OTTAWA — Among Canadian children, podcasts are not as popular as streaming music services or audio content on YouTube with about 11% of kids aged 2-17 years old listening to podcast content, according to CBC/Radio-Canada’s Media Technology Monitor (MTM) in its latest MTM JR report.
Generally speaking, the report finds teens and anglophones are more likely to listen to podcasts.
According to the report, however, kids who listen to podcasts tend to do so frequently. Three-quarters of kids who listen to podcast content do so at least once a week, and nearly a quarter listen to podcasts daily, says the report….
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OTTAWA — With a federal election anticipated soon, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting today launched a new campaign to promote Canadian culture and media, drawing on the support of several Canadian performers to amplify the organization’s message.
The new “I Am Canadian Content” campaign is designed to mobilize thousands of voters who care about Canadian content and will target 15 “swing ridings” across Canada, says Friends’ press release. Update: The organization declined to name the ridings when we contacted them.
“This truly is a milestone election for Canadian culture and media,” said Daniel Bernhard, executive director for Friends, in the release. “We…
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TORONTO – The Canadian Journalism Foundation’s 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Thaioronióhte Dan David, the CJF announced today.
He is being recognized for launching the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network’s (APTN) news service, the world’s first national Indigenous-led news network, and for his life-long support of journalism initiatives around the world.
“After centuries in which the stories and reality of Indigenous people were oppressed, we Canadians are now living in a time where those realities and those stories are finally being told,” said selection jury member Hamlin Grange, a veteran broadcast journalist, now principal consultant of DiversiPro, in the…
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TORONTO — CBC and Radio-Canada Distribution, the public broadcaster’s international content licensing arm, today announced its 2021 spring selection of titles, including the award-winning documentary Sing Me A Lullaby (1 x 29 minutes; Golden Nugget Productions) and the now-available Wild Canadian Weather (4 x 52 min, 4K; River Road Films).
Making its announcement ahead of Digital MIPTV (which is running as a five-day virtual conference and market from April 12 to 16), CBC and Radio-Canada Distribution says its new releases will be available in April.
The distributor’s latest scripted selection includes Les Mecs (season one, 10 x 30 min; season two…
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Schitt’s Creek leads with 21 nominations
TORONTO — The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (the Canadian Academy) today announced the nominees for the 2021 Canadian Screen Awards, which are presented in 141 film, television and digital media categories.
Leading both the television and overall Canadian Screen Award nominations is the final season of CBC’s Schitt’s Creek with 21 nominations, followed by CTV’s Cardinal: Until the Night and CBC’s Trickster, which each have 15 nominations.
In the film categories, Jeff Barnaby’s Blood Quantum leads the nominations with 10, while Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy has nine and Charles Officer’s Akilla’s Escape has eight.
Digital…
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By Catherine Edwards
IN THE LEAD UP TO the Broadcasting Act review, Canada’s five associations representing the community element (two TV, three radio) were dismayed the Creative Canada Policy Framework, the Shattered Mirror, and the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review reports barely mention community broadcasting, despite it being one of the three pillars of the system.
This omission was significant. The community element is uniquely positioned to address the most pressing issues that face our broadcasting system:
the lack of local programming outside major population centres
the lack of programming made by and for minorities, especially Indigenous communities
…
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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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