HALIFAX — Attendees of FIN Partners, Canada’s leading international co-production/co-financing market, were treated to some inspiring keynotes and discussions at the industry partnership event held last week in Halifax.
Coinciding with the beginning of the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival, happening this week in Halifax, FIN Partners occurred September 13-14 and featured keynote speakers Finola Dwyer of Wildgaze Films, the Oscar-nominated producer of Brooklyn and An Education, and Mark Slone, president of Pacific Northwest Pictures.
FIN Partners was attended by 154 delegates who came to Halifax in the hopes of securing financing for projects in development and to forge new co-production…
Continue Reading
TORONTO — Blue Ant Studios is bolstering its push into the unscripted programming market with the appointment of Los Angeles-based Jennifer Harkness (pictured) to the newly created role of senior vice-president of unscripted content.
Harkness’s key focus will be to develop, sell and produce unscripted series for the US and global markets, Blue Ant said in a news release Monday announcing Harkness’s appointment, which takes effect immediately.
“Bringing on board an executive of Jennifer’s calibre reflects our commitment to creating and selling premium unscripted programming for the US market and abroad,” said Sam Sniderman, executive vice-president of global production for…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The Canadian Media Producers Association announced it has promoted Liz Shorten to the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer.
In this role, she will lead staff and oversee organizational operations across the association’s offices in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver, and work to implement the CMPA’s corporate strategic plan, says the association. She was most recently SVP operations and member services at the CMPA’s B.C. producers branch.
“For many years, Liz has been an extremely effective leader for the CMPA in B.C., and has gone above and beyond to execute the mandate of the CMPA’s B.C. producers branch,”…
Continue Reading
Google, Facebook, Twitter also join BBC-led Trusted News Charter
TORONTO — CBC/Radio-Canada says it is joining forces with other media partners to fight the global spread of disinformation. Canada’s national public broadcaster announced Monday it has joined the Trusted News Charter, a BBC-led initiative to strengthen measures to protect audiences from disinformation.
The charter is the result of the Trusted News Summit, convened earlier this summer by the BBC, and includes a commitment to collaborate on source authentication, civic information, media education, and other responses to disinformation, CBC/Radio-Canada said in a news release announcing its participation in the Trusted News…
Continue Reading
Eight new shows to premiere across several platforms
VANCOUVER — Thunderbird Entertainment Group announced Monday its largest fall lineup in company history, with a record-breaking eight Thunderbird productions set to premiere across several different platforms, as a result of deals with streaming companies such as Netflix and Disney+, as well as ongoing partnerships with NBC Universal, Nickelodeon, PBS/WGBH, Bell Media’s Discovery, Corus Entertainment and the CBC.
Thunderbird said in a news release its fall lineup demonstrates the multiplatform entertainment company’s extraordinary growth, highlighting the first phase of a strategic global development plan initiated 18 months ago.
As part of its fall…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) and Bell Media announced this week one of Canada’s top drama showrunners, Bruce Smith, will be the executive producer in residence of the 2019 Bell Media Prime Time TV Program.
From September to December 2019, Smith will lead the story room as well as the six television writers selected to participate in this year’s program as they work together to develop Smith’s original series.
“Bruce Smith is one of Canada’s preeminent showrunners and an award-winning writer of immeasurable talent,” said Tom Hastings, director, original programming, Bell Media, in the press release. “A passionate…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The Media Technology Monitor and MTM JR. this week released a new report that shows while online video consumption continues to grow, over-the-top video fans still love their linear TV, too.
While Netflix's growth has slowed for the first time, its competitors have experienced double-digit growth over the past season.
The key findings its latest Over-the-Top reports (which is a sampling of Canadians 2+) include:
Among Anglophones households, Netflix is still the most popular OTT service by a large margin. In contrast to Netflix, competing services such as Crave and Amazon Prime Video have both seen a significant increase in…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) and the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec are now taking applications from community television organizations to hire a journalist under the Local Journalism Initiative.
The LJI was announced by Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez on May 22 (when he announced the government bailout of large newspapers) and is meant to fund “civic journalism” in “underserved communities”, to address the gaps in local news coverage that have arisen in the wake of community newspaper closures, and the outflow of local ad dollars onto international platforms such…
Continue Reading
WINNIPEG – APTN will debut as new national news program called Nouvelles Nationales d’APTN on Aug. 26th.
The weekly program will air on APTN e in Eastern Canada, at 6:30 p.m.
APTN has been offering French programs for a number of years, but Nouvelles Nationales d’APTN will be the network’s very first French national news program intended for an Indigenous audience. “A French news program was in the works for a long time. At last, we are proud to launch this brand-new program on APTN,” says Jean La Rose, CEO of APTN, in the press release.
Anchorwoman and…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CBC announced today its first-ever development slate of podcast-to-television series.
Five original CBC Podcasts will be adapted for the TV screen: Someone Knows Something; Uncover: The Village; Personal Best; Tai Asks Why; and, Alone: A Love Story. The announcement was made at Podcast Movement 2019 in Orlando, Florida.
“As Canada’s national public broadcaster and number-one podcaster, we are uniquely positioned to lead in this new area of opportunity for rich and diverse storytelling,” said Barbara Williams, executive vice-president, CBC English Services, in the company’s press release. “This growing cultural phenomenon will make it possible for us to work…
Continue Reading
