HUBERT LACROIX’S EXCELLENT article on CBC’s web and digital activities has one flaw, it aggrandizes the audience numbers of cbc.ca, which by any measure are small compared to conventional CBC TV and radio.
M. Lacroix would do well to read my CRTC report on measuring audience success, which defines terms like audience reach (Click here for that)
Audience reach is the measure used for the web primarily because it conceals the fact that very few people actually visit most individual web sites with any frequency.
Here is how I defined reach: "Reach is sometimes called cume audience…
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TORONTO – About 100 people have been let go from the media division at Rogers Communications.
That includes those working for the television side (Citytv, OMNI, Sportsnet, Biography, G4TechTV, etc,), The Shopping Channel, radio, publishing, Rogers Digital, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre.
While spokesperson Suneel Khanna said he couldn’t be specific on the actual number let go, the cuts came from across the country “and from a broad cross-segment of companies under the Rogers Media umbrella.”
Khanna added there will be no further cuts for the balance of the year and that “today’s changes leave us…
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TORONTO – CBC Radio One "broke multiple records" according to BBM’s Fall (S4) radio results, including an all-time record share of 11.1, up from 9.9 a year ago, and a record audience of just under 3.5 million, surpassing its previous record of just over 3.2 million listeners.
It also ranked first in the Toronto market with a 9.4 share, one full percentage point above last years’ score, and ahead of perennial favourites CHUM FM and CHFI. They rounded out Toronto’s top three with an 8.8 and 8.4 share, respectively.
Radio One’s Toronto morning show with Andy Barrie garnered top…
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GATINEAU – When Star Choice took Sun TV (Quebecor’s Toronto station, CKXT) and CBKT Regina (CBC) out of its channel lineup in May, it did not violate its conditions of licence, the CRTC ruled Thursday.
Back in May, the DTH company (a division of Shaw Communications) took five stations out of its basic package, including the two mentioned above as well as CTV Calgary, which was quickly reinstated after customers complained. French-language CBC news channel RDI was also taken off, but the Commission forced Star Choice to reinstate it last week, as Cartt.ca reported.
This followed a stern Commission…
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TORONTO – CTV announced 105 job cuts today, most of them in Toronto, and many of those are reportedly coming from the 299 Queen St. W. location.
The announcement follows a memo to staff from CEO Ivan Fecan last week warning that falling advertising revenues would result in layoffs and a hiring freeze.
A company statement from EVP human resources Dawn Fell said that no further staff reductions would be made for the balance this year.
However, CTV should be making commitments to the employees losing their jobs that employment will return when times are better, says Canada’s largest…
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TORONTO – CBC News publisher John Cruickshank will be leaving the broadcaster to return to his newspaper roots.
Cruickshank, 55, has been appointed publisher of the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper, effective January 1, 2009. He is the 9th publisher in the newspaper’s 116-year history.
He has served as publisher of CBC News since September, 2007, when he was hired with much fanfare to replace the departed former CBC News head Tony Burman, who went to Al-Jazeera.
Cruickshank was responsible for all English language television, radio and online news at CBC. Before joining the CBC, he was publisher of…
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TORONTO – Along with Canwest and CTV, count the CBC as another Canadian broadcaster telling staff that it must cut back on discretionary spending and that new hires will be closely scrutinized.
Of course, it’s nowhere near as bad as at Canwest, which cut 210 positions from its TV division less than two weeks ago, or at CTV, which said last week layoffs are likely coming, but with a $45 million dollar revenue shortfall on the English side of the CBC coupled with the downturn in the economy and a soft ad market, the national public broadcaster has…
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TORONTO – BBM Nielsen’s early overnight data says that 3.65 million Canadians watched the Grey Cup on TSN and RDS, up 5% over last year, when it was on the CBC.
On TSN, 2.439 million Canadians watched the Calgary Stampeders defeat the Montreal Alouettes in the 96th edition of the Grey Cup, while an additional 1.215 million viewers watched French-language coverage on RDS.
Audience numbers for the broadcast on TSN peaked at 3.14 million viewers between 8:56 and 8:57 p.m. ET, just as time expired on the Alouettes’ failed final attempt to tie the game in the fourth quarter….
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TWO OF CANADA’S BIGGEST media conglomerates have announced cuts as fallout from the bursting financial bubble spreads. Last week, Canwest announced it was cutting 560 jobs in its TV and newspaper operations; this week, CTVglobemedia warned of looming layoffs.
The economic crisis makes the announcements seem reasonable and prudent, but the cuts are unfortunately part of a longer trend. Why invest in local programming and reporting when the real money is in newspaper monopolies, cable specialty channels and prime-time simulcasting of American hit shows?
In the midst of the debacle, the CRTC – which approved media mergers as the…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications’ DTH company Star Choice must distribute French news channel Le Réseau de l’information (RDI) to all digital subscribers living in Anglophone markets as part of its digital basic service, the CRTC has ruled.
The CBC filed a complaint with the Commission in May, alleging that Star Choice refused to offer RDI as part of its ‘English Essentials’ basic service package in Anglophone markets, despite “repeated efforts” on its part to secure carriage. The CBC argued that this is contrary to objectives in the Commission’s Distribution Order 2007-3, set out as appendix 4 to Broadcasting Decision…
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