OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has announced plans to make telecommunications and broadcasting services more accessible to disabled Canadians.
On the telecom side, the CRTC has pledged to:
– require that telephone companies offer a new service that will allow an operator to convert text messages sent over the Internet into voice calls, and vice versa. Known as Internet Protocol relay, this service is used by persons who are deaf or hard of hearing to communicate;
– require that telecom companies, including cable and satellite companies, improve the accessibility of their customer service;
– request that wireless companies offer at least one type of cell phone…
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TORONTO and OTTAWA – CBC Newsworld is cancelling its award-winning documentary program The Lens after 16 years.
Previously known as Rough Cuts, the program has showcased approximately 175 Canadian documentaries from independent filmmakers.
Norm Bolen, president and CEO of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) called the news “a very disturbing signal from Canada’s public broadcaster.”
“We understand the financial constraints all broadcasters are under but the documentary genre should be better represented and funded by the broadcasting sector,” Bolen said in a statement. “Cancelling this outlet for one-off, point-of-view documentaries by independent producers will further reduce the…
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TORONTO – CTV has sold CKX-TV Brandon to Canadian investment firm Bluepoint Investment Corporation for one dollar.
Bluepoint assumes all of CKX-TV’s broadcast assets, liabilities and commitments with the purchase, including the station’s 39 employees, the announcement read.
"This is good news for the employees that work at CKX-TV Brandon and the surrounding communities who depend everyday on the local programming that the station provides," said Paul Sparkes, CTVglobemedia’s EVP of corporate affairs, in the announcement. "Being an independent operator, Bluepoint will be able to access the Small Market Local Programming Fund. This is something that neither CTV nor Canwest have…
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OTTAWA – CBC is beefing up its political coverage in Ottawa and the U.S. starting this Fall.
Evan Solomon will host a daily political show on CBC Newsworld, while veteran reporter Terry Milewski will move to Ottawa as CBC News’ new senior correspondent in the political bureau.
CBC News said that it will also seek to strengthen its presence in the United States with more ‘on-the-ground’ reporting and in-depth reports from that country’s most influential cities. Keith Boag becomes CBC News’ American West Coast correspondent based in Los Angeles covering the California region, following five years as CBC News chief political…
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TORONTO – Thanks to the beefed up local programming improvement fund (LPIF), CTV will keep its ‘A’ Channel in Windsor open for at least for another year.
The broadcaster committed to continuing to operate the station through August 31, 2010, the full license renewal term that all of CTV’s conventional stations have received.
"Today’s announcement about saving Windsor’s only local private television station for one year is a direct result of the CRTC’s one year LPIF enhancement," said Paul Sparkes, EVP of corporate affairs for CTVglobemedia, in the announcement.
CTV also said that it will apply to convert CKNX-TV Wingham…
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GATINEAU – The most immediate impact of the CRTC’s Monday announcements? It looks like A Channel Windsor will get a reprieve.
The Commission today finalized the new $102-million fund that is meant to tide broadcasters over until it figures out how to completely reset the scales of power of the industry it regulates with yet another hearing on the TV business come September.
"Canadians have made it abundantly clear that they value local programming," said CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein, in the press release. "We have taken steps to ensure that broadcasters, and particularly those in smaller markets, continue…
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TORONTO – The Radio Television News Directors’ foundation has awarded over $12,000 in scholarships to five broadcast journalism students across Canada.
More than 40 applications were received from across the country as students submitted samples of their work in one of five categories.
The 2009 scholarship recipients are:
– Stefanie Masotti of Fanshawe College in London, ON who won two scholarships – the $2,000 Marketwire scholarship for the top first year student, and the $2,500 RTNDA George Clark scholarship for the overall winning entry;
– Russ Courtney, also of Fanshawe College, won the $2,000 BNN/Jim O’Connell scholarship for a student interested…
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EVEN WITH CHANNEL Zero’s encouraging purchase of two over-the-air TV stations from Canwest Global this week, we are now left with six small market TV stations whose owners have set August 31st as the final day they intend to have the transmitters turned on.
In case you missed it – and you might have, given the timing of the news – Shaw Communications told CTV late Tuesday that, essentially, it had lost its nerve and was backing down from its confrontation with CTV over local television. The western cableco, despite its now apparently false bravado claims of how…
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GATINEAU – Earlier this week, the CBC attempted to give the CRTC a little advice before the Regulator releases its public notice announcing the September hearing into an overhaul of the regulation of the TV business in Canada this coming Monday.
As reported by Cartt.ca, this past Monday the CBC offered up a proposed new distribution order which would govern new fee-for-carriage negotiations between broadcasters and cable and satellite companies (actually, the broadcasters are trying to “re-brand” the fee-for-carriage battle to one entitled value for signal, but we digress…)
Together, Shaw Communications, Telus, Rogers Communications, Cogeco and Bell…
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GATINEAU – As Cartt.ca reported last week, the CRTC has a big day coming up on Monday. Not only is the network management hearing beginning that day, the Regulator is also launching a new proceeding seeking structural reform of the TV sector while releasing new rules (and potentially a new amount) for its yet-to-be-launched Local Programming Improvement Fund.
The CRTC’s Ontario commissioner Rita Cugini addressed the two broadcasting items in a speech to the Radio Television News Directors Association on Saturday, noting that structural reform for the TV biz seems to be a necessity.
“The Broadcasting Act specifies that…
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