OTTAWA-GATINEAU – As we told you on Monday, the CRTC will release its new policy on conventional, over-the-air television. In fact, it will be released today.
The primary issue is whether or not Canadians will soon have to pay an additional fee for conventional broadcast signals from CTV, Global and the CBC, as we noted on Monday.
Watch Cartt.ca today and tomorrow for more on this story.
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Saying the need for new subscriber fees wasn’t demonstrated by conventional broadcasters, the CRTC’s new convention television policy does not include a boost in Canadians’ cable or satellite bills.
The new policy will, however, "ensure Canadians have access to digital and high-definition television programming, and that broadcasters continue to contribute to the production, acquisition and broadcast of high-quality Canadian programming.
The Commission has decided to:
* Remove restrictions on advertising time limits after gradually increasing the amount of advertising allowed;
*Establish August 31, 2011, as the date by which television licensees will only broadcast digital signals (about…
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VANCOUVER – The CBC reached into the private broadcast pool of talent for a new leader in British Columbia.
M Channel’s vice-president of programming, Johnny Michel, has been hired by the CBC to the newly created position of regional director for the British Columbia region. He will be responsible for an integrated approach to all of CBC’s media platforms and starts on July 3, 2007.
“We have great talent and wonderful shows in British Columbia," said Jane Chalmers, vice-president for English Radio, in the press release. "The challenge is to build on our strengths, whether radio, television or digitally…
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OTTAWA – We’ll find out sometime in the next few days whether or not Canadians will be paying more for their television (among many other things). The CRTC’s new policy for conventional television will be released this week, likely tomorrow, said the Commission’s chairman last week.
In a speech to the British Columbia Association of Broadcasters, which Cartt.ca reported on here, chairman Konrad von Finckenstein told delegates: "Around May 15, we will issue our determinations arising out of our review of over-the-air television."
The primary issue is sure to be whether or not Canadians will soon have to pay…
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REGINA – RTNDA, the association of electronic journalists handed out its Prairie region awards for 2006 this weekend at the annual Prairie Regional Professional Development Seminar.
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 this year. Global Calgary and CBC Saskatchewan won the inaugural awards in the Prairie region….
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OTTAWA – The CRTC should immediately regulate monthly contributions to the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) and establish an arms length dispute resolution mechanism to deal with any concerns raised about the fund, recommended the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications in its report released Thursday.
The second recommendation of the report, The Challenges Ahead for the Canadian Television Fund, is that the government re-examine the CTF’s spending envelopes, especially with respect to the CBC/Radio-Canada.
One of the complaints of Shaw and Quebecor when they withdrew their monthly contributions earlier this year was that 37% of the CTF went…
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OTTAWA – Auditor-General Sheila Fraser isn’t as worried about the appointment process at the CBC as Friends of Canadian Broadcasting Corp. or the unions, which complain it’s too political.
Asked repeatedly by Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage Committee members on Tuesday about the appointment process for the CBC’s chair, other board members and president, Fraser would not criticize the government.
“You have to recognize that the CBC is a Crown corporation and the government is the shareholder of the CBC and it is usually the shareholder who appoints the president,” she said. “The real issue is to make sure you…
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TORONTO – Wanda Bradley, manager of sales operation at NBC/Universal, and Michelle Marion, director of Canadian independent production at Astral Television Networks have been elected to the 2007 board of directors of Women in Film and Television – Toronto (WIFT-T).
Board members continuing for the 2007 term are Karen King, production executive of original programming, drama at CanWest MediaWorks; Kirstine Layfield, executive director of network programming at CBC Television; Leesa Levinson, actress and disabilities advocate; Wendy MacKeigan, executive producer of SK Films Inc.; Marcia Martin, vice-president of production at CHUM Television; Gabriella Martinelli, president and CEO of Capri Films;…
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By Laurel Hyatt
GATINEAU – The Citytv stations are “failing” and need CTV’s injection of cash to stay afloat, so the CRTC should make an exception to its ban on owning two conventional TV stations in a market, says Ivan Fecan, president and CEO of CTVglobemedia.
Allowing CTV to keep City stations in Toronto/Hamilton, Vancouver/Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg is in the public interest because “the City stations are teetering at the financial edge,” Fecan told commissioners Monday at the start of a two-day hearing into the $1.365 billion CTV buyout of CHUM Limited.
The CRTC’s…
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TORONTO – The best in radio and television reporting was honoured by the Radio Television News Directors Association of Canada this weekend in Toronto.
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" was added to Canadian newsrooms after its release in January. It offers solutions aimed at bringing increased diversity to newsrooms and the stories electronic journalists tell.
To acknowledge those accomplishments RTNDA created a new Diversity Award, won this year A-Channel Barrie and CBC. Eight television and eleven radio…
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