OTTAWA and TORONTO – The CBC could cut even more jobs, now that federal government has it to participate in its strategic review program which asks government departments to identify up to 5% of spending that may be cut.
The CBC informed staff on Friday that the public broadcaster will have to take part in the program this year, and president Hubert Lacroix encouraged employees to “hang in there”.
“The objective of the strategic review is to evaluate all of our program and spending activities to identify the lowest priorities in terms of carrying out our mandate,” Lacroix said Friday in…
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TORONTO – The CBC has added management of its media sales and marketing to the role of its executive director of sports, Scott Moore, the corp announced Thursday.
Moore has been the interim general manager of media sales and marketing since February.
"Scott has brought considerable knowledge and experience to media sales and marketing while holding this position on an interim basis," said Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of CBC English services, in the announcement. "Our sports properties are our largest generator of revenue, making Scott no stranger to the sales and marketing environment."
www.cbc.ca
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TORONTO – Jennifer McGuire has been confirmed as the new general manager and editor-in-chief of CBC News, effective immediately, the public broadcaster announced Wednesday.
The former executive director of CBC Radio has acted as the interim head of CBC’s English language news service since November, 2008. She will assume responsibility for CBC Newsworld, all local and network news, plus current affairs programming on CBC Television, CBC Radio, and website CBCNews.ca.
“Jennifer is an award-winning journalist and one of the country’s best programmers,” said Richard Stursberg, executive vice president of CBC English Services, in the statement announcing McGuire’s appointment. “She’s…
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HE HAS A PAIR OF BlackBerrys on his desk, but his iPhone is what’s tucked in his jacket pocket. It goes with him always and everywhere.
He was first elected as MP in 2000, at the age of 24, in his Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, B.C. riding, but his official bio lists the former radio and TV reporter/commentator’s occupation as “broadcaster.”
He’s mentioned every now and then as a candidate for much higher office that the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.
And while his cabinet colleagues struggle with the multi-billion dollar requests from the likes of car companies…
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TORONTO – On Monday afternoon, CTV received a letter from Shaw Communications asking to see the package of due diligence information it has prepared on CHWI-TV Windsor, CKNX-TV Wingham and CKX-TV Brandon.
Readers will recall that last week, in a newspaper ad, Shaw Communications offered to buy the three TV stations (two Ontario A-Channel stations and one CBC affiliate in Brandon) for a dollar each – the sum for which CTV CEO Ivan Fecan previously said he could not find a buyer.
About two hours after hearing of the offer from the Cartt.ca story about the ad last…
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GATINEAU – Bell Canada says it has continued to develop an interesting way for the conventional broadcast industry to go digital, but it is bumping up against stiff opposition by those broadcasters to its so-called (and perhaps mis-named) FreeSat proposal.
In a nutshell, Bell is offering broadcasters the ability to distribute their local signals digitally, via satellite, covering their entire traditional over-the-air contours, without upgrading a single transmitter. And beyond paying about $450 for the required dish, set top box and installation, FreeSat would not cost the tens of thousands of OTA-only consumers a monthly subscription fee to Bell TV,…
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GATINEAU – This morning, CTV began its second appearance before the CRTC’s OTA licence renewal hearing this week with some tense exchanges with the panel’s commissioners, some unvarnished attacks on broadcast distributors, and a call for the regulator to protect the interests of consumers.
The tension level in the room first rose over the issue of the coming transition to digital transmission. CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein noted the possibility of FreeSat signal delivery didn’t figure much in CTV’s application. He noted that Bell Canada proposed such a model yesterday, to ensure off-air viewers would continue to be served…
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TORONTO – About two hours after having been informed by Cartt.ca that an offer to buy three troubled TV stations was coming from Shaw Communications, CTV said it will accept the $3 offer.
An exclusive story broken by Cartt.ca this afternoon revealed that Shaw Communications was placing a full page newspaper ad in tomorrow and Saturday’s Globe and Mail, as well as The Hill Times on Monday morning.
The ad, signed by CEO Jim Shaw, warns Canadians their broadcasters are seeking a bailout worth hundreds of millions of dollars. “They call this Fee for Carriage. Without mincing words, this…
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OTTAWA – Six in ten Canadian voters believe that Prime Minister Harper and the Conservative government are “hostile” to the CBC/SRC, and would like to “diminish public broadcasting in Canada”, says a survey conducted on behalf of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.
The survey, which was conducted by public opinion research firm Pollara, was released Wednesday in advance of Canadian Heritage Minister Moore’s appearance before the Heritage Committee.
The online survey of 3,361 voting age Canadians was conducted to gauge the attitudes of Canadians when it comes to their public broadcaster. According to the press release, it found an electorate…
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GATINEAU – Telus senior vice-president regulatory and government affairs Michael Hennessy asked a question that was a little uncomfortable for the commissioners – and probably the employees at broadcast stations – to hear:
To paraphrase, Hennessy asked: What if viewers in the communities of the smaller nets which are in the most dire financial circumstances (E! and A Channels) have simply decided those stations are just not good enough to watch any more?
“What we’re looking at is nothing else than a very normal response of the market as designed by audience preference,” said Hennessy. “Perhaps these channels are…
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