OTTAWA – Official Languages commissioner Graham Fraser called Tuesday on the government to compel the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. to spruce up its regional programming to help build cultural connections among Francophone minorities outside Quebec and English minorities inside the province.
Appearing before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage which is in the midst of an investigation of the role of the CBC in the 21st century, Fraser said one of the shortcomings of the public broadcaster is that it has become too centralized in Toronto and Montreal.
He noted that Francophone communities outside of Quebec need to have access…
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ONE OF THE KEY DEMOGRAPHIC differences between the U.S. and Canada is the number of Hispanics here versus there.
Stateside, there’s an entire media sector dedicated to the Hispanic consumer, of which there are 40 million or so, including several cable channels such as Univision. In Canada, there are about one million Spanish-speaking Canadians and until recently, just one place to get some Spanish language programming: Telelatino.
Of late, however, other Spanish language channels have been added and in March, two Canadian channels were launched, one by the legacy brand owner in Canada, Telelatino.
In a recent chat with Cartt.ca…
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OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s budget was criticized Monday by the arts community for not providing increased and stable funding to the Canadian Television Fund (CTF), Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
While Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda announced last month public funding of the CTF would be extended for two more years, there was no increase.
“The Canadian Television Fund has not received any increases since 1996. The CTF desperately needs enhanced, long-term, stable funding,” said Stephen Waddell, national executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA).
He added the government’s…
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GATINEAU – Leave it to the mavericks at Shaw Communications to best articulate how carriers feel about granting analog channels preferred status once digital migration occurs.
In its intervention, which opposes all of the applications, Shaw’s senior vice-president of corporate and regulatory affairs Ken Stein writes: "Shaw considers that the Digital Migration proceeding and the subsequent gazetting of applications for mandatory digital carriage on basic has been a colossal waste of time and energy for Shaw. Shaw’s request for packaging flexibility to serve consumers and meet unprecedented competitive challenges, all of which will strengthen the system and protect it…
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TORONTO – On Monday CBC Radio 2 will unveil a new evening schedule which will feature a broader range of music with jazz, live performance and contemporary music delivered seven days a week.
These changes represent the first phase of arts and culture re-development at CBC Radio, says the Corp.
“CBC Radio 2 is broadening to better reflect the diversity of music making in Canada," said Jennifer McGuire, executive director of programming, CBC Radio, in a release. "Listeners will hear a range of entertaining Canadian music every night of the week,” “We’ll be serving evening listeners an eclectic mix…
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VANCOUVER – Because of the high costs of replacing hundreds of TV transmitters with digital ones, CBC has said it plans to upgrade in dense areas while for rural regions, rely more heavily on cable and satellite transmission.
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (which held meetings in the Northwest Territories and Vancouver this week) that CBC’s plan "will disenfranchise Canadians who receive TV over-the-air."
FCB-commissioned research submitted to the committee, which is investigating CBC’s future mandate, shows that three million Canadians do not subscribe to cable or satellite and receive their TV signal…
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TORONTO – There’s simply no other way to describe CTV’s Corner Gas than a runaway, smash hit.
It’s season finale Monday night drew a season-high two million viewers as CTV raised the buzz bar by including Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the program and allowing rumors to circulate that series creator Brent Butt might be leaving the show (since his on-screen persona was selling the gas station).
Corner Gas, the country’s top-rated company, charted an eye-catching 67% audience growth since its season premiere in September. The series finished its 19-episode run with an average audience of 1.52 million viewers,…
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THE SESSION ON WHAT TV distributors think of content and its changing place in their business plans was a popular session at the Canadian Film and TV Producers Association annual Prime Time conference in Ottawa three weeks ago.
As we noted in part one last week, the great big elephant not in the room was a cable company. Moderated by Peter Lyman, senior partner, Nordicity Group, the panelists included Chris Frank, vice-president, programming and pay-per-view, Bell ExpressVu, Michael Hennessy, vice-president, broadband and video policy, Telus (and former head of the Canadian Cable Television Association); Tom Laird, general manager, digital…
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TORONTO – CBC News anchor Peter Mansbridge has been named the recipient of the 2007 President’s Award by RTNDA Canada.
The award is presented annually to an individual with a record of distinguished service to the broadcast news industry and who promotes excellence in broadcast journalism. As most know, Mansbridge is a veteran reporter and newscaster with almost 40 years in broadcasting,
The award will be formally presented to Mansbridge on Friday, June 22 at the 2007 RTNDA National Conference at the Sutton Place Hotel in Vancouver.
He started his journalistic career as a teenager in Churchill, Manitoba in…
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TORONTO – Over one million viewers watched the final episode of CBC Television’s Little Mosque On The Prairie, Wednesday, March 4.
A critical and audience hit, the series averaged 1.252 million over its eight-episode season. Its debut drew 2.196 million viewers, a record for a series premiere on CBC Television. The finale drew 1.116 million.
“We are delighted with the response from viewers who tune in weekly and write and e-mail us with their comments,” said Kirstine Layfield, CBC executive director of network programming, in a press release.
LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE has received a number of accolades,…
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