WINNIPEG – CoolTV, the first TV channel in Canada devoted to jazz, will cease broadcasting on July 21, according to a notice to subscribers on its website.
The note states: “Canwest Broadcasting continually reviews its assets and determines which have the most potential for growth, profitability and warrant investment. It is through our analysis, we as broadcasters are sometimes left with difficult choices. With the decision to discontinue CoolTV, we can now invest more in the channels that have the greatest potential and look forward to bringing our viewers more great specialty programming in the future.”
CoolTV subscribers are…
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TORONTO – After adding more than 250,000 subscribers since October 2007, Sirius Canada reported Thursday it now has surpassed the 750,000 mark.
"Sirius has experienced a surge of growth in the past eight months from both the automotive and retail channel," said Mark Redmond, president and CEO of Sirius Canada, which is co-owned by Sirius, CBC and the Slaight Family.
"The last eight months were the strongest period of subscriber growth since launch (December 2005) and our success to-date has surpassed the expectations of the company’s management and shareholders,” added Redmond.
Sirius also announced that later this month it…
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TORONTO – CBC Radio has announced the new hosts for programs slated to begin airing this fall as part of the new schedule for Radio 2.
“While classical music remains central to the schedule, there is now room for more excellent Canadian music in a mix of genres. These additions will complete the transformation of CBC Radio 2 into a high quality, inclusive and commercial-free Canadian adult music service,” says this week’s press release.
Monday to Friday from 6 to 10 a.m., Tom Allen will host CBC Radio 2’s new morning show, which will serve as the gateway to…
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BANFF – Twentieth Century Fox Studios will be remaking the CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie for broadcast in the U.S. market on the Fox network, the Canadian producer announced Monday.
Mary Darling, head of Westwind Pictures, told Cartt.ca the two parties have an agreement in principle and a deal will be signed in the next few days. She said Westwind will be working closely with Twentieth Century Fox on the adaptation of the half-hour series about a community of Muslims living in a small prairie town. The U.S. studio, which is bankrolling the remake, is currently getting…
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TORONTO – “Dunt-da-dunt-da-dunt…” is now part of the CTVglobemedia empire.
It was a battle that has raged for the better part of a week and when CBC couldn’t come to an agreement to continue to license the Hockey Night In Canada theme song, CTVglobemedia crashed the net hard yesterday and scored, buying it outright.
CBC, to the surprise of many, didn’t actually own the iconic theme music to the program and had simply been paying a license fee to composer Dolores Claman ($500 a game) for the past four decades.
However, she had a pending lawsuit against the CBC…
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BANFF – The 2008 Canadian New Media Award finalists were unveiled Sunday at the nextMEDIA conference, with four firms from across Canada vying for Company of the Year.
Moment Factory, of Montreal; Big Blue Bubble, of London, Ontario; Marble Media, of Toronto; and Vision Critical, of Vancouver, BC were chosen from about 50 entries as the nominees for Company of the Year following an extensive process, including interviews with each.
Nominated in the Most Promising Company of the Year category were b5 Media, Filemobile and Viigo, all from Toronto.
The awards ceremony will be combined with a new media…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC said today that while many things should change about the Canadian Television Fund, Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media still have to pay into it – and in a timely manner.
And, while the Commission also said it would alter the BDU regs to make monthly contributions to the CTF mandatory, the report says it won’t make that move until the federal government has dealt with the substantive issues covered by the report.
That means distributors could still choose to withhold monthly payments in favour of quarterly or annual ones until Heritage Minister Josee Verner and…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC said today that while many things should change about the Canadian Television Fund, Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media should not be able to opt out of paying into it.
As reported today by Cartt.ca, The Commission today submitted its report on the CTF to the Minister of Canadian Heritage. It contains 11 recommendations relating to the CTF’s mandate and governance structure. (Click here to follow the links to the full background of this story.)
“It is our hope that the recommendations we have put forward will assist in resolving the issues surrounding the CTF,” said…
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FREDERICTON – RTNDA Canada continued its cross-country awards program this weekend with the RTNDA Awards at the Atlantic Region Pro Dev Seminar & Awards Banquet held Saturday evening in Fredericton, NB.
The 2007 TELEVISION winners are:
Bert Cannings Award – Best Newscast * Global News Maritimes for Gagetown Soldiers Killed – (Medium Market)
Charlie Edwards Award – Spot News * Global News Maritimes for "Armed Robbery" * Global News Maritimes for "Tire Fire" – (Honourable Mention)
Dan McArthur Award – In-depth/Investigative * CTV Atlantic for Climate of Change
Dave Rogers Award – Short Feature * CTV Atlantic for Kitchen…
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TORONTO – At a media conference today in Toronto, Rogers Communications vice-chairman Phil Lind will go on the attack once again against the conventional broadcasters’ goal of gaining a fee for carriage – and against his fear the CRTC might create such a fee and tie it to the production of local news.
Rogers, the recent buyers of the Citytv network and owners of the OMNI group of conventional stations, has asked for no such fee and fears the Commission may be thinking about poking its nose too deeply into the inner workings of the industry.
“Canada’s broadcast regulator,…
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