OTTAWA-GATINEAU – There just isn’t enough cash in the system for conventional broadcasters to convert to digital television, representatives from CBC and TQS told the CRTC today.
And the only way free up some resources to rectify that is a fee for carriage model.
CBC/Radio-Canada’s president and CEO Robert Rabinovitch, EVP of CBC Television, Richard Stursberg; EVP of French Services Sylvain Lafrance; VP and CTO Ray Carnovale; and VP strategy and business development Michel Tremblay, were part of a the Corp.’s panel in front of the Commission this morning.
All of the CBC’s funds are tied up in producing…
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OTTAWA – While the broadcasters who air their work were facing the Commission, Canadian actors descended on Ottawa today, too, to talk about what they see as a "drama crisis" in Canadian television.
Day one of the CRTC’s TV Policy Review hearing is to feature CBC, TQS, CanWest Global and CTV, but ACTRA, the actors union, wanted to be heard on the first day as well as they want to make sure the Commission protects their jobs.
"Our culture defines us as a nation yet we can’t hear or see ourselves when regulations encourage Canadian broadcasters to show American…
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NEXT WEEK IN OTTAWA, TV broadcasters will tell their regulator, the CRTC, that they want fewer rules and more ways to make money. They will raise the alarm about how difficult it is these days to make money from traditional advertising because of all of the competition for eyeballs coming from new-fangled media, like the Internet, pay TV, and cell phones. They will plead for measures to help them climb back from merely profitable to very profitable.
And they may well get their way. After all, they have powerful friends in Ottawa. In fact, the minister responsible for broadcasting…
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OTTAWA – Parliament’s Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has decided it won’t wait for the federal government to take the lead on an official review of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
On Monday, according to a CBC.ca story, the committee – led by NDP Heritage critic and committee member Charlie Angus – passed a motion to review Canada’s public broadcaster.
Through much of the summer of 2006, much speculation bounced around that Heritage Minister Bev Oda would initiate such a review herself, but that didn’t materialize.
Click here for the full story.
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FORMER CABLE ATLANTIC OWNER, and current Newfoundland & Labrador premier Danny Williams is ticked off these days.
His government is getting strafed by daily opposition fire over the recently announced deal to bring another undersea fibre link from the mainland to The Rock. The $52-million project is backed with $15 million in provincial government money and will be built by a consortium of Persona Communications, Rogers Communications and MTS Allstream.
From what’s been published in the press out east, the opposition Liberals don’t seem to care about the project’s potential benefits – which are likely many –…
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TORONTO – If Rogers and Bell are on the same side of an issue – working together even – you know they see a threat.
Today, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telus, Sask Tel, MTS Allstream, and the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance released a research report saying 81% of Canadians do not want to pay a new fee for conventional broadcast stations.
As has been reported repeatedly by Cartt.ca the concept of fee for carriage has been pushed by Canadian broadcasters and will be front and centre at the upcoming CRTC Television Policy Review beginning Monday, November 27th in Hull….
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TORONTO – Sirius Canada said today that after a year in the market, it now has over 200,000 customers.
That’s more than double its rival in the market, XM Canada, whose most recent report said it had 91,200 paying subscribers and 120,000 customers. (The 38,800 difference are those with promotional offers, such as the three to four months of free service when a customer buys an XM-equipped new car.)
Sirius Canada passed 100,000 subscribers May 10, so the one aspect tempering this news is that growth in the second six months has remained stable and not accelerated.
Both…
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TORONTO – Vibika Bianchi has been promoted to director of original productions at W Network, Corus Entertainment’s specialty channel for women.
"Bianchi has been an integral member of the Original Productions team since joining W Network in 2004," said the company’s press release. "Her strong production background, pursuit of creative excellence and innovation, and collaborative team approach have contributed to the ongoing success of W Network shows such as The Smart Woman Survival Guide, Take this House and Sell It, Maxed Out, The Shopping Bags and many others."
In her new position, Bianchi will build on W’s programming by…
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TORONTO – TSN Extra and CBC News Plus, two new interactive TV services have been added to Bell ExpressVu’s service.
Customers can now choose the news and sports they want to see, when they want to see it, in a fully interactive and on-demand environment, says the press release.
"TSN Extra and CBC News Plus iTV programming allows customers to gain more detail on specific news and sports stories from a list of the latest headlines while watching the regular broadcast at the same time," reads the press release.
"For example, users can press SELECT on their ExpressVu remote…
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LEONARD ASPER HAS been front-and-centre on the fight for regulatory change in broadcast television.
Of all the broadcast CEOs in Canada, he has stuck his neck out the farthest in demanding things as fee-for-carriage and increased advertising flexibility. As you’ll read, much is riding on his company’s submission and the eventual new policy emanating from the CRTC decision which will be announced in 2007.
During the hearing days, expect much hay to be made on CanWest’s request for an extra 50-cents per TV subscriber per month for each conventional broadcaster.
At the Canadian Association of Broadcasters annual conference in…
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