ACTRA Toronto, the largest branch of ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists), on Tuesday announced Rob Halpin has been appointed as its executive director, effective April 20.
His appointment follows the departure of Alistair Hepburn, who left ACTRA Toronto earlier this year to take on the role of national executive director of the Directors Guild of Canada.
Halpin joins ACTRA Toronto from the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), Canada’s largest provincial labour federation, where he worked for more than 10 years in various positions, including director of…
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Bell Media and the Ottawa Senators announced last week a new long-term broadcast rights extension that will see TSN and RDS continue to deliver live regional coverage of Senators games.
In addition, as part of the renewed agreement, TSN Radio 1200 remains the exclusive English-language radio partner of the Senators, providing live game coverage as well as insight and analysis on the team.
Ottawa Senators regional matchups are available to TSN and RDS viewers located in the team’s designated broadcast region as defined by the NHL, which includes Eastern Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) approved Thursday the extended use of the extended Ku (xKu) band for direct-to-home satellite broadcasting service (DTH) for at least another decade.
The department will allow Telesat to continue providing the service to Shaw Direct, which parent company Rogers uses to provide television services to some consumers and other broadcasters, until November 2039. In 2010, ISED forbade Telesat from continuing to carry DTH services in the band after January 1, 2028.
Telesat had requested the extension in December and, in filing the supporting intervention, Rogers warned about the negative impact…
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Damian Abraham, frontman of Canadian punk band F*cked Up, and International Digital Emmy-winning producer Zach Feldberg have partnered to launch Cut & Paste Pictures.
The Toronto-based production company is entering the market with a slate of projects in development, spanning scripted and unscripted formats, and a feature documentary currently in production.
“Focusing on bold, voice-driven projects rooted in music, counterculture, and outsider perspectives, Cut & Paste champions unconventional stories with wide audience appeal,” reads a Wednesday press release announcing the prodco’s launch.
The creative partnership between Abraham and Feldberg combines their backgrounds…
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Vancouver-based Magnify Digital on Wednesday announced New Zealand’s national Māori screen content funder, Te Māngai Pāho, has signed an agreement to deploy Magnify Digital’s audience intelligence platform, ScreenMiner, across funded Māori productions.
The agreement will make ScreenMiner available to 150 projects annually, giving producers access to consolidated quantitative metrics and structured qualitative audience feedback to inform strategy and strengthen audience growth, Magnify Digital said in a press release. Te Māngai Pāho will receive standardized reporting and portfolio-level insight across participating titles, it added.
“We invest in stories that promote Māori language and culture, but we…
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Bell said Thursday that its 5G+ Advanced network is live across parts of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
The network is powered by Bell’s 5G standalone core and delivers greater capacity, lower latency and theoretical peak download speeds of 4.3 Gbps, its fastest yet, the telco said in a press release.
The service is currently live in Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, Markham, Vaughan, Oakville, Richmond Hill, Burlington, Oshawa, Whitby, St. Catherines, Milton, Ajax, Pickering, Grimsby, Thorold and Niagara Falls.
Bell said it is expanding the service into the Niagara region, “bringing next-generation mobile performance to more communities across Ontario’s fastest-growing areas.”
The…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor’s mobile wireless segment reported positive monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) growth on a year-over-year basis for the first time since the Freedom Mobile acquisition in April 2023.
ARPU was $35.23 in the fourth quarter, up 1.4 per cent or 48 cents, against the same quarter the year prior. Since the acquisition of Freedom from Shaw, mobile ARPU was consistently down against their comparable quarters, despite sequential improvements in the metric for every quarter in 2025 leading up to the final three months.
The company attributed the improvement this time around to lower promotional discounts and customers moving…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers is warning Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) that if the department forces direct-to-home satellite broadcasting services (DTH) off the extended Ku (xKu) band, then its ability to provide broadcasting services to rural and remote communities will be negatively impacted.
Rogers, through its Shaw Direct brand, uses a direct-to-home satellite broadcasting service (DTH) that is powered by Telesat’s Anik G1 satellite using the xKu band in the 11 Ghz frequency, which also allows the cable giant to deliver services to third-party broadcasters, who also service these remote areas.
But there’s a problem: as a condition of Telesat’s licence…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers wants the CRTC to revisit an October decision approving a tariff that would force the cable giant to go through Telus to get compensated for moving its transmission lines at the behest of government entities, claiming that this would drastically reduce the amount third parties get for relocation.
Being forced to go through Telus to get compensated for moving its transmission lines – as opposed to directly negotiating with the government – will mean being undercompensated because Telus can only negotiate with the government the cost of moving its own transmission lines and not those of third-party…
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Toronto-based Cantina Media, a Serial Maven Studios production company, and Brighton, U.K.-based Big Wave Entertainment announced Monday a new premium wildlife series, Baby Elephant School, has been co-commissioned by Channel 4 and CBC as a U.K./Canada treaty co-production.
Filming is now underway in Sri Lanka at the world’s largest baby elephant sanctuary, Udawalawe Elephant Orphanage, a joint press release said.
Baby Elephant School is being produced in distinct versions for international broadcasters. The U.K. version (four episodes x 60 minutes) for Channel 4 is hosted by Welsh wildlife biologist and elephant researcher Lizzie Daly, while the one-hour…
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