OTTAWA – Appearing before a Parliamentary committee, Minister of Canadian Heritage James Moore applauded CBC/Radio-Canada for its new five-year strategic plan, but his testimony shed little light on whether the public broadcaster can expect to see any increases in funding from the federal government.
Moore said the government plans to continue its support of the CBC by either maintaining or increasing its budget as it committed to doing in previous election campaigns.
“The Minister of Finance has tabled five budgets in this parliament and in every single one of those budgets we have kept our word. The CBC currently…
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EXTON, Pa. and TORONTO – Brent Innes of Rogers Communications is this year’s winner of the SCTE Young Canadian Engineering Professional of the Year Award, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) proudly announced today.
The Young Canadian Engineering Professional of the Year Award is made possible through the sponsorship of Aurora Networks and the efforts of Cartt.ca and SCTE. Innes will receive his award at SCTE Canadian Summit 2011, which is set for Tuesday through Wednesday, March 8-9 at the Toronto Congress Centre in Toronto.
Innes, 30, of Bolton, Ontario, and an SCTE member since January 2010, is a senior…
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OTTAWA – Earlier this month the CBC made good on its promise to increase Canadian programming when it announced a $33 million plan called 2015: Everyone, Every Way.
The five-year strategy calls for CBC to emphasis local and regional coverage while enhancing digital programming and increasing Canadian content. Now that the strategy is out there, the CBC wants to consult with Canadians online to gauge how they feel about it.
"Our strategy is ultimately about deepening our relationship with Canadians on every level and in every way," explains Hubert T. Lacroix, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada. "Media coverage…
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TORONTO – The catch phrase ‘he shoots, he scores’, will become ‘Goooool’ this Saturday as TLN airs Hockey Night in Canada simultaneously in Italian and Spanish.
As part of its annual partnership with the CBC, TLN will broadcast the matchup between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens in in Italian on Telelatino’s main network and, for the first time ever, in Spanish on sister channel TLN en Español.
Italian-language commentary will be handled by renowned soccer expert Alf De Blasis, alongside former Italian national hockey player and Montreal native Alberto Di Fazio, and TLN host Antonio Giorgi. The Spanish-language…
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MONTREAL and OTTAWA – Just in time for Super Bowl, CTV Montreal has completed the installation of its over-the-air high definition transmitter in Montréal.
The station’s programming is now available to viewers with an HD-capable television equipped with a digital tuner and antenna on Channel 12.1 (RF channel 51). CTV also has HD transmitters in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary.
“Viewers receiving CTV over-the-air can now get Montréal’s most-watched programs in High Definition,” said Don Bastien, SVP and GM of CTV Montréal, in the announcement. “As Montréal’s #1 English-language television station, we are enormously proud to deliver this service to our viewers.”
In other company…
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GATINEAU – Seems as though Telus has a thing for former Canadian Cable Television Association presidents…
Former CBC executive vice-president Richard Stursberg made his first official industry appearance since he was let go by the Corp in the summer Wednesday in Gatineau.
He was appearing for Telus as an expert consultant during the big carrier’s appearance in front of the CRTC during day two of its hearing into the acquisition of CTV by BCE.
(Stursberg was president of the now defunct CCTA in the late 1990s and Telus’ SVP regulatory and government affairs, Michael Hennessy was the final CCTA president. The company…
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OTTAWA – A number of Wednesday evening published reports suggest that if the CRTC doesn’t alter its recent usage-based billing decision, federal cabinet will act to do it for the Regulator.
Click here, here and here to read some very similar stories on the matter.
Oh, and then there was this tweet (below) from Industry Minister Tony Clement last night to CBC Parliamentary Reporter Rosie Barton. Seems like it’s quashed.
It will be interesting to see how Thursday’s Industry Committee meeting, where CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein will face MPs, unfolds.
OTTAWA – “We want to be recognized by Canadians as the leader in expressing Canadian culture and enriching democracy on their behalf,” said CBC president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix, in presenting a new five-year plan for CBC/Radio-Canada.
“This is what will drive all of our actions over the next five years.”
Dubbed Everyone, Every way, this new focus reflects the transformation of the public broadcaster in the midst of a technological revolution, and about evolving alongside a changing country.
It’s a strategy that means to tightly tie CBC and Radio-Canada and all its divisions and resources to common priorities, while being…
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OTTAWA – Citing BCE’s monopoly over the distribution of Montreal Canadiens content in the Quebec market, if its acquisition of CTVglobemedia is approved, Quebecor Media Inc. (QMI) is asking the CRTC to adopt a new regulatory framework for sports programming.
In the comparable Toronto market, there are four entities that hold the rights to distribute Toronto Maple Leafs games: Sportsnet, TSN, CBC and team-owned Leafs TV. QMI wants the Commission to ensure that Quebec viewers have a similar choice by implementing a system where the Canadiens broadcast rights would be divvied up by a number of distributors.
QMI argues that…
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OTTAWA – CBC News Network may not distribute news programming unique to British Columbia on a separate feed, the CRTC has ruled.
In an application to the Commission, CBC News Network (formerly known as CBC Newsworld), said that the change would “enhance the quality and relevance of its national news service and give audiences in British Columbia an opportunity to access more regionally relevant news programming”, plus address the issue of NHL playoffs which pre-empt the local news programming of CBUT Vancouver each spring.
But the Commission cited Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2009-562-1, which deems it “inappropriate” to allow competitive news services…
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