MANY TAKE IT AS GOSPEL in this business that without rules to force Canadian broadcasters to make (or at least pay for) and air Canadian content, they just wouldn’t. Instead, they’d more cheaply buy foreign (i.e. U.S.) television shows to fill out their entire schedule.
Go ahead. Ask anyone. We’ve all said it.
The record of regulatory resistance over the years mostly bears that opinion out – as do the prime time schedules of the major private conventional broadcasters. What I’m not sure about is whether that will continue to hold true in the future.
Now, the only prognosticating I’ll allow myself…
Continue Reading
LESS THAN A DECADE AGO, the television landscape was a lucrative landscape of BDUs and broadcasters who understood the terrain. Laws were established. Rules followed. Peace (sort of) reigned.
Then over-the-top video (OTT) with all of its possibilities blew into town, creating a wild west that many believe leaves traditional players without a strong weapon while a new, lawless breed takes over, driving consumers to cut, or trim, their TV subscriptions.
“OTT is more important than we thought,” says Alain Gourd, chair of The Working Group on Online Broadcasting (formerly the Over-the-Top Working Group), a conglomerate of 13 BDUs, broadcasters…
Continue Reading
OKAY, WE’LL ADMIT IT. Sometimes it does get a little difficult in maintaining one’s attention on the fifth day into a CRTC hearing.
The questions, and quite often the answers, grow more similar as minutes turn into hours, turn into days. Those repeated questions and answers, though, do tend to allow followers of the hearing to divine just what the commissioners and the industry are aiming for. If you read between enough lines, maybe you can even predict, a little, what’s coming.
***************
WE’VE ALREADY EXPLAINED what the primary topics are during our extensive coverage of the CRTC’s…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – On the eve of its annual awards gala, RTNDA Canada: The Association of Electronic Journalists has voted to change its name in order to adapt to the changes in the profession.
In a vote at its national conference this past weekend in Halifax, the membership agreed to change the acronym to include the word ‘Digital’. For the last 49 years, the acronym was short for Radio-Television News Directors Association. That will soon change to RTDNA, or Radio-Television Digital News Association – The Association of Electronic Journalists.
"Flipping those two letters, from ‘News Directors’ to ‘Digital News’ makes us more…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – A code of conduct for vertically integrated broadcast and distribution groups, content exclusivity on mobile and the need for a skinny basic package were the primary discussion points discussion during the fourth day of the CRTC’s examination of vertical integration.
EastLink noted during its opening remarks that access to content is a “critical driver” of not only its cable distribution service, but for all of its services, and therefore rules need to be established to ensure equitable access to content.
“Programming services dictate contract terms requiring distribution in high penetration packages, packaging requirements and, in some cases, with the…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Do consumers really want the ability to pick the Jenny Craig of TV packages, a.k.a. the oft-debated, ultra-lean, skinny basic package?
It has been one of the primary questions coming from CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein and his colleagues over the first three days of the Commission’s hearing into vertical integration.
The idea has been bounced around for a couple of years (especially during the fee-for-carriage battles), however it has really taken hold of the imagination of the panel of commissioners this week.
In a nutshell, a mandated skinny basic package would force cable, satellite and telco TV distributors…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Sylvain Lafrance, Executive Vice-President of French Services for CBC/Radio-Canada, will be leaving the public broadcaster this fall after more than 33 years.
"I believe I’ve now achieved the key objectives I had set for myself as executive VP of Radio-Canada", he said in a statement on Thursday. "TV, Radio and Web integration is now a done deal. We’ve begun to build a lively presence on digital platforms. Our efforts to diversify our revenue streams have produced stellar results. And, last but not least, our programming now strikes what I feel is an optimal balance between our need to…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CBC and Rogers Sportsnet are teaming up to deliver all games from the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011 which starts this weekend, marking the first time every match will be broadcast live in Canada.
The partnership will see CBC air all matches involving Canada, including three of four quarterfinals, the semi-final, bronze and gold medal matches, all live. Rogers Sportsnet will air one quarterfinal match live, while also providing encore broadcasts of the quarterfinal, semi-final, bronze and gold medal matches. Additionally, in the early rounds, Rogers Sportsnet will provide live coverage of 18 matches not involving Canada.
Scott Russell will…
Continue Reading
By Steven James May
MP CHARLIE ANGUS WAS bang on when he dubbed Canada’s digital television transition a “hodgepodge” during a Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in March 2011. Trying to figure out if, when and where a particular over-the-air (OTA) television broadcaster will be going digital (or not) requires significant digging.
With just over two months to go before Canada’s digital television transition (70 days according to the Cartt.ca countdown clock), many viewers in cities such as Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto are already enjoying digital over-the-air (OTA) television. (For many, it is a viable, enjoyable, alternative to paying a TV…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – When Bell Canada and Telus each spoke to the issue of exclusive content on Tuesday morning during their turns at the CRTC’s hearing into vertical integration of media and distribution companies, we thought to ourselves: “this, we’ve heard before.”
Telus, the biggest carrier in the country without media assets, is worried the likes of Rogers, Bell, Shaw and Quebecor will make acquiring ancillary content for wireless, online, and any other devices that pop up, too difficult or expensive – or give themselves unfair head starts, much to the disadvantage of Telus and other companies like it.
Allowing the Canadian…
Continue Reading
