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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TORONTO – "Approving the applications will only further the interests of those who do not want the Canadian broadcasting system to remain fair and competitive and open to new and independent Canadian voices and entrants.
"In addition , it is impossible to marry the applicants request for long term, protected status with the idea that the Commission should be supporting and encouraging investment and innovation in the Canadian broadcasting system," says High Fidelity HDTV in its intervention submitted today on the so-called "digital basic" 9(1)(h) hearing.
In anticipation of the digital migration of analog specialty services, the CRTC asked…
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GATINEAU – In preparation for the migration to digital of all analog TV, the CRTC told existing analog specialty services in February of 2006 that in order to maintain their legacy positions on the cable lineup it was prepared to entertain applications for "digital basic" status.
So, channels such as YTV, The Weather Network and CBC Newsworld submitted such applications, asking they maintain their spots on the dial and their mandated rate structure even when all channels are someday distributed digitally.
What the Commission maybe didn’t expect is that three new channel applicants also submitted requests to be granted digital…
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TORONTO – The Fight Network continued its unprecedented (especially for an independent digi-net) growth with the announcement Monday it has signed a two year contract to supply America One Sports with television programming.
The initial programming package covers mixed martial arts – which is the fastest growing sector of combatant sports – and which will be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired. A total of 26 hours of mixed martial arts will be carried during the agreement’s initial phase.
Brokered by Trajectory Sports & Media Group, this agreement represents the first major U.S. market television programming deal for Canadian-based The…
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GATINEAU – After months of waiting (it took CTV until almost Christmas to submit its application to the Commission to purchase CHUM Ltd.) the CRTC will hear the request at a public hearing beginning April 30th.
In July, Bell Globemedia (now CTVglobemedia) announced a $1.4 billion purchase of CHUM Ltd. from the Waters family ($1.7 billion if assumed debt is included). If approved, CTV will take ownership of the Citytv broadcast stations across the country, numerous popular specialty channels like MuchMusic, Space and Star! as well as 33 radio stations.
As for the secondary market A-Channels, CTVgm will sell…
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