MONTREAL – Former CBC and TVA exec René Bourdages has been named director general, creation and innovation at the NFB, effective September 1st.
Bourdages (pictured) is the founder and CEO of consulting firm Elevado Media, and was also president of the merchandising division at CBC; EVP broadcasting and operations at TVA/Quebecor; and EVP of programming, sales and marketing at Astral Media.
At NFB, he will oversee the interactive studios in Vancouver and Montreal and both English program and French program (animation and documentary), in line with the specific objectives of each.
“With daring and creativity comes risk. And to continue to be a…
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Growing in small market Quebec
MONTREAL – It only started in 2012, but Quebec’s Attraction Radio has already grown, entirely through acquisitions, to become one of the top radio broadcast owners in Quebec, based on a business model of small-market stations each maintaining their own identity and local management.
On Tuesday, the CRTC published the latest acquisition by this group, of CIPC-FM Port-Cartier (Radioactive 99.1) and CKCN-FM (PUR FM 94.1) in nearby Sept-Îles, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, 500 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.
Both stations were owned by four shareholders, Yvan Beaulieu, Jean Laverdière, Luc Hovington and…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – A drop in advertising revenue helped slow the pace of growth at Canada’s specialty, pay, PPV and VoD television services in the broadcast year ending August 31, 2015, according to the CRTC’s statistical and financial report for this sector released Thursday.
Pay, Pay-per-View, Video-On-Demand and Specialty Services – Statistical and Financial Summaries 2011-2015 said that the sector generated revenues of $4.3 billion in 2015, a modest 0.5% increase over the $4.2 billion earned the previous year, which was hampered by a $19 million decline in advertising revenue, which was offset by a $30.6 million increase in subscription revenues.
The report…
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BANFF – Quebecor Media put on one of the best scripted and packaged panels I've ever attended at Banff – and they made a very convincing case for the power of partnerships.
As the key commercial creator in our French-language market, and despite the modest market size, they've seen their CMF budgets increase by 40%. Indeed, last year, 18 of their 27 CMF funded projects enjoyed over $1 million in returns, according to the company’s presentation.
TVA often benefits from 45%+ market share – with La Voix (The Voice) frequently in the 50%+ viewership zone and critiqued as "the best show…
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CRTC addresses financial viability of news in local and community TV decision
GATINEAU – The CRTC is redrawing the local news and community TV landscape, however, it stopped short of creating a new funding mechanism for all local news operations.
Rather, the Commission is giving vertically integrated entities added flexibility in how they allocate money, while independent broadcasters will get access to a new fund and some immediate financial help (however, the full, new funding mechanisms don’t start until September 2017).
The Commission argued in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2016-224 that the VI companies (Rogers, Bell, Quebecor, Corus) have the wherewithal to…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will consider broadcast licence renewal applications from Canada’s big English- and French-language ownership groups at two public hearings this November.
The Commission said Wednesday that it will review applications from French-language ownership groups Bell, Corus, Quebecor and Groupe V starting November 22 in Laval.
The public hearing to review the applications from the English-language ownership groups Bell, Corus and Rogers, plus Shaw Communications and Telelatino Network, will begin on November 28 at the CRTC’s headquarters in Gatineau.
The deadline for the submission of interventions/comments/answers is August 2, 2016.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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BANFF – Inside the picturesque Banff Springs Hotel much is being said about monetization strategies for content development and distribution.
And in that context it's fun to recall that titles like Hell On Wheels, Passchendaele, The Revenant, Brokeback Mountain, Fargo, and The Bourne Legacy have all been shot in this fast-changing province of Alberta.
So what better venue?
For Julie Tremblay, president and CEO of Quebecor Media, the key is partnerships, vertically integrated companies, perhaps even more industry consolidation, and direct co-development and co-production with independent creators.
While those may be fighting words for some independent producers, she also admits to two constants:…
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Sees no way to add video to Unlimited offer
TORONTO – Despite having spent $2 billion so far on spectrum, plus a network build, then an upgrade to LTE all between 2010 and now, Vidéotron sees more spending on the horizon as 5G approaches. So today its CEO called on the federal government to maintain “spectral balance” when formulating the rules around the next auction of low frequency spectrum in the 600 MHz range.
In a keynote speech to the Canadian Telecom Summit on Wednesday morning, Manon Brouillette noted the sheer pace of technological change in our industry, remembering she spoke…
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MONTREAL – Eleven Canadian production companies will receive more than $2 million in funding under the Quebecor Fund's Main Television Production Assistance Program (MPAP) following April 1, 2016 submissions.
In this round, Quebecor Fund will disburse a total of $2,865,000 to 9223-3287 Québec inc. (Wabanok), La Voix Télévision Inc. (Productions Déferlantes inc.), District 31 inc. (Aetios Productions inc.), Zone3 inc., Productions Pixcom inc., TVA Productions inc., Productions GFP (VII) inc. (Groupe Fair-Play), Les Productions Bazzo Bazzo inc., Télévision Illimitée inc. (Productions Déferlantes inc.), Attraction Images Productions inc. and DATSIT Studios Quinze inc.
The eleven selected productions are slated to air on…
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TORONTO – Cue Digital Media has expanded its content and sales team with three senior appointments, including Jake Labow as its VP of content.
Susan Courtney was named director, news & business, national sales and Alison Demelis becomes director, women’s group, national sales.
“With the recent addition of some major new partnerships, we needed to expand our team with dynamic content creators and proven sales leaders who could fully engage advertisers across our platforms,” said CEO and founder David U.K., in the announcement. “We have also created dedicated verticals – Sports & Entertainment, News & Business and a new Women’s Group…
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