GATINEAU – Thanks to complaints that some channels up for addition to the eligible satellite list in Canada offer nothing but Communist propaganda, the CRTC has re-opened a public proceeding to gather additional evidence.
Rogers Cable has faced complaints and some small protests after sponsoring the addition of nine new Chinese channels to the eligible satellite list for digital distribution in Canada.
The now-defunct Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association had made the original application (Rogers Cable took over sponsorship after the organization closed) and described the channels as general interest fare. "Based on supporting information provided by the CCTA, the…
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THERE’S SO MUCH UNINFORMED nonsense on display in the Canadian consumer media about how the Canadian television industry works and the CRTC’s role in it that most of us in the business tend to just ignore it.
Columnists and reporters at many daily newspapers, in on-line forums and sometimes even on radio or television, misplace blame for many things broadcast – and most often they lay fault for anything they perceive is wrong with the system at the feet of the CRTC. For a reporter, it’s a really easy score. Why do a little work and figure out what’s…
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TORONTO – With the CRTC’s annual release of financial and other statistics from Canadian broadcasters, ACTRA, the actors union, is up in arms.
"Last year we were shocked that so-called Canadian private broadcasters spent four times more on U.S. programming than they did on original Canadian drama. Now we’re appalled to learn that in 2005, they spent almost five times more. The system is clearly broken," said Stephen Waddell, ACTRA’s national executive director, in a statement.
According to the CRTC’s report, broadcasters spent $401 million on imported drama, mostly from the U.S., and $86.6 million on original Canadian drama…
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TORONTO – CanoeLive will be different, that’s for sure.
If the three minutes of the news program that Quebecor CEO Pierre Peladeau revealed to ad agency types and media buyers at Tuesday’s Canadian Media Directors’ Council annual conference is what comes to air, SUN TV’s CanoeLive will be a dizzying hour for TV viewers.
The clip featured a young 20-something female visible minority anchor fronting the show with an urban music track humming in the background non-stop (at about the same sound level of TSN’s background noise of local play-by-play), lightning quick cuts from one screen to the next,…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC Wednesday called for applications for new radio stations in Saskatoon and Regina.
The Commission said that it has received an application for a broadcasting licence in each of the two largest cities in Saskatchewan and – as is it’s custom – is opening the call to everyone.
Applications are due June 27th.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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GATINEAU – Country music fans in Toronto will have a clearer new choice later this year.
On Wednesday, the CRTC approved an application by Durham Radio to build a new repeater transmitter in Toronto for 95.9 CJKX-FM Ajax (New Country).
The transmitter will be located in downtown Toronto and operate at 85 watts. Durham Radio told the Commission that many of its listeners, from Ajax, Oshawa, east Toronto and York Region, commute to downtown Toronto for work or other reasons and are unable to receive a good quality signal from CJKX-FM in downtown Toronto because of interference caused by…
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OTTAWA – When current video on demand licenses come up for renewal in the next few years, the CRTC should re-examine the whole regulatory framework of such services, says the Canadian Association of Broadcasters.
In a submission to the CRTC saying it didn’t oppose in principle an application by SaskTel to create a community channel to be distributed on demand, the CAB added the SaskTel application "represents yet another example of how the nature of VOD is evolving as it becomes an increasingly important element of the Canadian broadcasting system."
The association also pointed out that the VOD licences…
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IT’S HIGH TIME SOMEONE provided Canadian HDTV set owners with original, 24/7 Canadian HD content, says Ken Murphy, co-founder and president of High Fidelity HDTV.
The new company is the proud owner of Treasure HD and Oasis HD, two brand new high definition channels available as of this month on Bell ExpressVu. The company is something Murphy (left) and co-founder John Panikkar (the COO) have been working on for years – basically since Murphy parted ways with Discovery Channel Canada in 2002, where he was g.m.
The channels feature hours of original programming and much of it will…
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MONTREAL – Without an updated, more flexible regulatory regime, a drop in ad sales among private conventional radio stations will mirror that of conventional television, Canadian Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell said in a speech today.
As specialty TV services gained in acceptance and popularity, their ad sales grew dramatically (and are still growing), costing traditional over-the-air broadcasters any kind of growth and for some, ad sales fell dramatically. While conventional TV broadcasters draw a larger audience, specialty services have much more targeted demographics, which ad buyers are often more eager to reach.
O’Farrell told the…
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TORONTO – SUN TV’s daily entertainment news program, Inside Jam, has been cancelled.
The seven-month old half hour show, which was a very late entry into an enormous sea of such shows, will be turned into a once a week hour long program, to air on weekends. The station says a new daily program will be announced in May.
According to the Canadian Media Guild, which has organized the Quebecor Media owned station (which was formerly Toronto 1) and is currently negotiating the first collective agreement for the broadcaster, 13 people were let go last week.
The channel’s other…
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