TORONTO – Are there enough viewers looking for national and international news at 5:30 in the afternoon?
Anchor Kevin Newman (below) and the crew at Global National and Global Television think so. But, when conventional wisdom says that news consumers aren’t home yet at 5:30, Global’s relocation of Global National to a consistent (almost) national time slot which is basically before dinner for working families, the risk isn’t a small one.
Parallels are being drawn to CBC’s attempted re-making of The National into Prime Time News, moving their flagship news show from 10 p.m. to 9 p.m. in November…
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TORONTO – After months of looking, CBC Television today announced that Kirstine Layfield, a senior executive at Alliance Atlantis, will become executive director, network programming.
She replaces Slawko Klymkiw, who joined the Canadian Film Centre in the fall of 2005. Her official start date in what is considered the plum job in Canadian TV has not yet been announced. It was a much-sought-after post. Layfield (left) will be responsible for the overall programming strategy for CBC Television and brings almost 20 years of combined experience in the broadcasting and television industries, most recently as senior vice-president, lifestyle…
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SINCE WWW.CARTT.CA WAS IN Vancouver a couple of weeks back, we decided to drop in on Paul Fisher, the executive vice-president and cluster market manager for Rogers Radio in the city.
Having moved west two years ago after a very successful stint as general manager of then-Toronto market leader CHFI, we wanted to ask Fisher about the differences in the two big-city markets (why does Jack FM work so well in Vancouver and not Toronto?), the similarities (News 1130 in Vancouver is built off the successful 680 News template from Toronto) and how Rogers’ newest brand, Clear FM is…
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Dear Greg,
Saw your article this morning.
I do differ with Mr. Asper on one very key point. I believe that there may be both business and policy reasons for a DTT network in Canada to deliver HD over the air to Canadians – I just don’t believe that it is economical to do so while we have no idea how long the requirement to maintain an analog network will persist, and I’m not sure in what timeframe it would make sense to extend that network much past the 80% point.
Fred Mattocks, CBC
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TORONTO – While it’s not yet reflected in any policy announcement, Canadian broadcasters know there’s no way all of their broadcast transmitters can be upgraded to digital and the CRTC must now be feeling pressure to respond.
Fred Mattocks, the CBC’s executive director, English television production and resources, added his voice to CanWest Global CEO Leonard Asper’s, warning that it will just cost too much to convert all 600 CBC transmitters to digital. He was speaking on a panel at today’s CSUA Digital Broadcasting Summit in Toronto.
CBC transmits 18 unique SD streams daily and three unique HD streams (Montreal,…
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TORONTO – Both TSN and CBC today announced an enormous slate of Winter Olympic programming beginning February 10th at 1 p.m.
Keying this year’s coverage is 39 hours of HD programming out of over 1,000 hours of live and taped coverage. This will be disappointing for those with HD sets, who will likely tune into NBC, which is carrying far more of its Olympic coverage in high definition. NBC’s Olympic programming is being shot and produced in HD and downconverted to SD when required.
New this year, however, is CBC’s deal with Bell Canada, which will see results and…
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OTTAWA – The CBC has tabbed Anthony Germain to head up its new CBC News bureau in Shanghai, China.
Anthony, CBC Radio One’s Ottawa Morning and CBC News: The House host, will be responsible for delivering Canadians the important international stories from the fastest growing part of the world. “It was a difficult decision leaving both Ottawa Morning and The House,” says Germain (right) in the CBC release. “We have a great audience, a great team behind us and it’s something that very few hosts get the privilege of actually having. It’s a huge challenge and…
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AFTER A DOZEN OR SO years of lobbying the Liberal Party power establishment, the Canadian cable, radio, television and telecom industries will have to start over beginning today.
No matter how long this new Conservative minority government lasts (we sorely hope it’s longer than Joe Clark’s eight months in 1979), those at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association, as well as Canada’s large telcos, have brand new friends to make – and influence.
Issues like foreign ownership of telecom and cable companies, or even broadcasters, might get a more friendly hearing under the Conservatives…
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THOSE WORKING IN RADIO, or those covering it as journalists, are always preoccupied with what’s next technologically or what’s threatening radio’s future and how this old medium must change in order to persevere through the next century.
In our digitally-driven, iPod and sat rad world, we can get jaded when talking about plain ol’ radio. We take it for granted and it’s not often we stop and reflect on what radio is absolutely nailing and offering recognition for a job very, very well done. So, here goes.
Before Christmas, cartt.ca contacted all the major commercial radio groups in Canada…
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TORONTO – The Canadian Media Guild said Monday it’s worried that culture, and the CBC specifically, is so low on the priority lists of the federal parties.
Only the Conservative and Green parties mention the CBC in their platforms, despite the fact that the public broadcaster faces a license renewal before the end of 2006.
“But there are more questions about the vague position of the front-running Conservatives than answers,” says the Guild release, ominously.
"I recognize that this election campaign has been fought on a handful of core issues. But it is troubling that the future of Canada’s…
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