OTTAWA – Fifty-five campus and community radio stations will receive $996,371 to implement projects to improve local programming thanks to the second round of funding of the Community Radio Fund of Canada’s Radiometres program.
The goal of Radiometres is to increase the development, volunteer participation, and sustainability of campus and community radio stations.
And there are as many ways to meet these outcomes as there are stations. For example, this year the CRFC will fund such initiatives as an educational program on Aboriginal languages, capsules on families that have shaped Acadian history, a new program…
Continue Reading
QUISPAMSIS, N.B. – This year’s Canadian Cable Systems Alliance annual general meeting and Connect conference will be the 20th year the group gathers for networking, knowledge and fun.
“It really is the only opportunity everybody has to get together anymore,” said CCSA president and CEO Alyson Townsend.
The 2013 conference will take place September 22-24 at the Fairmont Mont Tremblant, Quebec. The theme of this year’s Connect is focused on community and all that means.
“So, we’re celebrating the CCSA community that has been around for 20 years, we’re celebrating the communities that are served by our members – and that is…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – A group representing 8,000 anglophone artists in Quebec is hoping to convince the CRTC to require Videotron to include an English-language community TV channel in the Montreal-area as a condition of its license, which is up for renewal this summer.
The English Language Arts Network (ELAN) said Tuesday it is building an alliance with the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), a not-for-profit which represents 41 English-language community organizations across the province, to intervene at the upcoming CRTC public hearings concerning Vidéotron’s Montreal licence renewal.
ELAN says the Videotron licence affects the 600,000 English-speaking…
Continue Reading
WHITEHORSE, YT – The head of Toronto-based telecom Iristel Inc. told the CRTC today telecommunications in Canada’s northern region will only truly thrive in an environment that allows competition and innovation rather than the current status quo of Northwestel’s monopoly.
Speaking at the public hearing reviewing the regulatory framework and proposed modernization plan for Bell-subsidiary Northwestel, Iristel president and CEO Samer Bishay explained in a prepared statement that it planned to tell the Commission that the northern incumbent telephone company “has squandered millions of dollars of annual public subsidies with little upgrades in service…Simple things like…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA and GATINEAU – Canada’s 675 commercial radio stations reported total revenue of $1.62 billion in the 2012 broadcast year, a figure which has slowly but steadily increased since 2009, according to the CRTC’s latest statistical and financial report for this sector released today.
Despite competition from satellite, online and mobile services, total revenues for AM and FM stations increased by 0.4%, from $1.61 billion in 2011 to $1.62 billion in 2012; with the report indicating revenues have increased by 7.4% since 2009.
While overall sales of local and national times have also steadily risen…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Veritas Investment Research says the speech by CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais to the 2013 Banff World Media Fest last week appears to foreshadow a negative ruling for Bell/Astral II and that investors should pay heed.
In a research note to clients last week, Veritas noted that investors are betting that the answer from the CRTC will be affirmative, and not negative like the first go-around in October of 2012. It’s not a safe bet, says the company. “Astral Media Inc.’s class A shares are trading at approximately $48.50, compared to BCE Inc.’s offer price…
Continue Reading
QUISPAMSIS, NB – The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance Inc. (CCSA) has announced that Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien will join the judging panel for the inaugural Community Channel Awards.
O'Brien will be joined by John Thomas and Michel Arpin on the judging panel. An industry veteran, Thomas has more than 40 years experience heading prominent industry associations including CCSA, CCTA and Cable Television Standards Foundation. He was president and CEO of independent cableco Delta Cable until its sale in 2005. Delta was long known for the quality of its community programming.
Arpin, who began his…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Specialty investment company Difference Capital Financial announced today the appointment of Jim Shaw and Ivan Fecan to its board of directors.
Shaw is best known for his 12 years as CEO of Shaw Communications. He joined the company his father founded in 1982, moving through a succession of leadership positions in the company. Under his leadership as CEO, the share price of Shaw Communications increased 11% per year and the company became a leader in the North American cable industry. Currently, he serves as a director of Shaw Communications Inc. and United Communities L.P.
Fecan was president and CEO…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA and GATINEAU – Profits for conventional television stations fell by 85% in 2012, according to the CRTC’s latest statistical and financial report for this sector released Thursday.
The Commission said profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) for private TV stations declined from $151.6 million to $22.9 million in 2012.
Revenues dropped by 5% from $2.14 billion in 2011 to $2.04 billion in 2012. While local advertising sales remained relatively stable at $354.6 million, down just 0.2% from the previous year, national advertising revenues decreased 7.5% from $1.47 billion in 2011 to $1.35 billion in 2012.
Continue Reading
TRACKING TRENDS REMINDS ME of what Henry Ford said when he was quizzed about popular trends and his new Model T, "If I had asked people about what they really wanted they would have said a faster horse!" But here at the Banff World Media Fest there are some bankable trends emerging.
First, the rise of the multi-gadget digital viewer is a hyper-fact, and very often creators enjoy working with niche media and OTT platforms for the freedom and multi-platform thrill and innovation of it all. However, there is still nothing quite like broadcast television for the immediate future.
Second, broadcast…
Continue Reading
