TORONTO – Canadian actors, writers, musicians and others rallied on Wednesday in Toronto’s Simcoe Park, next to the CBC Broadcast Center, to encourage Canadians to vote for culture on October 14.
“Today we’re showing all parties that culture lives in Canada,” said screenwriter and Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) President Rebecca Schechter (Little Mosque, ‘Da Kink in my Hair). “We’re here to let all Canadians know that they can vote with their hearts and their heads in this election – by voting culture.”
Among those in attendance were songwriter/singer Melanie Doane, screenwriter Suzette Couture, playwright Linda Griffiths, singer Tabby…
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MONTREAL – The Office de consultation publique de Montreal (OCPM) on Wednesday will launch a public consultation on the site of the CBC broadcast antenna in Mount Royal Park. The first session starts at 7 p.m. at the Basement of Saint-Kevin Church, located at 5590 Côte-des-Neiges.
The consultation will focus on a new draft lease agreement for the broadcast tower as the current deal expires on December 31. The new agreement calls for the CBC antenna to be on the same site for another ten years. The amount to be paid by CBC/Radio-Canada would be $500,000 in the first…
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TORONTO – Former Hockey Night in Canada and Leafs TV executive John Shannon has been named as executive in charge of programming and production for the NHL Network.
Shannon will continue to serve in his current role as executive vice-president of programming and production for the National Hockey League.
His additional responsibilities include overseeing programming and production for the NHL Network in both Canada and the United States.
Shannon will work closely with Joe Gabor, director of the NHL Network in Canada. The NHL Network’s programming and production operations will continue to be based in Canada. The programming feed…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Broadcasters has announced the finalists for its Gold Ribbon Awards, honouring excellence in private broadcasting. The awards will be presented during the CAB 2008 Convention being held in Ottawa from November 2nd to 4th.
The Gold Ribbon Awards honour achievement in broadcasting in such categories as community service, breaking news, humour, public affairs, and diversity in news and information programming. The CAB received a total of 403 submissions for this year’s competition. Radio categories attracted 202 submissions, while TV and Specialty/Pay/Pay-per-view entries garnered 108 and 93 submissions respectively. After reviewing the entries, the…
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OTTAWA – With many Canadians concerned about the economy, environment, and our troops overseas, you’d think culture would not be on the radar in the federal election, but the parties have made promises that could affect broadcasting.
The Conservatives have vowed to change the make-up of the CRTC commissioners to better reflect the regions and francophones. Leader Stephen Harper said the chair position would alternate between English speakers and French speakers, the vice-chair positions (in broadcasting and telecom) would be split with one anglophone and one francophone, at least one-quarter of the commissioners would be French-speaking and would be…
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OTTAWA – Statistics Canada’s release yesterday of radio listenership data that’s a year old is the final one it will compile, the government’s numbers arm said.
This release (some of which we’ve quoted below for old time’s sake…) was based on a survey of Canadians aged 12 and older. The radio project of the Culture Statistics Program was a joint endeavour of the CRTC, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and Statistics Canada. The basic radio listening data are provided by BBM Canada.
The last television viewing data were released on March 31, 2006, for the fall of 2004.
Radio…
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TORONTO – Count CBC and The Score in the camp that doesn’t mind if Rogers ever carries TSN2.
The two broadcasters say TSN doesn’t have the regulatory authority to launch the new channel in the way it has been pitched and launched. (While the early launch was a struggle over money and channel placement, the larger carriers are bringing TSN2 aboard.)
TSN2 launched earlier this month – a re-named and bulked up version of the TSN Alternate feed, as Cartt.ca has reported. While TSN Alternate was fired up only when the sports service had conflicts with live…
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TORONTO – Former VJ, television and music executive Denise Donlon has been hired by the CBC to head up its radio division.
She will take up her role as executive director of radio, effective September 29, 2008.
Donlon, 52, is former president of Sony Music Canada and vice-president and general manager of CHUM Television’s MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic, and is one of the country’s best-known media executives, although she has focused much of her recent attention since departing Sony in 2004 on various international environmental and humanitarian initiatives.
"Denise is without question one of the broadcasting industry’s most talented and…
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TORONTO – "The CBC costs taxpayers over $1.1 billion per year. Do you think this is a good use of taxpayers dollars or a bad use of taxpayers dollars?" asks a Conservative Party fundraising letter which was recently received by Canadian TV watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.
So, asked Friends in a press release today, “What is (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper’s answer to this question?”
The letter from Conservative campaign director Doug Finley goes on to promise that: "I will personally share the overall results and any comments with the Prime Minister…People like you drive our policy development,”…
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TORONTO – While a recent survey by Solutions Research Group showed Canadians have pretty good ad recall, data on TV usage during the Summer Olympic Games was pretty interesting.
While one-in-three Canadians who followed the 17-day Olympics coverage on TV and online in Canada recall the McDonald’s brand as one of the sponsors or major advertisers during the Olympics, followed by Coca-Cola, Visa, Bell and RBC, they also paint a picture of consumers very reliant on television.
Sixty-four percent of the 1,000 people surveyed right after the Olympics said they followed ‘whatever was on generally,’ and that TV was…
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