TORONTO – Long-time sales executive Dan Hamilton is leaving Citytv, the Rogers TV Sales Group announced today. His last day will be February 15th, 2008.
“It has been a pleasure and an honour working with our agencies and clients over the past 24 years on behalf of Citytv and the former CHUM Television brands,” said Hamilton, in a release. “I look forward to seeing great developments on this remarkable Citytv brand under Rogers leadership.”
His future plans were not announced.
“We are extremely grateful for Dan’s numerous years of excellent service and professionalism,” expressed Mitch Dent, executive vice-president, sales,…
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TORONTO – CTVglobemedia’s Lesley Conway-Kelley took over as the new chair of the Radio Marketing Bureau this week.
Conway-Kelley of CTV’s CHUM Radio Sales is the first female chair in the history of the RMB “and her appointment comes at an exciting time for Radio as the industry gets ready for a new era of electronic measurement with the advent of Personal People Meters (PPM) next September,” says the RMB release.
“The RMB is a vital resource of industry information not only for member stations but also for advertisers and agencies,” said Conway-Kelley, “and with the implementation of PPM…
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OTTAWA – A new federal copyright bill was supposed to be introduced this month in the House of Commons by Industry Minister Jim Prentice, but the ruling Conservative Party has delayed its introduction until the new year.
Canada’s actors are not amused. The government’s about-face decision to abandon the scheduled introduction of new copyright legislation is a detriment to Canada’s artists, and a hijacking of the policy process by a vocal minority, said actors union ACTRA in a press release.
"This government is turning its back on legislation that is long overdue. Politics must not trump policy. ACTRA holds…
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IN 2003, WHEN THE HOUSE of Commons Heritage Committee issued the “Our Cultural Sovereignty” report (better known as the Lincoln Report) it recommended that “the existing foreign ownership limits for broadcasting and telecommunications be maintained a current levels.”
At that time, the then Canadian Alliance Party, whose leader was Stephen Harper, put out the following dissenting opinion: “The Canadian Alliance disagrees with (this recommendation). The Canadian Alliance supports relaxing foreign ownership rules on Canadian industry, including telecommunications and broadcast distribution. We suggest conducting an immediate review to determine whether to reduce or completely remove these rules.” Those very same…
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OTTAWA and SASKATOON – With a new satellite set launch late next year, Canada’s youngest satellite company, Ciel Satellite Group, announced today that it has selected SED Systems, a division of Calian Ltd, to expand SED’s satellite control center facilities in Saskatoon in preparation for that new bird.
The expanded facilities will be used for the initiation of tracking, telemetry and control (TT&C) operations for Ciel-2, the satellite which is planned for operation by the first quarter of 2009.
“Establishing the Ciel TT&C center is an important milestone in our development as Canada’s newest satellite operator,” said Dave…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC on Friday approved two additional category two digital channel licenses to Channel Zero, owners and operators of Movieola and Silver Screen Classics.
The first is Short Form TV, which will offer short form content ranging in length from 30 seconds to 48 minutes. Programming would feature the best of current musical, dramatic, comedic, experimental, animated and user-generated short form content shot on film or video, or created with computer animation.
Plus, the channel will be a showcase for professional, amateur, student and experimental animators, filmmakers and storytellers in Canada.
The second license approved was Movie…
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TORONTO – If you’re a hockey fan with a high definition television set, you want to see as many games as possible in crisp, clear HD.
And if your favorite regional National Hockey League team is playing on Rogers Sportsnet, you don’t want to hear the technical and league reasons why there is poker on Sportsnet HD (shot in standard definition) while the game (shot in HD) appears in fuzzier analog on the SD Sportsnet channel.
The reasons why that was, was confusing enough for those of us in the industry, let alone a regular hockey fan.
Years ago,…
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HEADLINES IN NEWSPAPERS this week say it all: “Rainbow City” wrote the editors of The Toronto Star as their headline and Vancouver Sun noted that their city “is now more multicultural than Miami, Los Angeles or New York City.”
The Statistics Canada census release this week highlighted the extent of change in the Canadian population – including the fact that Canada is now home to its highest proportion of immigrants since 1931 – a 75-year high. So how does this impact the broadcasting business? Without question, there are significant opportunities for ethnic media as a result of this new…
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TORONTO – There were over 350,000 XM Canada satellite radio subscribers at the end of November.
The number of subscribers increased by 86% over the first quarter of last year, says the company’s press release.
"We are experiencing double-digit growth in our subscriber base due to a significant increase in the number of vehicles that are rolling off the automobile manufacturing line with XM satellite radios and due to the continued improvement in our retail market share with our NHL exclusivity," said John Bitove, chairman and CEO of XM Canada.
"I am also pleased to report that almost all…
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TORONTO – Two entrepreneurs have launched a new company and are looking to turn the cable industry green.
CTAR Corp, which stands for Canadian Telecommunications Asset Recovery, diverts telecom equipment deemed “obsolete” or “excess” from landfills by reselling, donating, or recycling it. If the equipment can’t be reused by a Canadian or international company, CTAR approaches educational and training institutions, which offer a charitable tax receipt to companies. Then, the equipment is recycled – which generates a small amount of money for the harvested materials and diverts the electronics from landfills.
“The telecommunications industry has been expanding at such…
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