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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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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