GATINEAU – Continued flooding in Gatineau, home of the CRTC and many of its staff, means the big decisions planned for this week have been put off until next week, Cartt.ca has learned.
Multiple sources have been told by the Commission that since some staffers are dealing with flooding in their own homes (the Regulator’s offices have not been flooded) that the decisions on the license renewals for the large French-language ownership groups and large English-language ownership groups, originally intended for this week, had to be pushed back to next. The CRTC office was also closed Monday and remains so…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications has pulled the plug on three more community cable TV stations in the Greater Toronto Area, and cut resources at many others across Ontario.
Rogers TV in Mississauga and Richmond Hill, along with Toronto and Brampton, have ceased operations effective immediately and the channels will go dark on August 31, 2017. The move eliminated 23 full-time positions, which come in addition to the 10 lost in February when production was shut down in Toronto.
Between now and August, Rogers will offer a single Rogers TV channel across the GTA, featuring a mix of community programming and City…
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REGINA – Bell, Rogers and Telus have reportedly registered to lobby SaskTel, something which came to light just days after a privatization bill was passed that allows the provincial government to sell up to 49% of the Crown corporation.
That law, known as Bill 40, received Royal Assent late last week. According to a Regina Leader-Post report, representatives of the Big Three are listed on Saskatchewan’s lobbyist registry.
The report quotes SaskTel as saying that the activity regarding the company is “in reference to day to day wholesale negotiations for each other’s services and this relationship has been occurring for…
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TORONTO – RTDNA Canada has released the 2017 finalists for its annual National Awards.
The RTDNA Canada Awards honour the best journalists, programs, stations and news gathering organizations in radio, television and digital. National winners will be announced at the 2017 National Conference & Awards Gala in Toronto on May 27.
The finalists are:
Digital
Adrienne Clarkson Award – Diversity
CBC Montreal: Real Talk on Race
CBC Nova Scotia: School Board Deals with Racially Charged Incidents
CBC Yellowknife: Kitikmeot Women Revive Traditional Inuit Tattoos
Charlie Edwards Award – Spot News
CBC Toronto: Rob Ford’s Death Coverage
CTV Vancouver Island: On-Duty Mountie Killed in Langford Crash
Global Edmonton: Fort McMurray Wildfire
Data Storytelling…
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TORONTO – BlackBerry’s new Android smartphone, the BlackBerry KEYone, will be available in Canada next month at Bell, Bell MTS, Rogers, SaskTel and Telus Business.
BlackBerry’s global smartphone licensing partner TCL Communication said Thursday that the new device sports a sleek aluminum frame and soft grip textured back, a Smart Keyboard with customizable shortcuts and touch navigation, extended battery life, and a 12MP rear camera and an 8MP front camera.
The BlackBerry KEYone will start at $199 CAD on a two year term. Ahead of its May 31st official on-sale date, the device will be available for…
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TORONTO – Rogers Media, GroupM, Wasserman + Partners, Larche Communications, ZoomerMedia, Indie88 and RNC Media are the first clients to subscribe to NLogic's new radio application known as Lens for radio.
The broadcast analytics provider said Thursday that Lens for radio a modern, flexible application for radio where clients can access radio data for multiple needs including buying and selling, campaign planning and tracking, negotiating and booking, and programming analysis. Allowing clients to transact and negotiate radio buys all within a single platform saves both buyers and sellers significant time.
Click here for the Lens for radio promo reel.
"I'm delighted that these…
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TORONTO – Nearly two-thirds of all Canadians watched NHL playoff action these past two weeks on Sportsnet and CBC, with the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs reaching 22.2 million Canadians, says Sportsnet.
Five of the top 10 most-watched NHL broadcasts of all-time on Sportsnet were recorded in round 1, with Sunday night’s Washington at Toronto decisive game 6 ranking first with a reach of 8.4 million Canadians and an average audience of 3.47 million viewers.
The single most watched game of round 1 was the second game of the Toronto/Washington series, which delivered an average audience of 3.64 million…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications announced today that it will close its community cable TV stations in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver and redirect $10 million annually that would normally fund those stations to Corus Entertainment’s Global News.
Beginning September 1, 2017, Global News will use these new resources to sustain and expand its local journalistm.
The CRTC gave vertically integrated companies in large metropolitan centres the option to do this when it re-wrote the rules on funding local programming in 2016. Rogers Communications already has announced it will take advantage of the new regs,…
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Buys CISL 650 from Newcap
VANCOUVER – Rogers announced Tuesday it has purchased CISL 650 from Newfoundland Capital Corporation – and that it will turn the AM station into an all-sports format, under the Sportsnet brand, this fall.
The station currently bills itself as “Vancouver’s Smooth and Easy favourites, along with engaging lifestyle talk radio for baby boomers.” Financial details of the purchase were not released and the purchase is subject to CRTC approval.
“We are excited to build upon our strong radio brands in the Vancouver market. With Vancouver being such a passionate sports town, there is a strong appetite for all-sports radio…
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TORONTO – Irwin Gotlieb’s company is in charge of a third of the world’s advertising budget and he came to Toronto last week to tell Canada’s broadcasters to get on with addressable advertising, measure better, and work co-operatively, or his company will soon be spending its clients’ money elsewhere.
In an appearance at the Future of TV Ads Conference Thursday at Steam Whistle Brewery and in an interview with Cartt.ca, the global chairman of Group M implored Canadian broadcasters – especially those with TV distribution arms as well – to follow the lead of much of the rest of the…
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