TORONTO – CBC/Radio-Canada earlier this week reached an agreement to acquire a new central audio router and control system for all CBC/Radio-Canada radio production and distribution in Montreal and other areas from Lawo.
The upgrade begins in January 2008, with an intended on-air deployment by May 2008. Subsequently, the system will expand to four regional stations that will be integrated into the system by October 2008, with more stations integrating after this. The yearlong, multistage deployment is targeted for completion in December 2008.
The Lawo-designed Dual Self-Healing Star (DSHS) system architecture for CBC/Radio-Canada is built around two Lawo Nova 73…
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TORONTO – Ah, the on demand age is truly a golden age for consumers – where we can all get whatever we want, when we want it, wherever we are, on whatever device – for free or as close to free as possible.
The sense that broadcasters actually hate all that freedom was refreshing to hear spoken out loud at this week’s Canadian Digital Broadcasting Summit. The CBC’s Steve Billinger, while accepting this new paradigm is the way it is and there’s no going back, admitted broadcasters are being dragged kicking and screaming into the new reality.
“We clearly…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Monday released a letter it sent to the Conservative Party, indicating that its reporter Krista Erickson did provide an opposition party member with questions prior to the Ethics Committee hearing in December on the Mulroney/Schreiber affair.
As a result, Erickson has been removed from the story and reassigned to the public broadcaster’s Toronto offices, effective today.
In the letter to Conservative Party director of political operations, Doug Finley, a CBC executive writes that an investigation by CBC News senior management found there “was no bias in related news coverage.”
The publisher of…
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MONTREAL – Two potential buyers signalled enough interest in financially strapped Quebec television network TQS this week to convince a Quebec Superior Court judge to give the network another 45 days of court protection from creditors.
Judge Pierre Journet said the receipt of two letters of intention from the two unnamed suitors was an indication that TQS’s financial situation has not worsened to the detriment of creditors, and that a further delay constitutes a “reasonable and credible” condition to finding a long-term solution.
TQS was granted 30 days’ protection in December. The new delay gives controller RSM Richter…
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TORONTO – CBC announced a two-year broadcast and multimedia agreement with the International Skating Union (ISU) today that will cover the broadcast and multimedia airing of high profile events like the 2008 ISU World Figure Skating Championships, the 2009 ISU World Figure Skating Championships and the 2009 ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships.
CBC kicks off its new broadcast agreement on Tuesday, March 18, with coverage of the 2008 ISU World Figure Skating Championships from Gothenburg, Sweden on both CBC Television and CBC Country Canada. Viewers will also be able to watch the 2008 ISU World Figure Skating Championships…
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GATINEAU – This morning the CRTC will release its policy decision on the levels of media concentration in Canada, Cartt.ca has learned, just four months after holding a hearing, dubbed the “Diversity of Voices” proceeding in September.
While existing rules were used to make decisions in 2007 on Canwest’s purchase of Alliance Atlantis, CTVglobemedia’s acquisition of CHUM Ltd., Astral’s Standard Broadcasting buy and Rogers Media taking over the Citytv network, new rules will apply to any other mergers.
The old rules, for example, prevented CTVgm from taking the Citytv stations in its deal for CHUM…
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MONTREAL – While bankrupt convention television broadcaster TQS has been a drag on the company, Cogeco Inc. continues to grow thanks largely to its cable division.
"Cogeco’s first quarter financial result is very positive,” said company CEO Louis Audet in a release late Wednesday afternoon touting the company’s first quarter results.
“In the cable sector, Cogeco Cable has continued on its growth trajectory and is in an excellent position to achieve superior growth in 2008… With regards to the court order involving TQS, after careful thought, the time has come to end our participation in the general interest…
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OTTAWA – Thanks to over 500 Access to Information requests in just three months, CBC/Radio-Canada is having to staff up its Access to Information Office
CBC/Radio-Canada came under the Access to Information Act on September 1, 2007 and since then, it has received nearly 500 requests, “which is substantially higher than was anticipated, based on benchmarking against other organizations of similar size and scope,” says the Corp.
“For instance, this is more than the number of requests typically received by the Department of Industry for an entire year. Amongst the Crown Corporations that came under the Act on September…
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TORONTO – CBC Media Sales and Marketing has promoted Paula Kilpatrick to the position of director, national sales, the company announced this week.
She will oversee Toronto sales and new business development.
A 16-year sales industry veteran, Kilpatrick has been with CBC for 3.5 years, serving as senior manager, national sales. Prior to joining CBC, she held various broadcast sales positions at CanWest, The Comedy Network, and Showcase Television.
She currently sits on the Board of the National Advertising Benevolent Society (NABS) and has recently been appointed President of the Broadcast Executive Society (BES), becoming the first woman to…
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MONTREAL – Seems as though in the burgeoning new media world, holding a broadcast license is less of “a license to print money.”
Quebec broadcaster TQS today said it has “obtained an order by Québec Superior Court under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act with a view to protecting TQS and its subsidiaries from claims by creditors and allow it to reorganize its operations,” in the official press release.
In other words, TQS – a broadcaster 60%-owned by Cogeco Inc, and 40% by CTVglobemedia, is now under bankruptcy protection.
Issued for a period of 30 days, the order also applies…
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