IT’S BEEN OVER THREE months now since 5,000-plus locked out CBC employees went back to work. For those who were locked out, is everything now back to normal? Not really, says union president Lise Lareau. Sure, the job’s the same and the money’s a little better for Canadian Media Guild members, but morale has cratered as the resentment festers while working under the managers and other company leaders who locked them out.
The Corp.’s leadership has lost their authority to lead, says Lareau (right). What follows is an edited transcript of her chat last week with…
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TORONTO – With none of the three major parties articulating much about their plans for the cultural sector (not even the NDP), ACTRA’s performers tried Wednesday to inject themselves into the election news cycle.
Among the members of ACTRA, the Canadian actors union, taking part in a Toronto press conference were Wendy Crewson, Richard Hardacre, Dan Lett, Miriam McDonald, Colin Mochrie, Cara Pifko, Karl Pruner, Fiona Reid, Wayne Robson, Sonja Smits, Julie Stewart, and R.H. Thomson.
As usual, they were raising “the alarm during this election about the threat to Canada’s cultural sovereignty,” says the press release.
"It is…
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OTTAWA – Seven percent of Canadians are reporting they own a high definition TV set and the number of folks saying they have no plans to purchase one has fallen to its lowest recorded level, says the annual TV Quality Survey.
The survey, conducted annually by Ottawa-based Canadian Media Research Inc., was conducted in October-November 2005 among a sample of 1,614 English-speaking Canadians aged 18-plus.
That sample reported on average they have 160 channels of TV available on their main TV set, which is 6.96 years old.
In 2005 some 7% of respondents said they already had an HDTV…
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TORONTO – Canadian Satellite Radio said today that subscriptions are rolling in faster than anticipated.
"To date, our subscriptions are running ahead of management expectations, but we maintain a position of providing prudent guidance to the market, potential investors and our shareholders," said John Bitove, the CEO of CSR and XM Canada.
Bitove will say tomorrow at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that XM Canada will end fiscal 2006 (August 31st) with 75,000 subscribers. CSR projects to achieve one million subscribers by August 31, 2010. The service launched in Canada on November 22, 2005.
"We are excited…
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REGINA – Access Communications said today it is partnering with CBC Radio in Saskatchewan and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum to present a televised broadcast of a dramatic reading of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
The program will be broadcast on the Access7 community channels in all locations Access Communications serves throughout the province beginning December 22nd and running through December 31st. The complete broadcast schedule can be found at www.accesscomm.ca.
The show, originally performed live at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Regina on Sunday, December 18th is part of CBC’s annual Toonie Tree Campaign raising funds for the…
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JUST IN TIME FOR Christmas, www.cartt.ca has given away a 42” HDTV. We did the draw Friday evening and the winner is Nigel Fuller, regional vice-president, CHUM Television Ontario (right).
Second prize, the iPod nano, is going to Rick Fraser v-p marketing at Access Communications.
As for the 50 winners of signed copies of the children’s book M is for Maple. They are:
Brad Phillips, Citytv Vancouver Gordon Lee, CTV Specialty Victor Haddad, Milk River Cable Club, Georgina Schnubb, Masset-Haida TV Society Steve Ward, Grand Bend Cable TV Brett Manlove, CanWest MediaWorks Sam Fiander. Ramea Broadcasting Richard French, CRTC Glenn O’Farrell, CAB…
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by Myron Love
WINNIPEG – Newcap Radio, the new owners of Winnipeg’s The Breeze 100.7 FM, has made some personnel changes and will soon be changing the format of the low-rated station.
Gone are on-air personalities Russ Tyson – the station’s program director and morning show host – and veteran broadcaster Roger Curry who read the news. Curry is a well known figure in Winnipeg. He had served previously stints on air at both CJOB – the city’s top-ranked station – and CBC as the early morning show host.
The new faces behind the scenes are Nick Adams, former…
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TORONTO – At its annual general meeting Wednesday in Toronto, CHUM Limited elected Denise Donlon to its board of directors.
"Denise Donlon’s keen understanding of the Canadian broadcasting system, together with her past experience as a leader in the music industry in Canada, make her an ideal addition to the CHUM Limited Board of Directors," said Jim Waters, chairman.Donlon (right) was president of Sony Music Canada from 2000-2004. Of course, prior to that, she held a number of executive positions with CHUM Television including vice-president and general manager of MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic and director of music programming…
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IN QUEBEC, YOU HAVE TO GO DEEP into a conversation with a private TV network manager before you’ll hear even a hint of excitement about the visual and audio pleasures that await viewers of HDTV.
“Sure, we’re anxious to see all that,” finally confesses Richard Baril, Operations Director for RDS, the all-sports network and sister station of TSN. “For viewers, especially if they’ve ever seen an HD broadcast, they’d like to have it tomorrow.
“But as a manager and administrator,” he quickly adds, hearing the adding machine toting up the bills, “there are enormous costs, and I understand the…
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IT IS NOW AS IT WAS in the beginning: If you’re involved in producing programming or commercials in the high definition format, you’re most likely still trying to make video look like film.
But today, almost exactly 16 years after Toronto’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre was on the receiving end of the first major, mainstream HD broadcast seen in Canada – a fight transmitted from Las Vegas pitting Sugar Ray Leonard against Roberto Duran – the momentum in the battle for TV screens here is beginning to favour video.
Producers are becoming accustomed to the idea of originating content on…
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