MONTREAL – France’s Legion of Honour, the highest of that country’s national orders, is being conferred on Radio-Canada’s executive vice-president Sylvain Lafrance at a special ceremony in Ottawa on Friday.
Lafrance has been so named "in recognition of his outstanding efforts within the public service to develop and project French language and culture, and of his commitment to issues of diversity, cultural coexistence and protecting identities," says the CBC press release.
He joins a distinguished list of recipients that includes such folks as retired U.S. General Norman Schwartzkopf, singer Barbara Streisand, chemist Louis Pasteur, Canadian film director/producer Denys Arcand,…
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OTTAWA – While operating revenues for TV broadcasting companies continue to rise, profits fell sharply last year according to Statistics Canada.
Overall, revenues for the television broadcasting industry just topped $6 billion in the 2006 broadcast year, ended August 31, 2006. That’s a gain of 8.2% over 2005 and was the third largest year-over-year revenue increase in the past decade.
Ad revenue for the whole Canadian TV industry rose 7.6% to $3.3 billion, while subscription revenues jumped 11.3% to $1.6 billion, continues the Statscan report.
However, profits before interest and taxes for private conventional television fell 62.5% from $242.7 million…
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TORONTO – Ethnic web-caster JumpTV announced a partnership with Telelatino today that grants JumpTV the exclusive Internet broadcast rights to the World Cup of Soccer Finals and the Women’s World Cup in the Spansh, Portugese and Italian Languages.
CBC holds the multiplatform rights for English and French and the Jump-Telelatino agreement is subject to the approval of FIFA, the sport’s governing body. If approved, soccer fans throughout Canada will be able to see all of the FIFA championship tournaments through 2014 live on the Internet. Hundreds of matches which won’t be available on television in Canada are expected to…
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OTTAWA – If the level of radio today’s teenagers now listen to stays consistent as they age, the long-term future of radio appears a little bleak.
Numbers released today by Statistics Canada show that overall, Canadians devoted less time listening to their radios as a form of entertainment in 2006 than in previous years (see chart below), especially teenagers and young adults, many of whom appear to be switching to digital music players and online music services.
"On average, Canadians tuned in to their radios for 18.6 hours during ‘measurement week’ in fall 2006, down from 19.1 hours…
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VANCOUVER – The best of 2006 were honoured over the weekend in Vancouver as the association of electronic journalists, RTNDA Canada, gathered to present and receive its annual awards.
This year RTNDA Canada created five new award categories to recognize outstanding videography, use of sound, new media, information programming and diversity.
The RTNDA "Diversity Tool Kit" which was released across the country in January offers practical solutions to bring diversity to our stories and to our newsrooms. To acknowledge those accomplishments RTNDA created a new Diversity Award.
Global Calgary, CBC Radio 99.1 Toronto, CBC National Radio News and The…
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OTTAWA – Astral Media Radio Inc. is proposing a $63.3 million benefits package over seven years as it seeks regulatory approval for its $1.082 billion acquisition of 52 over-the-air radio stations and two small-market TV stations from Standard Radio Inc. Astral also pledges to take measures to ensure compliance by the Standard Radio stations that didn’t meet licence conditions with regard to Canadian content, and to pay any outstanding tangible benefit amounts connected to stations previously purchased by Standard that are included in the Astral deal.
Referring to the deal as “evolutionary, and not revolutionary,” Astral tells the CRTC…
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BANFF – Although the combination of two major regulated TV assets was the talk of the 2007 Banff World Television Festival (Hello, Rogers/Citytv), the focus of the event’s final panel was on the potential impact of unregulated new media vs. the fortunes of old media.
In fact, the first question posed by moderator (and festival CEO) Robert Montgomery during his closing session on the BWTVF green Paper to the diverse collection of opinion leaders was: Will the TV industry collapse in the face of broadband Internet and other unregulated platforms?
The question may sound like a Chicken Little approach…
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TORONTO – CBCNews.ca has partnered with blog and social media search engine Technorati.com to give its web readers access to more than 86 monitored blogs.
CBCNews.ca stories now include direct links to blogs around Canada and the globe that discuss the news.
The CBC said the deal is “part of its continuous commitment to enhancing the web experience for users.”
The CBC articles that generate the most discussions on blogs can be monitored at http://cbcnews.ca/blogwatch.
The CBC has a social networking site of its own, called The Great Canadian Wishlist, where Canadians can share their wish for the nation….
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TORONTO – Thirty-five-year CBC veteran Tony Burman announced Tuesday he’s leaving his position as editor-in-chief of CBC News, Current Affairs and Newsworld on July 13. He has been in the position since February 2000.
“Since so much of my life has been connected with the CBC, I obviously have mixed emotions about this, but mostly I have feelings of elation. And – can I say it? – liberation,” Burman said in a note sent to CBC staff Tuesday.
Esther Enkin will serve as acting editor-in-chief, and Don Knox will oversee Television News and Newsworld during the transition period. A…
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TORONTO – The CBC will launch a website called CBC Aboriginal on June 21, which is National Aboriginal Day. The website, at www.cbc.ca/aboriginal, will contain CBC’s coverage of Aboriginal issues from its television, radio and web properties.
The public broadcaster noted in a media release that the new website is part of its commitment to offer diverse regional and cultural perspectives.
“Our goal is to provide better access to the volume of quality programming produced by CBC that reflects Aboriginal life in Canada,” said CBC Television manager of diversity initiatives Alden Habacon. “We’re hoping this website will improve our…
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