By Doug Barrett
WHEN BILL C-10 WAS TABLED last November, it didn’t take long to notice that the first section in the Broadcasting Policy for Canada (“the Canadian broadcasting system shall be effectively owned and controlled by Canadians”) had been deleted.
Not modified or amended, but completely deleted.
Since that time, the bill has been debated in Parliament and wended its way through the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage – which has now heard comments from lobby groups, sages, elders, and experts and will soon be considering its own amendments. Many of those appearing before the Committee (including independent broadcasters, producers, associations,…
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TORONTO – The CBC today announced a few details for two new original half-hour comedy series’ featuring now-cancelled Kim’s Convenience stars Andrew Phung and Nicole Power.
Run The Burbs and Strays will both launch during the upcoming 2021-22 broadcast season.
Created by comedian, writer and actor Andrew Phung and his best friend and collaborator, filmmaker Scott Townend (The Secret Marathon), Run The Burbs is about a young, bold Canadian family taking a different approach to living life to the fullest in the suburbs, featuring Phung as a stay-at-home dad with an entrepreneur wife and two kids. The series has been in…
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By Steve Faguy
IT WAS SUPPOSED to be to FM radio what FM was to AM: Better audio quality, a way to expand to more channels, and a future replacement with some cool bells and whistles.
In the 1990s, Canada’s radio broadcasters spent millions of dollars on new transmitters and devoted a lot of airtime to marketing the new technology: DAB, or digital audio broadcasting.
“The radio industry is primed to reinvent itself for the digital age and 1997 will be the first year of the revolution,” read a 1996 article from the Vancouver Sun. “Within a generation, AM and FM radio…
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COMING ON BOARD during the year of Covid would have been challenging enough, but new Canadian Association of Broadcasters president Kevin Desjardins is also tasked with rebuilding the organization and its profile in Ottawa amid media and political environments where it seems the winds howl in every direction all the time.
Hired in November 2020 as the organization’s first president since Glenn O’Farrell stepped down in 2008, Desjardins knows much works lies ahead in order to ensure the association’s large and small members come together on certain big issues and ideas – even if they disagree on how to execute…
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GATINEAU — As the first phase of its consultation on the development of a new Indigenous broadcasting policy in Canada, the CRTC released today the results of its early engagement sessions with First Nations, Métis and Inuit broadcasters, content creators and artists during which the Commission gathered input to establish the conduct and scope of the next phase of the policy development.
In June 2019, the CRTC launched a three-phase process to co-develop a new Indigenous broadcasting policy in collaboration with Indigenous peoples. Phase one consisted of 12 engagement sessions — nine in-person and three teleconference sessions — held across…
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“French to follow”
By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – This what you could read in an indignant tweet from the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française (FCCF) when the group saw the CBC had filed its final reply to the CRTC in English only. And they added facetiously that they will stop “following” the public broadcaster.
This is the culmination of CBC’s licences renewal process that lasted way too long, but we should have a decision before the end of the licence extension, on August 31, 2021. The initial renewal application by the CBC was filed with the CRTC on August 23, 2019.
That tweet…
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By Steve Faguy
IS TERRESTRIAL RADIO dead?
Well, no. The Canadian commercial radio industry brought in $1.45 billion in total revenues in 2018-19, according to CRTC data. But that’s a steady decline from $1.6 billion in 2014-15, and even without the effects of Covid-19, it looks like the only way forward is down as both advertisers and audience increasingly migrate toward digital services.
Faced with this decline, broadcasters are taking various strategic approaches to the future. Some are embracing new platforms, launching podcasts and streaming services of their own.
“I think there’s still a place for…
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TORONTO – Something Undone will stream on CBC Gem starting Friday, March 26.
The six episode x 10 minutes drama follows a character named Jo who goes home to settle her estranged mother’s estate, and then discovers a dark family secret — her mother suffered from schizophrenia.
Jo becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth and struggles with her own reality. The series was directed by Nicole Dorsey (Black Conflux, Arlo Alone); and co-written, produced and stars (above, right to left) Madison Walsh as Jo (Mrs. America, The Expanse) and Michael Musi (“Terence” on Kim’s Convenience).
The original short series was funded by…
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TORONTO – Saloon Media’s new one-hour CBC Docs POV, UFO Town (1×60’; HD), is set to land on CBC and the free CBC Gem streaming service.
The special will may well open up age-old debates after the film’s exclusive premiere on Friday, March 26 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT). Audiences will join UFO Town as the documentary revisits the mysterious UFO case from West Carleton, Ontario.
The case made international headlines and went viral over 30 years ago after a top-secret “declassified” letter and video emerged, claiming a UFO spacecraft had crash-landed in the region. UFO Town weaves together two compelling…
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OTTAWA — Almost all new Canadians own smartphones and watch YouTube videos, but they’re not so big on subscribing to traditional TV services, according to a new report from CBC/Radio-Canada’s Media Technology Monitor (MTM).
MTM’s newly launched report product, MTM Newcomers, focuses on the media consumption habits of new Canadians who have come to Canada within the past five years.
Based on MTM 18+ data, the report includes the following findings:
99% of those who report arriving in Canada in the past 10 years say they have a smartphone, with 57% owning an iPhone, compared to 49% of those who were…
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