TORONTO – Describing radio as an industry “under attack (because) everybody wants our audiences,” Eric Rhoads, publisher of U.S. industry magazine Radio Ink, kicked off the “Inside the Executive Suite” discussion at Canadian Music Week last Wednesday by asking Canadian radio executives how many hours a week they typically work.
While answers varied, it’s safe to say Canadian radio bosses are working upwards of 60 hours a week to lead their respective organizations through the ongoing migration to digital platforms.
Paul Ski, CEO of radio and regional broadcast operations for Rogers Broadcasting, said his work schedule is “very fluid” but added:…
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IT IS UP TO CEO HUBERT LACROIX to show whether he believes it is his good fortune – or his utter misfortune – to lead the CBC at this point in time. Despite all the talk about a new, five-year strategic plan to get to 2020 and a silly new “conversation” with Canadians he announced Monday, Lacroix must know already what he wants, and must, do. And, is it ever going to hurt. The changes that must be made to the CBC will run far deeper, and wider, than the 650 layoffs which were announced last month.
It will alter…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – Canadian local television stations saw profits plunge in 2013, according to the CRTC’s latest statistical and financial report for this sector released Tuesday.
According to the report Conventional Television – Statistical and Financial Summaries 2009-2013, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) for private local TV stations dropped from $22.9 million in 2012 to -$2.3 million, and the PBIT margin decreased from 1.1% to -0.1%.
Revenues dropped by 4.6% from $2.04 billion last year to $1.94 billion for the broadcast year ended August 31, 2013. While revenues from the sale of local advertising declined 1% from $355 million in…
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OTTAWA – Almost 10,000 new numbers were added to Canada’s national do not call list (DNCL) registry between February 28 and March 31, 2014, the CRTC said this week.
According to the Commission’s latest status report, the official number of telephone and fax numbers on the list stands at 12,237,963.
The number of telemarketing complaints also rose in March, and since the DNCL’s 2008 launch, 807,091 telemarketing complaints have been logged.
Twenty one new investigations were opened in March, bringing the number of active investigations to 191. No new notices of violation were issued during this period, so the total issued to date…
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OTTAWA – The fact that 700 MHz wireless spectrum (taken back from TV broadcasters in 2011 and sold to wireless companies for $5.3 billion earlier this year) will continue to be used to transmit all sorts of video, shows proof we must look at rewriting the legislation governing the broadcasting industry, according to former CRTC commissioner Suzanne Lamarre.
She was speaking Thursday at last week’s Law Society of Upper Canada’s Biennial National Conference on New Developments in Communications Law and Policy held in Ottawa. “The 700 MHz band, formerly designated for over-the-air television… has officially been taken over by wireless…
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MONTREAL – CBC President and CEO Hubert Lacroix isn’t sugar-coating the news. He isn’t going to pretend that the 657 full-time equivalent jobs being cut this month — and the 2,107 total since he started on Jan. 1, 2008 — won’t seriously damage the organization.
Nor does he pretend to have the answer for how to fix the public broadcaster while all the media world shifts around it. Which is why, during a speech at The Canadian Club in Montreal, Lacroix announced that he wanted to have a “conversation” with Canadians about the future of the public broadcaster, and invited…
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TORONTO and GATINEAU – Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. has lobbed pretty serious accusations at VMedia Inc., alleging the company is using the public Internet to deliver TV services and that it’s distributing unauthorized foreign services to its subscribers. VMedia says ECGL has all it all wrong.
Now though, the CRTC has decided to hear more fully from both parties. In a letter posted on its website on May 5, the Commission has removed VMedia’s applications for additional BDU services in several Atlantic Canadian markets as well some in Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as a national video on…
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OTTAWA – Spending on tangible public benefits related to the acquisition of regulated Canadian broadcast television assets declined significantly to $108.8 million (all for English-language benefits initiatives) in the 2012-2013 broadcast year, according to new research from research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services.
For the year ended August 31, 2013, spending on television benefits by various Canadian broadcasters dropped 39% ($68.3 million) from a record high of $177.1 million in 2011-2012. Of that $108.8 million, 76% ($82.7 million) went to on-screen/programming-related initiatives – primarily the creation of new Canadian programming – and the remaining 24% ($26.1 million) went…
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OTTAWA – Forty-one campus and community radio stations will receive $1.1 million from the latest round of funding of the Community Radio Fund of Canada’s (CRFC) Radiometres program.
In total, the CRFC awarded $1,185,500 for 37 projects that will help the stations improve their local programming, train volunteers, and involve community members in station activities.
For example, CFYT-FM in Dawson City, Yukon will partner with a community center to broadcast community and local Aboriginal events, CINQ-FM in Montreal, Quebec will develop a program produced by seniors, CHUO-FM in Ottawa, Ontario will host a series of workshops for the recording of live music…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Two-thirds of Canadians would prefer a basic cable service that is the lowest price possible, and more than half prefer to ‘pick a pack’ of television channels rather than ‘pick and pay’. That’s according to the results of the Let's Talk TV Choicebook questionnaire, released Thursday by the CRTC.
In total, more than 6,300 people filled out the interactive questionnaire issued in February as the second phase of the Let’s Talk TV initiative.
A self-selected group of Canadians undertook the Choicebook process by going to a public site, encouraged to visit through outreach and advertising by the CRTC…
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