TORONTO – CBC Sports and the International Swimming League (ISL) today announced a new partnership agreement to provide broadcast and streaming coverage of the ISL 2020 regular season, semi-finals and final.
CBC Sports will stream every match on cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android, provide broadcast coverage of select events on Road to the Olympic Games on CBC and the free CBC Gem streaming service.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the entire 2020 season will be held in Budapest, Hungary and will take place over a condensed six-week schedule, from October 16 to November 22….
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VANCOUVER – TV producer Thunderbird Entertainment showed good growth in 2020, its Q4 and year-end results show.
Revenue for the three months and the year ended June 30, 2020 was $21.1 million and $81.3 million as compared to $12.9 million and $57.7 million for the comparative periods of fiscal 2019, it announced today.
Adjusted EBITDA was $2.9 million and $15.5 million for the three months and the year ended June 30, 2020 compared to $1 million and $12.8 million for the comparative periods of fiscal 2019.
“There is a strong demand for Thunderbird content, and we feel fortunate to be working in…
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TORONTO – CBC today announced it has greenlit a new original comedy called Sort Of (eight 30-minute episodes) from Sienna Films.
Created by Bilal Baig (above) above and Fab Filippo (below) and starring Baig, the series is about Sabi Mehboob (Baig), “a fluid millennial who straddles various identities from sexy bartender at an LGBTQ bookstore/bar, to the youngest child in a large Pakistani family, to the de facto parent of a downtown hipster family,” reads the press release. The half-hour single-camera comedy begins production in Toronto today.
“It feels so right, in a time like this, to be working on a…
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TORONTO – When Canadians were asked to think on a top-of-mind basis of companies which are championing diversity and inclusion for Canadians of varied backgrounds, Walmart, Nike, RBC, Tim Hortons and TD emerged as the top five according to the phase I results of Solutions Research Group’s new Diversity & Inclusion Monitor syndicated study.
Walmart was the top-ranked company mentioned by Canadians in Western Canada, Quebec and Atlantic Canada and was ranked number seven in Ontario, behind TD and Apple. In follow-up interviews, consumers were particularly likely to point out the one reason they believe Walmart is a leader is…
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MORE TV DISTRIBUTORS in Canada are adding CBC/Radio-Canada’s 24-hours news channels, CBC News Network and ICI RDI, to the lineup of channels available to all of their subscribers.
The public broadcaster says it is collaborating with the country’s TV distributors as Canadians face a resurgence of Covid-19. Back in mid-March at the beginning of the pandemic, many of Canada’s TV distributors made the two news channels available to their subscribers.
CBC News Network is now available to all subscribers on Bell TV, Rogers, Cogeco, Eastlink, SaskTel and others, with Telus and Shaw joining next week. In addition, as of tomorrow,…
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TORONTO — The new industry-wide initiative HireBIPOC.ca has already surpassed 2,300 members in its first week of operation, co-founding partner Bell Media announced today.
HireBIPOC.ca is a web portal which provides an online roster of Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) media and entertainment professionals who work as creatives and crew in Canada’s screen-based industries. When the web portal launched on October 5, it had 500 members signed up.
“We are inspired and heartened by the feedback and response we have received from the Black, Indigenous, and people of colour creative community, the industry, and the public. The…
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TORONTO — RBC and the Canadian Olympic Committee announced today Bell Media is the new premier media partner of the RBC Training Ground program, a nationwide Olympic talent identification and athlete-funding program dedicated to finding and supporting Canada’s future Olympians.
CBC was the previous media partner for the RBC Training Ground program, which is now entering its sixth year.
As the program’s new media partner, Bell Media will use its broadcast, digital media and social platforms to further amplify the program, including on-air integrations through customized athlete storytelling and interviews across TSN platforms, Crave, and CTV’s Your Morning, The Marilyn Denis…
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TORONTO – Slawko Klymkiw, CEO of the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), announced today he will retire in the spring of 2021.
“Slawko’s extraordinary leadership at the CFC and his years of unwavering support of Canadian creators will undoubtedly leave a long-lasting imprint on our industry,” said Christina Jennings, chair of the CFC board and CEO of Shaftesbury, in the CFC release. “His dedication to accelerating talent, on both sides of the camera, has made certain that CFC alumni are working – building companies and creating Canadian content that is seen around the world. He will be missed, but his…
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By Greg O’Brien
TORONTO – CBC told employees this week it will be eliminating 130 positions by the end of the calendar year and while over half will be done through retirements or not filling certain openings, 62 people will be losing their jobs.
CBC EVP Barbara Williams told employees in an email Wednesday that the Covid crisis was a part of it, but the bigger picture is the changing conditions of the broadcasting industry.
“Every year, our costs go up as revenue generation in traditional media goes in the other direction and, not surprisingly, we have seen that even more acutely…
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Production team member tests positive for Covid-19
TORONTO — CBC announced Wednesday it is postponing the October 15th live premiere of season six of Battle of the Blades after a member of the show’s production team tested positive for Covid-19.
The show’s producer, Insight Productions, is temporarily halting all training and pre-production on the upcoming season to ensure the health and safety of the entire cast and crew, says a CBC press release.
CBC says it will provide additional scheduling updates as soon as possible.
More information about season six of Battle of the Blades is available here.
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