IN QUEBEC, YOU HAVE TO GO DEEP into a conversation with a private TV network manager before you’ll hear even a hint of excitement about the visual and audio pleasures that await viewers of HDTV.
“Sure, we’re anxious to see all that,” finally confesses Richard Baril, Operations Director for RDS, the all-sports network and sister station of TSN. “For viewers, especially if they’ve ever seen an HD broadcast, they’d like to have it tomorrow.
“But as a manager and administrator,” he quickly adds, hearing the adding machine toting up the bills, “there are enormous costs, and I understand the…
Continue Reading
CANADA’S CABLE AND SATELLITE companies want one thing when it comes to high definition television: More.
More HD channels. More HD content. More HD Canadian content. In the larger markets at least, HDTV set owners are increasingly tuning to their HD channels only, taking advantage of their big, bright, new toy. They, in turn, are beginning to apply some pressure on their cable company or satellite provider to make more channels available.
“Demand is high,” says the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance’s legal counsel Chris Edwards. “Everyone is looking to get as much high def as they can get.” The…
Continue Reading
THE SCORE HAS SEEN its share of challenges.
Launched in 1997 as Headline Sports as part of the 17-channel tier III, it struggled from the outset. It had no background, so it had to knock extra-hard on the doors of leagues and teams to get them to listen.
Then, since it had no live event programming of its own, TSN, for one, wouldn’t give the sports news channel any highlights from sports properties it owned, like the Canadian Football League. Clips like that are normally traded and the sports channel newcomer had nothing to trade with, said TSN at…
Continue Reading
EDMONTON – Squeezed out of its niche by a couple of new stations in the market, Edmonton’s 96X became Big Earl today.
Branded as the hit music alternative, Newcap Broadcasting’s 96X felt the ratings push from two recent launches in Edmonton, The Bounce 91.7 (the CHUM/Milestone-owned urban/Top 40 station launched in 2005) and Sonic 102.9 (OK Radio’s recently launched modern rock station). Both took some of the 96X’s younger audience with it, a fact borne out in the latest ratings.
“We weren’t surprised by that,” Newcap Edmonton’s operations manager Rob Mise told www.cartt.ca this afternoon. “When the CRTC licensed…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – As part of its acquisition of OMNI TV B.C. and Manitoba, Roger OMNI Television has announced a benefits package totalling $950,000 for independent producers based in the provinces.
The money will go towards 30- and 60-minute documentaries focusing on religion and faith, considered category 4 programming under the CRTC regulations. The fund will be spent over seven years, with no more than $250,000 allocated in each year.
Proposals for stories, biographies, and documentaries examining religious, spiritual, ethical, and/or moral values in all faiths will be reviewed twice a year: from Jan. 1 to Mar. 1, and from…
Continue Reading
LAST WEEK’S ANNOUNCEMENT of BCE’s divestiture of all but 20% of its ownership holding in Bell Globemedia left one enormous burning question.
What is the company going to do with the $1.3 billion in proceeds from its sale of control of one of Canada’s largest media companies? BCE CEO Michael Sabia told an analyst conference call last week that the company won’t be announcing what it plans to do with the money until February.
Here, in no particular order, is the www.cartt.ca Top 10 List of things BCE could do with its new pile of money, when it…
Continue Reading
BARRIE, Ont. – Christian radio is a bit of an immature niche in Canada.
Until 1993, such stations simply were not licensed in Canada so – while the market for Christian stations grew in the U.S. for years (and is apparently 600-stations strong there) – only recently are similar operations seeing growth here (about 30 so far).
One such station is Barrie’s Life 100.3. On the air for over six years now, the station has added repeaters in Owen Sound, Peterborough and Huntsville. Currently, the Barrie station operates at 1,800 watts, but wait for early 2006, when the signal…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Some more Quebec City radio hosts have landed in hot water over coarse language. The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council today released its decision on a complaint against the hosts of the afternoon show on CJMF-FM, Le Trio de l’enfer.
During a broadcast on Dec. 17, 2004, the hosts were discussing the state of radio in Quebec City. They referred to competitors André Arthur and Jeff Fillion, the controversial CHOI-FM hosts whose crude comments eventually caused the CRTC to rescind the station’s licence, as “trous de cul,” or “assholes.” A listener complained to the CBSC.
The CBSC said…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers Cable is the first BDU in Canada to carry The Israeli Network, offering the service to digital cable customers in Ontario.
A free preview of the network, on channel 635, is available until Jan. 4, 2006. After that, it will cost $14.95 a month, not including the rental or purchase of the digital set-top box.
"We’re thrilled to launch The Israeli Network on Rogers Digital Cable," says Slava Levin, co-founder, CEO, and President of Ethnic Channels Group Limited, which operates the channel. "Our years of experience in the multicultural television and broadcast industry will allow us…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Saying the viewing public just isn’t interested in music videos the way they used to, Corus Entertainment’s CMT has asked for a license amendment to reflect that.
It recently applied to the Commission to alter its license so that only 50% of its programming has to be drawn from the music video clips category, rather than the current 70%.
It intends to fill the space with programming from categories 2b (docs), 8c (music video programs), 9 (variety), 10 (game shows), 11 (general entertainment) and 12 (interstitials). and says that such alternate programming shall continue to conform…
Continue Reading
