TORONTO – Canadian Jewish groups have indicated to the CRTC that they will not oppose making the English version of the Al Jazeera available to Canadians.
CRTC Ontario commissioner Rita Cugini noted that fact in a speech this weekend at the RTNDA ProDev day in Toronto.
The public consultation ended June 8 and sponsor Ethnic Channels Group filed its final reply to the Regulator on June 22.
“Among the submissions we received was one from B’nai Brith Canada, whose representatives had met with Tony Burman, Managing Director of Al Jazeera English (and former head of CBC News). They expressed…
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IT MAY NOT BE UNTIL 2010 when the CRTC holds licence renewal proceedings for the big Canadian TV companies, but the new chief executive of Canada’s national producers association has been working hard on that file for weeks already.
“We believe that the corporate group licence renewal hearings that are coming up in 2010 are probably the most important regulatory event of our generation and will have wide-ranging impact for the next 25 or 30 years,” said Norm Bolen, president and CEO of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA), in a recent interview with Cartt.ca. “It’s very…
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OTTAWA – After dominating the three months worth of hearings earlier this Spring, the House of Commons committee on Canadian Heritage left out any recommendation on the controversial issue of fee for carriage in its report on the state of local television released Friday.
The committee heard testimony from 45 different groups in March, April and May about the issues and challenges facing Canada’s TV industry, from the importance of local television, to the fragmentation of TV audiences, through to declining advertising revenues.
Made up of MPs from all of the federal parties, the standing committee’s report made 18…
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TORONTO – Breaking news from the CBC: It is no longer a TV network but a "content provider." This, according to the CBC’s Richard Stursberg who was a keynote speaker at Tuesday afternoon’s Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto.
"We will be there on whatever platform you need us to be on," said Stursberg.
The executive vice-president of CBC English Services, brought lots of slides to demonstrate how the CBC is already positioning itself to deliver content online and to mobile devices like the iPhone.
Stursberg said that CBC’s traditional strengths in news and sports position it well on the…
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BANFF – Home Box Office’s (HBO) John Adams was the big winner on Monday as it picked up the Grand Jury Prize as the best of the best – as well as the best drama award at the Banff World Television Awards, or Rockies, ceremony.
“OMFG. We got the big one,” said David Baldwin, executive vice-president of programming planning at HBO, in accepting the Grand Jury Prize. “John Adams was a special project for HBO.”
The U.S. mini-series about U.S. president John Adams also has Emmy and Golden Globe wins.
The Rockie for best Canadian program went to Passage,…
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OTTAWA – CBC/Radio-Canada offered its congratulations to the new appointees to the board of the Canada Media Fund (CMF), and wished them well as they set to tackle the “formidable” challenges ahead.
“The Canadian television industry is at a critical juncture. The model for conventional broadcasting is broken and the future of high-quality Canadian programming is at risk”, read CBC/Radio-Canada’s statement on Wednesday. It went on to express confidence that the CMF “will play a central role in ensuring the continued viability of Canadian programming”.
The statement also stressed the need that the principles laid out earlier this year by the Government…
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OTTAWA – Current Media Canada has received CRTC approval to launch ‘Current TV’, a cat. 2 diginet aimed at young adults that will broadcast short-form, user-generated content.
Current Media Canada is co-owned by the CBC and former U.S. vice president Al Gore’s company Current Media. The companies announced their partnership last November.
Versions of Current are available in over 58 million households in the U.K., Ireland and Italy, through Comcast, Time Warner, DirecTV, Dish Network, Verizon, AT&T, BSkyB, Virgin Media and Sky Italia.
www.crtc.gc.ca www.current.com
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MONCTON, EDMONTON, and VANCOUVER – The Radio and Television News Directors’ Association (RTNDA) has announced its 2008 winners of the best in electronic journalism.
For the Atlantic region, the winners are:
Television: Bert Cannings Award – Best Newscast – CBC Newfoundland & Labrador for CBC News: Here & Now – (Medium Market) – CBAT for Flood Coverage – (Medium Market – Honourable Mention)
Charlie Edwards Award – Spot News – CBC TV Nova Scotia for Porter’s Lake Fire
Dan McArthur Award – In-depth/Investigative – CBC TV St. John’s for Bankrupt Developer – Telejournal Acadie for Heritage Toxique Aux Iles…
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BANFF – Rescue Toya!, from Japan’s public broadcaster NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.), picked up the Interactive Grand Prize and the Immersive Entertainment award on Saturday night at nextMEDIA.
Gaza-Sderot: life in spite of everything, a production from France by Bo Travail in association with Alma Films, Trabelsi Productions, Ramattan Studio and Upian.com was named best Original Online Program.
www.bitchinlifestyle.tv was named the Best Canadian Emerging Digital Brand. Bitchinlifestyle TV is a web destination for the cooking, décor and lifestyle interests of a new media savvy 18-35 demo.
Organizers dubbed it the “first annual nextMEDIA Interactive awards, but prizes were…
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TORONTO – Bell TV will add six new high definition channels to its lineup next week, boosting its HD offering to an “industry-leading” 86 channels, with 41 of them available at no additional charge.
Beginning June 10, Bell TV subscribers will be able to watch CBC Montreal HD, CTV Calgary HD, Global Calgary HD, SRC Ottawa HD, Sun TV HD and TV5 HD at no additional charge. SRC Ottawa in standard definition will also join Bell’s lineup.
"The addition of these six new HD channels is another demonstration of Bell TV’s commitment to bring Canadians the HD programming they…
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