TORONTO – Okay, I’m going to take Paul Robertson’s advice and resist the urge to get all cynical about what I heard Thursday at TV Day.
A panel of five senior Canadian broadcasters (Corus Entertainment’s TV head Robertson, Rogers Media Television’s Leslie Sole, TVA’s Pierre Dion, CBC’s Richard Stursberg and Canwest Global’s Leonard Asper) gathered in front of a crowd of mostly advertisers and agencies – plus some of their broadcast peers – to give their visions of the future during a panel at the Television Bureau of Canada’s TV Day, moderated by journalist Michael Vaughan.
The message that came through? It’s…
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TORONTO – The primary headline will be the $40 million raised by Canada’s broadcasters via a pair of telethons on Friday (one in Toronto and another in French in Montreal), but there are a lot of other stories out there of companies from our industry rallying their employees or their customers to the cause.
Canada For Haiti, Friday’s one-hour, commercial-free special produced collaboratively between CBC Television, CTV and Global Television and also aired on Citytv, has raised more than $13.5 million to date for relief efforts in Haiti, it was confirmed today. (Citytv also aired its own “Help for Haiti”…
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TORONTO – Coast to coast, the cable, radio, television and telecom industries are raising millions to help those people devastated by the earthquake which has destroyed Port Au Prince, Haiti, killed tens of thousands and left hundreds of thousands injured and homeless.
Besides these many examples of help already happened/happening, the aid continues with efforts below.
Rawlco radio stations News Talk 980 CJME (Regina) and News Talk 650 CKOM (Saskatoon) Wednesday raised $620,000 during the company’s “Day of Caring for Haiti”, which was matched dollar-for-dollar by the federal government, which announced early on it would…
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TORONTO – Television production company Proper TV Inc. has tapped Cathie James as its creative director.
In this new position for Proper TV, James will be responsible for diversifying the company’s production portfolio and forging new network partnerships.
James was most recently executive in charge of production at CBC Factual Entertainment. She also has worked as a production executive at Alliance Atlantis and was head of development for Red Apple Entertainment.
www.propertelevision.com
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TORONTO – Canada’s biggest television networks have united in their support for Haiti.
CBC Television, CTV and Global Television are collaborating to produce Canada For Haiti, a one-hour, commercial-free special leading up to actor George Clooney’s Hope For Haiti Now special on January 22.
Hosted by Cheryl Hickey, Ben Mulroney and George Stroumboulopoulos, Canada For Haiti will kick off at 7 p.m. ET/PT (8 p.m. AT) featuring performances from “top Canadian musicians”. Full details will be announced shortly.
Donations accepted during the broadcast will go towards the Canadian Red Cross Society, Care Canada, Free the Children, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Quebec, Plan Canada,…
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TORONTO – CBC/Radio-Canada may be able to improve the way that electricity is consumed.
As consumers warm up to their utility companies’ “smart grid” technologies as ways to manage power consumption, a company called e-Radio Inc. has taken the process one step further. Its made-in-Canada technology harnesses the power of FM radio to wirelessly and securely activate smart grid-enabled devices and appliances such as thermostats, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, and in-home displays.
And that’s where CBC/Radio-Canada comes in. With its FM signals reaching close to 99% of the Canadian population, tapping into that infrastructure could mean that almost every household from coast-to-coast-to-coast could…
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OTTAWA – The new year is shaping up to be a busy one for broadcasters and the CRTC alike.
In addition to reviewing Mediadenovo’s request to sell ad time on US specialty channels’ local avails, the CRTC will consider a number of other applications at its hearing scheduled for February 22.
Astral Media has applied for three new broadcasting licences for national, English-language Category 2 specialty television networks. Adrenaline would air action movies and series “primarily driven by a fast-paced fictional plot featuring car chases, explosions, special effects, or martial arts” according to its application, whileSuperstar will be devoted…
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TORONTO – The Television Bureau of Canada has announced its 2010 board of directors.
Along with TVB president Theresa Treutler, the board’s executive committee is:
– Rita Fabian, Chair, EVP of sales and marketing, CTVglobemedia;– Errol Da-Ré, Vice Chair, EVP sales, Canwest;– Chris McGinley, Treasurer, SVP operations, Canwest;– Mitch Dent, Secretary, EVP Rogers Media Television Sales.
Completing the Board of Directors are:
– Sally Basmajian, CTVglobemedia, Discovery Networks;– Bill Hanson, CTVglobemedia;– Richard Hiron, Rogers Television;– Lori Legault, Canwest;– Cal Millar, Channel Zero;– Scott Moore, CBC Television;– Jim Nelles, Sun TV;– Don Shafer, Astral…
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GATINEAU – The Shaw Communications legal team and the Commission share a difference of opinion.
Qu’elle surprise, you’re thinking.
However, the one that arose Wednesday as Shaw faced the Commission during 2009-614 (the hearing forced by an Order-In-Council that will inform a report to the Heritage Ministry on establishing a value for signal regime for local broadcasters) was a different conflict than some of the others we’ve followed between Shaw and the Regulator.
In its opener on Wednesday afternoon, Shaw’s SVP regulatory, Jean Brazeau, insisted that the CRTC can not issue a policy ruling on the hearing held last month on setting…
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GATINEAU – One of the things we’re learning at this hearing (if we didn’t know it already) is that consumers have sharp memories for when they felt wronged.
For example, second-year poli-sci student Kari Vierimaa (born and raised in Timmins and Sudbury) who called himself “a future broadcast journalist” lamented the losses of local news nearly a decade ago in Northern Ontario during his presentation Wednesday morning in front of the Commission as it looks into compensation for conventional broadcasters in 2009-614.
“In 2000, Robert Rabinovitch, the then newly-minted president of CBC/Radio Canada slashed and essentially destroyed quality local coverage in…
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