LONDON, ON – CBC Hockey Night in Canada’s annual street hockey tournament ‘Play On!’ will take to a street near you starting this May.
Open to boys, girls, men and women of all ages and skill levels, the event bills itself as the “nation’s largest annual sports festival”. Since its inception in 2003, more than 300,000 Canadians have taken part across the country through one of the thirty-five events held to date.
This year’s events will be held over the full course of a weekend in St. John’s, NL; Halifax, NS; Moncton, NB; Montreal, QC; Ottawa, ON; Oshawa, ON; Toronto, ON; Hamilton,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – More Canadians now catch their favourite TV shows on-line than by personal video recorders and video-on-demand combined.
According to results from the Q4 edition of Digital Life Canada, Solution Research Group’s quarterly trend survey, 50% of on-line Canadians watched TV on-line at some point in the past, and 25% said they did so in the past week. Only 13% said that they watched a show on a PVR or cable on-demand (10%) in the past week.
But most on-line viewing is still catch-up, the research determined, with 53% of respondents saying that they watched on-line most recently because…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – In the era of exploding social and mobile networking, the future of traditional media is just too big of an issue for a bunch of geeks to tackle on their own.
So, at the third annual GeekFest in Toronto this week, organizers have called in social and technology commentators to debate the future of the media. Appearing on the panel will Globe and Mail writer Margaret Wente, CBC.ca technology reporter Peter Nowak, and pop culture critic and author Mike Dover. The panel will be moderated by techno thinker Krista Napier, a senior analyst with IDC Canada.
GeekFest, sponsored by…
Continue Reading
THUNDER BAY, ON – Thunder Bay TV station CKPR-TV has told the CRTC that it wants to drop its affiliation with the CBC and become an independent.
In its application, parent company Thunder Bay Electronics said that it has been unable to negotiate a new program supply agreement with the CBC, and that as an independent local station it would “source” its non-local programming.
Thunder Bay Electronics’ other local television station CHFD-TV dropped its long time affiliation with CTV to become an independent station aligned with Canwest Global in January.
Interventions are due by April 8, 2010.
www.crtc.gc.ca
Continue Reading
“About a month later at a cable show in San Antonio, I bumped into an engineering legend named Israel Switzer, who worked for years at Maclean Hunter Cable. He was now consulting to upstart U.S. long-distance competitor MCI Communications. I knew and respected him a great deal.
“Israel asked me about cellular and what my plans were. I told him I was looking into it. He said he thought it was the future of telecommunications and urged me to get in before it was too late. I had to pay attention to a statement like that from a man of…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The CBC has inked a content and distribution partnership with Heavy which will see the pub ‘caster have its own video channel.
The independent video company, which targets men aged 18-49, will begin hosting the CBC channel later this month. Content will include video clips from its original programming such as The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos, CBC Movie Reviews and CBC Retrobites.
Heavy also has content partnerships with The Fox Comedy Channel and UFC: Ultimate Fighting Championship.
www.heavy.comwww.cbc.ca
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Andy Mendham and David Craig will be honoured with 2010 RTNDA Canada Lifetime Achievement Awards in the Central Region.
The awards will be presented at the RTNDA Central Regional Awards Banquet in Toronto on May 15, 2010.
Mendham retired from CFPL-TV at the end of August 2009, ending a career that covered almost the entire span of television broadcasting in Canada…from film to digital, sys the RTNDA release. He has shot interviews with every Canadian Prime Minister since Pierre Trudeau, not to mention such international figures as Pope John Paul II, Queen Elizabeth and Jimmy Carter and celebrities…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Tom Hastings has been appointed head of drama for CBC Television, effective immediately.
He replaces Sally Catto, who was recently made executive director of arts and entertainment.
Hastings joined the CBC drama department in 2007 as executive in charge of production. He has over 12 years of television and documentary production experience, including six years as production executive at Alliance Atlantis and manager of research at National Geographic Channel Canada.
www.cbc.ca
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Canadian Women in Communications has named their annual award winners for 2010.
Kirstine Stewart, GM of CBC Television, has been named the CWC 2010 Woman Of The Year. This award recognizes an outstanding woman who has made a significant contribution to the communications industry throughout her career, and who has contributed materially to the advancement of women within the industry.
The CWC Leadership Excellence Awards celebrate women of achievement who have distinguished themselves in any sector of the communications industry and have, in recent years, contributed to the industry through their achievements.
This year’s winners are:– Change Leader: Valerie…
Continue Reading
QUEBEC CITY – Radio-Canada has launched a new Internet site, TOU.TV, the first in Canada offering free access to a well-stocked library of old and current French-language television dramas, variety shows, and current affairs productions.
The launch of the new site, enriched by the content from 20 other broadcasters and production companies, puts the public broadcaster firmly in a leadership position, said Radio-Canada vice-president Sylvain Lafrance, because viewers are quickly adopting the web as the place to get their television fix and they have nothing else quite like it, in English or in French.
Already, more than 2,000 hours of…
Continue Reading
