DESPITE THE CLOSING OF Canadian Digital Television (CDTV) at the end of August 2006, both the Canadian television industry and government still saw a need for further collaboration on technical and operational issues surrounding the roll-out of digital television in Canada.
To that end, a new group called the Digital Television Technology Group (DTV-TG) was formed about one year ago.
The Technology Group (whose web site can be found here) carries out collaborative investigative projects and research “to provide decision makers in industry and government with the technical information they need to plan for, and advance, the roll-out…
Continue Reading
HALIFAX – CBC News At Six has debuted a new, state of the art weather system, as well as a new web presence aimed at delivering storm information to Canadians.
CBC Television in Nova Scotia has launched the new weather system “providing real-time forecasting technology that radically improves how local weather information is presented,” says the press release.
CBC News At Six is the first program in the region to use the TrueView system, one which features realistic images and 3-D perspectives.
“TrueView combines up-to-the-minute radar data from Environment Canada’s radar sites throughout Canada enabling the Corp.’s new weather…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The fall ratings book (the REALLY important one) for Canadian radio stations was released this morning – and surprisingly, major ratings swings were minimal across the country.
Perhaps the best-performing stations in terms of overall ratings share are the cross-Canada group of CBC radio stations. CBC Radio has 15 morning shows ranked in the top three in their respective time slots: Toronto’s Metro Morning, Vancouver’s Early Edition and Ottawa’s Ottawa Morning all secured the No. 1 positions with audience and market share numbers at all-time highs.
For example, CBC Ottawa turned in a 21.1 A12+ share, way…
Continue Reading
EVEN FOR A PROPONENT of spectrum set-asides, mandated roaming and mandated tower sharing, the rules surrounding the 2008 advanced wireless spectrum auction, which were released Wednesday afternoon in Toronto by Industry Minister Jim Prentice, aren’t quite a slam dunk.
MTS Allstream’s regulatory chief Chris Peirce was pleased Industry Canada had accepted his, and others’, argument that a leg up was required for newcomers to enter the space and increase wireless competition in Canada, but was non-committal about putting the rules into practice. “At a policy level, the government and the ministry have clearly gotten it. They understand that…
Continue Reading
QUEBEC CITY – Canoe.TV, a web broadcast of original material and content from traditional sources, launched Wednesday. About 50 titles are currently available with more than 400 choices expected within the next year.
“Canoe.TV positions our Canoe.ca portal and Quebecor Media at the leading edge of the rapidly growing online video phenomenon that is being driven by strong consumer demand,” Quebecor Media Inc. president and CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said during a presentation at a conference entitled Monetizing Digital Media.
“News and sports are strong, but some of the biggest growth is online viewing of entire episodes of shows developed…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Outgoing CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Robert Rabinovitch said Tuesday the public broadcaster needs a contract with Canadian in order to reach its potential before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.
It’s a message similar to the one Rabinovitch delivered last march in his first appearance before the standing committee, which is review the role of the public broadcaster in the 21st century. Today was his second and last appearance before the committee.
“The Broadcasting Act has not changed in more than 15 years, CBC/Radio-Canada has not received an increase to its base operating appropriation in more than…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – A national average audience of 3.337 million viewers tuned in to see the Saskatchewan Roughriders defeat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23-19 on CBC on Sunday. The 95th Grey Cup Championship drew the sixth highest game-only audience since 1996, when the process of tracking game only audiences began.
The figure is 4% above the 3.202 million viewers that tuned into the 2006 Grey Cup game.
Audiences peaked at 3.791 million viewers between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET. An average of 2.887 million viewers watched the entire broadcast, including the pre-game player introductions and post-game interviews, on CBC….
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CBC is about to become platform-agnostic, as they say, as the Corp. announced today the integration of all its English language platforms, including television, radio and CBC.ca.
“CBC/Radio-Canada recognizes that in order to keep pace with emerging trends in media usage, it needs to transform from a collection of individual platform-specific networks into an integrated provider of content,” said outgoing president and CEO Robert Rabinovitch, in a statement. “Increasingly, Canadians are consuming their news, information and entertainment programs through the technological platform of their choice.”
“If our audiences are to maintain access to quality Canadian content,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CBC Television on Wednesday announced its lineup of new shows for the winter season, including three dramatic series, a new half-hour comedy, a daily daytime lifestyle show and a new reality TV series.
The shows are: The Border, a new drama series focused on border-security issues centered around what happens along the “world’s longest undefended border” (debuts Monday, January 7 at 9 p.m.); MVP, a drama about some fictitious professional NHL hockey players, their wives, lovers and puck bunnies (debuts Friday, January 11 at 9 p.m.); Sophie, a comedy series about a modern woman making her way…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – CBC Radio’s “The Sunday Edition” is planning a special taping to mark its 500th episode with a program featuring Giller Prize winner Elizabeth Hay, actors R.H. Thomson and Yanna McIntosh and musician Guido Basso with host Michael Enright.
It will also include historian Michael Bliss, Montreal journalist Francine Pelletier, jazz sensation Sophie Milman, and regular contributors Risa Shuman and Robert Enright, along with the show’s jazz trio Mark Eisenman, Terry Clarke and Neil Swainson.
The episode will be taped on Tuesday, November 20 at 7 p.m. in the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. Free tickets can be…
Continue Reading