the agreement builds on the Future of Broadcast TV Summit held last November in Shanghai, China, where broadcasting leaders established a framework for cooperation to chart the future course of terrestrial television broadcasting.
The FOBTV signatories support terrestrial broadcasting which they say is uniquely important because it is wireless (supports receivers that can move), infinitely scalable (point-to-multipoint and one-to-many architecture), local (capable of delivering geographically…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) must not only be preserved, it must be strengthened, according to CBC/Radio-Canada.
Appearing Tuesday at the hearing into the future of the fund, the national broadcaster called the LPIF a “tremendous success” that has helped to stabilize local television stations as well as boost local programming in the country’s smaller markets.
"We've increased the local news in our LPIF-eligible markets by almost 30 percent”, said Kirstine Stewart, VP of English Services. “Our supper hour news shows have been bumped up from one to one and a half hours in seven of eight eligible…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Bell Canada is now prepared to allow the Canadian Broadcast Corp. to receive money from the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) as long as the pubcaster is the sole provider of local TV services in a particular small market.
The media and communications giant had argued in comments that since the CBC receives approximately $1 billion from the federal government it shouldn’t qualify for funds from LPIF. But during opening remarks, Mirko Bibic, executive VP and chief legal and regulatory officer at BCE, said private local TV remains in a difficult financial situation and could see station closures,…
Continue Reading
LAS VEGAS – Through Dejero’s portable LIVE+ solutions broadcasters can now instantly transmit broadcast-quality live video through cellular networks without the cost or complexity of satellite/microwave trucks or the effort of implementing dedicated towers.
With this software developed by the Waterloo-based company (its CTO Bogdan Frusina was one of the first 100 original RIM employees), the company is gaining notoriety among most broadcasters on the NAB show floor, with its products featured at the Panasonic and Harris booths, thanks to partnerships with both.
Three of Canada’s large broadcasters, Bell Media, CBC and Rogers, have all deployed Dejero, which gives its newsgathering…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – An informal group of radio broadcasters are banding together in the hopes of pulling the plug on CBC’s nascent digital music service CBC Music.
The coalition, which includes Quebecor Media, Cogeco Inc., Newcap Radio, Golden West Radio, RNC Media and Stingray Digital, objects to the ad-supported service which it says contributes to the inaccurate perception that music is free, plus competes with their own radio stations and subscription-based websites, counter to the CBC’s mandate.
In a letter to Heritage Minister James Moore on Friday, the broadcasters questioned whether the CBC is using “the preferential royalty rates it receives from the…
Continue Reading
THERE HAS BEEN LITTLE we at Cartt.ca have written about over the years that has garnered the volume of feedback as our series about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which we’ve published over the past six weeks through our Cartt.ca INVESTIGATES portal.
Unsurprisingly, most of that feedback has been sent to us tagged “not for publication” or “not for attribution.” However, while we’d like to publish, verbatim, some of the responses we’ve fielded, we don’t mind unpublished chit-chat. It’s informative, helpful and often entertaining. We note at the bottom of many of our stories that if you…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – On the eve of the 2012 NHL playoffs, Rogers has added CBC's Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts to its Rogers Live Mobile app.
Available on Rogers’ smart phones through iTunes, Google Play and BlackBerry App World, the app streams CBC's broadcasts of the playoff games from the opening round all the way to the finals. For a subscription fee of $5 per month, fans have unlimited hours of viewing until October 31st, after which they may stream five hours per month, with $1 per each additional hour.
"Canadians live and breathe hockey and at Rogers we're dedicated to delivering world-class…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The CRTC will hear why the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) needs to be kept – and why it should be killed off – when a public hearing over its existence gets under way in Gatineau Monday morning.
The fund was created almost three years ago (in the midst of the financial crisis and just prior to the destructive Stop-The-TV-Tax vs. Local-TV-Matters battle), before Shaw and Bell bought into broadcasting, to support the creation of local television programming, particularly local news, in smaller markets. At that time, it was determined broadcaster spending on local programming had stagnated or…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CBC’s plan to cut jobs and original programming will create “a domino effect” that will not only compromise its ability to deliver on its mandate to reflect Canada to Canadians, but will impact the ability of Canadians to choose quality Canadian programming, according to the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC).
The organization predicted that the funding cuts, which at this point includes 175 hours of original programming, will trigger further revenue decline for the national broadcaster as it becomes more difficult to sell advertising with less original programming.
“Canadians want Canadian stories – on all platforms,” said executive director Maureen Parker,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – While staff at CBC’s English division found out today that CBC News Network’s Connect and CBC Radio’s Dispatches are being cancelled, along with a few other specifics detailed below, it is not known yet what other entertainment or sports programming is going to face the axe – although that information won’t be long coming.
What the employees heard today is that of the 650 positions being eliminated at CBC/Radio-Canada which were announced last week, 473 will happen prior to the end of July this year (215 from the English side, 153 from the French…
Continue Reading
