TORONTO – Canadian Broadcast Sales has tapped sales industry veteran Gerry MacKrell as its new president, replacing outgoing president and founder Patrick Grierson.
MacKrell (pictured) spent 23 years at Corus Entertainment, most recently as senior vice-president of sales, and prior to Corus, spent seven years at the rep companies Western Broadcast Sales and All-Canada Radio & Television, which became a part of CBS in 1993. He has also been an active member of the CBS Board of Directors, where he provided counsel on sales strategies, industry opportunities and market challenges.
Effective September 1, MacKrell will be at the forefront of offering…
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GATINEAU – Maybe it’s not so bad yet, after all…
The CRTC on Thursday released three different documents breaking down the 2016 results from conventional broadcast, discretionary and on demand, and broadcast distribution undertaking sectors of the Canadian TV business.
The numbers are all almost a year old (filed by the regulated companies at the end of the regulatory broadcast year, August 31, 2016) – so bear that in mind when perusing these highlights. Also, these figures do not include any revenue from broadband, telephony or wireless streams. (As well, the Commission told us the breakdown for…
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Plus, DAZN has a big job to do and very little time
VARIOUS ‘SUPER SPORTS’ PACKAGES have quietly been pulled or are being rendered anew by Canadian TV carriers with the announcement last week they will no longer contain NFL Sunday Ticket or NFL Red Zone.
Both Sunday Ticket (every single NFL game, no matter what) and Red Zone (all the games’ action when the team are inside their opponent’s 20-yard line) have been on offer to NFL fanatics from TV carriers for years, since Rogers originally tried to bring it north as an exclusive more than a decade ago.
Since the…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Media Producers Association, Film Ontario, the Directors Guild of Canada, the Writers Guild of Canada, Unifor and 14 other trade groups and unions have banded together to continue to push Heritage Minster Mélanie Joly to overturn a recent CRTC decision which set spending on programs of national interest (PNI) at 5% of broadcaster revenues.
In an open letter to the minister printed this morning in The Hill Times newspaper, the creative groups and unions (some of which have already officially appealed to cabinet) amped up the pressure on the minster using the same…
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THE RECENT CRTC DECISION to reset broadcaster minimum spending requirements on programs of national interest (PNI) to a lowest-common-denominator level of 5% (see here for more) dealt a blow that the Canadian television industry is still reeling from. In the aftermath, the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) filed a petition to Cabinet seeking to set aside or refer back the decision.
There was very little in the decision that provided a rationale as to why PNI minimums were so summarily slashed, making a letter that former CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais sent to Hedy Fry, the Chair of the…
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MONTREAL – Six years ago, in the summer of 2011, a pair of Montreal businessmen went public with a project to revitalize the radio market in Montreal. Using two clear-channel AM frequencies, one for each language, they would provide a new kind of talk radio that wouldn’t be afraid to invest in content and would provide a much needed alternative to the cost-cutting machines at Bell Media and Cogeco.
Six years later, after going through several bumps in the road, the company finally has two AM stations on the air, though we’re still waiting for them to broadcast the high-quality…
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OTTAWA and TORONTO – Members of Canada’s screen-based media industries expressed cautious optimism towards this week’s three new CRTC appointments, though reiterated their call for Commissioners with backgrounds in film and television production.
The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) described new CRTC chair Ian Scott, broadcasting VP Caroline Simard, and interim telecom vice-chair Christianne Laizner as “amply qualified individuals who will bring considerable experience and expertise to bear on the complex issues facing the CRTC and our industry.”
“With two vacancies remaining open, (regional members for Manitoba/Saskatchewan and Ontario), we encourage the Minister to round out this deep…
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OTTAWA – On Tuesday morning, the federal government will name former Telesat and Telus executive Ian Scott as chairman of the CRTC, Cartt.ca has learned. (Scott is pictured in a screen cap from cpac.ca during 2016's basic services objective hearing.)
As well, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada legal counsel Caroline Simard will be named vice-chair, broadcasting. Both will assume their new duties and begin their five-year terms in September.
CRTC senior legal counsel Christianne Laizner will also be named interim vice-chair telecom, effective immediately, filling the slot left open by Peter Menzies’ departure last week to…
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TORONTO – While giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon appear to dominate the globalized environment, there are advantages that come with collaborating with these platforms and the means for exploring niches and reaching audiences without them, according to a new report from the Canada Media Fund (CMF).
The Trends Report: 2017 Mid-Year Update provides an in-depth look at the developing trends affecting the audiovisual industry in Canada and around the world.
“Being nimble in the hypercompetitive digital content environment is first and foremost a question of knowing how to play on all fronts”, reads the report. “Get space and visibility on mainstream…
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NEVER OVER THE LAST 50 years have the CRTC’s decisions been as hotly contested. Over the last two months, no fewer than five appeals to federal Cabinet have been launched, requesting the cancellation of decisions made by the departed chair of the Commission, Jean-Pierre Blais. There is no precedent in the history of the CRTC for such an avalanche of Cabinet appeals and such a degree of general exasperation.
Over the last few days, the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), and the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) have jointly appealed…
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