TORONTO – A program to teach business skills to those working in film and television will be piloted over the next few years.
The Business Learning Initiative will be the first-ever standardized business training certificate program for professionals in the industry. It’s being created by Women in Film and Television—Toronto (WIFT-T) with support from the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.
Falling under WIFT-T’s training branch, The Centre for Media Professionals, the initiative will teach the business skills needed to compete in the global entertainment field.
The program is “a significant leap forward,” said Sue Sheridan, WIFT-T Interim…
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TORONTO and NEW DELHI – After 31 years at CBC, veteran journalist Paul Workman has joined CTV News.
He will be the Canadian network’s South Asia Bureau Chief based in New Delhi, India. The announcement was made today by Robert Hurst, president of CTV News. Workman will join foreign correspondent Matt McClure in covering South Asia. The two will rotate between New Delhi and Kandahar and lead CTV News’ expanded coverage in the region with a special emphasis on the ongoing efforts of the Canadian troops in Afghanistan.
"Paul is recognized as one of the world’s best foreign correspondents….
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OTTAWA – The CBC program Radio Active did not breach the CRTC’s radio regulations, the Commission announced today.
Between May 2003 and November 2005, the Commission received six letters of complaint from one individual, James Darwish, alleging that a radio interview broadcast on 23 October 2002 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), as a segment of the afternoon daily public affairs radio program Radio Active on CBX Edmonton, contained abusive comment and false and misleading information, contrary to the prohibitions contained in section 3 of the Radio Regulations, 1986 (the Regulations)," says Monday’s CRTC release.
The subject of the…
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TORONTO – George Stroumboulopoulos will be the one pre-empting Peter Mansbridge, as the veteran Canadian broadcaster and music expert will host the new American reality program The One: Making a Music Star on both ABC and CBC beginning next week.
The series will follow eleven contestants attending a state-of-the-art music academy in Los Angeles as they compete for a major recording contract. It premieres live July 18 at 9 p.m. on ABC and CBC Television with the live results show airing the following night, July 19 at 8 p.m. on ABC and CBC Television.
This is the show pre-empting…
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TORONTO – The number of soccer fans in Canada are gaining on the number of hockey fans, if the World Cup Final ratings are any indication.
While game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals drew 4.7 million viewers to CBC this spring, viewership of the final game of the World Cup peaked at 4 million viewers, CTV announced today.
"When Italy’s Fabio Grosso lined up his historic penalty kick, a record 4 million Canadians were watching in anticipation," says the press release. "When his Cup-winning goal lifted Italy into the history books, it capped the most watched World Cup…
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WINNIPEG – "A number of factors contributed to the disappointing operating results in the quarter," said CanWest Global Communications CEO Leonard Asper in reviewing the company’s third quarter performance, ended May 31, 2005.
"Conventional television in Canada remains a challenge. In Australia and New Zealand, a cyclical correction in advertising markets affected financial results, as did currency translation when local currency results were translated into Canadian dollars. The stronger Canadian dollar reduced EBITDA by approximately 5% or $6 million compared to the same period last year. A slowdown in national advertising, which we believe to be short-term, and weakness…
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REGINA – SaskTel has launched a new streaming video clip service for its mobile customers.
Provided by QuickPlay Media, streaming video will allow SaskTel cellular customers to instantly watch the latest in news, weather, sports and entertainment highlights as well as music videos and movie trailers. The content will be refreshed regularly by a wide selection of broadcast channels including CBC, MuchMusic, Tribute, Comedy Time and others.
“We’re extremely pleased to offer our customers the latest form of mobile entertainment and information that can be accessed anytime, anywhere,” said Diana Milenkovic, SaskTel’s senior vice-president, marketing and mobility, in a…
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OTTAWA – For the first time ever, the amount of revenue earned by Canadian pay and specialty services has pulled even that earned by conventional broadcasters in fiscal 2005.
According to the CRTC’s annual Broadcasting Monitoring Report, total revenues for English-language private conventional services in 2005 were $1.764 billion, nearly the same as the $1.761 billion brought in by Canadian specialty and pay channels. In 2004, their revenues were $1.693 and $1.637 billion respectively.
Where specialty really has convention beat is in the margins. Conventional stations saw their profit before interest and taxes margins in 2005 hit 11% where…
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LONDON – Coverage of the Bandido biker murders near Shedden, Ont., helped Fanshawe College student Katie Simpson win the Broadcast Educators Association 2006 president’s award for Spot News Coverage, sponsored by MediaIntelligence.ca.
"Katie Simpson is the first of a new breed of broadcast journalism student," said Jim Van Horne, professor, broadcast journalism, at Fanshawe. "Katie is a part of our first graduating class of a collaborative program between the University of Western Ontario and Fanshawe College (both are in London, Ont.)."
Her talent has "been recognized by Corus Entertainment," added Van Horne. "She has been employed at AM 980…
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THE OVERFLOWING TOILET THAT was the endless stream of negative commentary last week on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was more than a little unseemly and ultimately, absolutely confusing to the average Canadian.
A letter to the editor last Thursday from Gerry Nicholls, vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, in just 107 words, perfectly illustrated the paradoxical critical firestorm of the last seven days when he criticized the Corp. both for trying a show that might produce big ratings and for producing shows "nobody wants to watch," he wrote.
Talk about sucking a blowing at the same time. His solution…
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