TORONTO – CBC Television attracted its largest audience yet for the Olympic Games last night (Mon. Aug. 25), as an average of 1.590 million viewers tuned into Olympic Prime (6 p.m. to 12 midnight ET).
CBC also attracted its largest peak audience of the 2008 Games during this time, as 2.574 million viewers tuned in at 11:49 p.m. ET to see Canada’s Simon Whitfield shift into high gear and take silver in the men’s triathlon, crossing the finish line just five seconds after Germany’s Jan Frodeno.
Plus, Pacific prime saw its largest average audience yet of the 2008 Beijing Games as…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – More than 15 million Canadians tuned in to watch Olympic coverage on CBC Television on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, claims the CBC.
The total number of people who tuned in at some point from the beginning of Friday’s coverage until midnight Sunday (programming which included the opening ceremony and the first two full days of competition), was 15.2 million people. But the numbers pale in comparison to China’s.
According to Reuters, the four-hour opening ceremonies on Friday night drew as much as 69% of China’s total audience of 1.3 billion, or 842 million viewers. China, which is largely…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – In an attempt to reflect the converging industries it regulates, the CRTC today issued its first ever monitoring report that covers the entire telecom, cable and broadcast industry.
The first Communications Monitoring Report shows that the Canadian communications industry posted revenues of $51.1 billion in 2007, an increase of 5.7% over the $48.3 billion reported in 2006.
"The convergence of technologies and industries has dramatically reshaped the communications landscape in recent years," said Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C., chairman of the CRTC. "This year’s monitoring report gives us our first comprehensive look at the state of the overall…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The CBC announced today that it will offer a daily online Olympic highlights package in Mandarin. Beginning Aug. 9, and continuing through to Aug. 24, four web sites, including CBCSports.ca, will feature the daily Mandarin-language Olympic highlights package.
“CBC is committed to providing all Canadians with the most comprehensive coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games,” said Joel Darling, director of production, CBC Sports. “This is a great opportunity to serve more of Canada’s rich and diverse communities and CBCSports.ca is an ideal platform to reach them and bring them closer to the Games.”
The highlights in Mandarin…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – XM Canada today said it is “diligently reviewing its options following the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision to approve a merger between U.S. companies XM Satellite Radio Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.,” reads a Canadian Satellite Radio press release issued today.
"XM Canada is in a strong strategic position to maximize any opportunities that arise for the enhanced benefit of our shareholders and customers," said Michael Moskowitz, president and CEO of XM Canada.
"We are now evaluating how best to leverage the FCC’s decision so that we optimize our critical, market-leading advantages, which include innovative partnerships,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CBC Television announced today that U.S. broadcaster ABC has acquired the U.S. rights to 18 To Life, a new single-camera comedy series, whose pilot is currently in production.
While it’s the first time a Canadian and a U.S. network have teamed up for a half-hour prime-time comedy, according to the press release, the two networks have worked together before, most notably on the poorly rated reality series The One: Making a Music Star.
“18 To Life is a domestic comedy about a couple that does the unthinkable: they get married at the tender age of 18. Their…
Continue Reading
WASHINGTON – While the Sirius-XM merger process officially ended on Friday, the debate continues on whether satellite radio is any closer to becoming mainstream.
After 17 months of deliberation and intense lobbying by broadcasters to halt the merger, the Federal Communications Commission approved the deal in a 3-2 vote after Sirius and XM agreed to pay $19.7 million in fines.
It was Republican commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate’s vote that removed the final hurdle to the merger’s completion. The companies voluntarily agreed to pay a combined $19.7 million in fines to settle FCC rule violations to gain her support. This includes locating towers…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The unions and guilds that represent Canada’s professional performers, directors and screenwriters are lining up in support of The Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) efforts to secure equitable agreements for program rights in negotiations with the major private broadcast networks, as well as the CBC.
"We support the independent producers’ position that equitable terms of trade agreements are needed to secure fairer deals for program rights," said Stephen Waddell, national executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). "Reaching fair terms for granting rights is a struggle with which we…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Canada’s English and French-language producers say they are determined to reach a fair deal with television networks as each side prepares to make their case on a new deal for program rights across a variety of platforms and media.
Tomorrow, the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFPTA), which represents the majority of English-language independent producers, is slated to sit down with CTV, Canwest Global and Rogers to begin negotiating so-called “terms of trade” negotiations – framework agreements aimed at defining and valuing program rights. These framework agreements would apply to individual negotiations between broadcasters and producers…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CFTPA has added one of the architects of the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement, Gordon Ritchie, to its negotiating team, just prior to beginning talks on program rights deals with the major private over-the-air television networks, as well as CBC.
“Gordon’s wealth of experience and sound judgment will be invaluable to us as we sit down with CTV, Canwest Global, Rogers and CBC to negotiate more equitable trading terms with our broadcaster partners that reflect the realities facing independent Canadian producers,” said Canadian Film and Television Producers Association chair Sandra Cunningham, in a release.
According to the…
Continue Reading
