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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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TORONTO – CBC and TSN each announced the details surrounding their respective coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics,, which begins August 8th.
In its final Olympics for a while (CTV owns the rights for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and the 2012 London Summer Games and will co-broadcast them with Rogers), CBC is pulling out all the stops, and will provide an unprecedented 2,400 hours of coverage.
Canadians will see the entire Games in high definition for first time ever
CBC’s broadcast of Beijing 2008 begins on Wednesday, August 6 at 4:45 a.m. ET on CBC Television and CBCSports.ca…
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TORONTO – Top line results from the Canadian radio ratings across Canada won’t cause too many PDs to break into a sweat.
A few top line (A12+) ratings share highlights:
* Cogeco’s CJMF-FM 93.3 (Rock and Talk) saw a nice spike to a rating of 13.8, up from its S1 showing of 10.8 and well ahead of a year ago, when it came in with a 7.1 showing
* Astral’s English-language Montreal rock station, CHOM-FM rebounded in the ratings to an 11.8 in this book. That’s up from S1’s 9.9 rating but still well off S2 2007’s 14.
*…
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OTTAWA – A review of broadcasting in new media is utterly unnecessary, says an unprecedented joint submission to the CRTC by Canada’s largest Internet service providers.
Friday was the deadline for submissions on PN 2008-44, which only asked for comments on what the scope of any future proceeding on Canadian broadcasting in new media might be. The Commission wants advice on what questions it might ask when it decides to undertake a review of what new media is doing to broadcasting and what Canadian regulations might have to say about it. At this point, it doesn’t want to…
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