CALGARY – Shaw Media has promoted Christine Shipton to Senior Vice President, Content.
In this role, Shipton (pictured) will be responsible for the company's content strategy across all platforms, as well as overseeing the creation of Canadian original productions, acquisition deals for U.S. and international series, and scheduling for the company's conventional and specialty channels. A key focus of the position will be to ensure that Shaw is strategically evolving its content platforms and windowing rights amidst the ever-evolving media landscape, as well as forging key strategic partnerships to support the company's growing roster of large, international co-productions.
Prior to this…
Continue Reading
THERE ARE ALWAYS A HANDFUL of questions asked repeatedly by commissioners during a CRTC hearing which can tip followers off about the direction the Regulator is leaning on certain topics. The Let’s Talk TV hearing is no different.
Big questions have been asked, answered and covered by us and others over the first eight days of the hearing (just search Cartt.ca for “let’s talk tv”), but there’s one query most have not touched upon yet: CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais’ recurring request for a road map from each of the companies to help him with the timing for changing the rules….
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais and Privacy Commissioner of Canada Daniel Therrien will join representatives from Google, Bell Canada, TekSavvy and more as speakers at this year’s IIC Canada 2014 Conference.
Scheduled for October 21 – 22, 2014 in Ottawa, 'Vision 20/20 – What's next for Canada's communications industries' will bring together business and government leaders in broadcasting, media, telecommunications and technology, with the goal of unpacking the intersection of policy and politics in today's technology-driven communications sector.
Discussion topics include:
– Recent developments in the communications industries;
– Disruptive innovation, consumers and creativity: a look at what makes Canada's video game industry…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Barbara Williams has been promoted to executive vice president, broadcasting and president for Shaw Media, Shaw Communications announced Tuesday.
In this role, Williams (pictured) will continue to reinforce Shaw Media’s position as one of Canada’s leading broadcasters while evolving to meeting the future audience and advertiser needs, reads the company’s announcement. A key focus will be to continue to strengthen the core business while at the same time transforming to meet the ever changing media environment.
Williams brings more than 25 years of experience in the media industry to the oversight of Global Television and Shaw Media’s 19 specialty…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The CRTC briefly changed the channel on Monday. The Let‘s Talk TV policy hearing turned its attention away from the impact that Netflix and over the top (OTT) services could have on the Canadian broadcasting system and instead tuned into the role that set top box (STB) viewership data should play in providing more granular audience measurement and therefore enhance the ability of broadcasters to monetize programs.
Rentrak, a U.S. corporation that provides a service combining both sample and census data, took the stand in the morning to explain how its offering can be of significant value to…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC must ensure a vibrant, healthy Canadian television industry or risk losing Canadian talent and audiences, the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) told the Commission during its appearance at the Let’s Talk TV hearing Thursday.
“The great success stories of Canadian television came about because Canadian creators have had opportunities to collaborate with experienced colleagues,” said executive director Maureen Parker. “Quantity is needed to create quality. If the industry shrinks as a result of some proposals on the table, the talent will simply leave the country.”
Speaking on behalf of its members, some 2,200 professional English-language screenwriters across…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has launched a new website for all of its blog posts, research studies, video interviews and white papers.
The site trends.cmf-fmc.ca merges CMF’s blog Trendscape, its Industry research section, and crowdfunding online resource, all of which were previously hosted on the CMF website. The new site will feature CMF’s new analysis blog (formerly Trendscape) which now includes more than one hundred posts as well as video interviews. Favouring a collaborative approach with expert bloggers from Canada and around the world, the blog also includes an extensive collection of specialized articles about the television and…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Calls for relaxed broadcast regulations from Quebecor Media appeared to ring hollow with CRTC commissioners on the second day of the Regulator’s Let‘s Talk TV policy hearing. During its appearance, the dominant Quebec media and cable company argued that unless the Commission takes immediate action, Netflix will become one of the largest distributors and broadcasters in Canada.
“There’s nothing to prevent Netflix from offering television distribution services for a pittance while adapting its business model, moving into more and more linear broadcasting windows in order to squeeze out traditional BDUs, and responding to market demand, all without being…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The CEOs of BCE and Rogers say they are more than happy to offer access to their upcoming online subscription video-on-demand services to other TV providers, and at least one of those other providers is eager to sign up.
At the annual BMO Media and Telecom investors’ conference in Toronto on Tuesday, Rogers CEO Guy Laurence said Shomi, a joint project with Shaw that is set to launch in November, was to have other partners (as Cartt.ca first reported earlier this year). But they decided to launch without them because they “couldn’t get their…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The implications of imposing old-style TV regulations on new age digital media providers was front and centre during the first day of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV policy hearing today. While Google Canada suggested that other countries could follow Canada’s lead if the commission forced traditional TV regulations on digital providers, the Ontario government argued that greater regulation of online providers is critical to the long-term health of the broadcasting system and the production industry it feeds.
Kevin Finnerty, assistant deputy minister of tourism, culture and sport for the Ontario government, spoke Monday afternoon about the need for…
Continue Reading
