TORONTO – Part social powwow and part professional revelation, the annual CTAM Canada Broadcaster Forum unspooled a ribbon of timely data points and commentary on new technology trends, a VR state-of-the-nation and even reflections on CBC’s unsullied broadcast of Tragically Hip’s summer concert.
Technology and television Innovation
A quartet of industry experts—Tom Elam, VP and GM with TiVo’s service provider business; Jay Gardner, VP of product development with Shaw; Joel Orvis, director of TV product management with Bell Canada; and Matt Nelson, director of strategic alliances with You.i—unpacked the latest developments in television tech on a panel moderated by Norm…
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REGINA – Access Communications has signed a three-year broadcast agreement with the Western Hockey League (WHL) to provide local hockey coverage throughout Saskatchewan.
In partnership with the WHL’s regional community cable broadcast partner Shaw Communications, community channel Access7 will air a minimum 40 WHL regular season games in the 2016-17 season, of which at least 10 will feature the Regina Pats. In addition, broadcasted games will feature all six of the WHL’s East Division teams including all five Saskatchewan-based clubs.
Games will be available on Access channels 7 or 70 (depending on the community), says the company.
“As a 100% community-owned company,…
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TORONTO – Hollywood Suite is marking its 5th birthday with a five-week national free preview promising more than 500 movies.
Just in time for the holidays, viewers can enjoy the gift of the best movies from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s, uncut and commercial-free, on four HDTV channels and On Demand. December titles include the director’s cut of Bad Santa, plus films like 12 Years a Slave, Titanic, The Expendables, The Interview, Raising Arizona, 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Fatal Attraction, American Beauty, Jerry Maguire, and Moneyball.
The freeview is available now through January 5, 2107…
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KENORA and GATINEAU – Shaw Communications has filed a letter with the CRTC this month letting the Commission know it has withdrawn its application to renew the broadcast license of CJBN-TV Kenora, its local TV station serving the northwestern Ontario community, and that it plans to shutter the station.
A Global Television affiliate which airs a schedule pretty close to Global TV’s Winnipeg station, CJBN also offers some local programming including a half hour show called Good Morning Sunset Country and another called Fishing with Gussy.
CJBN, which serves the 15,000 people of Kenora and some of the surrounding region, was…
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Netflix, et al, changing the market
GATINEAU – The tipping point is coming.
That was part of the message delivered to the CRTC by Bell Media during its appearance before the CRTC for the company’s group license renewal. Thanks to new content buyers with global reach and enormous purchasing power, securing the rights to foreign content for Canada is getting ever-more expensive.
“Last May, we were in Los Angeles buying our foreign television content,” said Bell Media president Mary Ann Turcke to the commission panel. “There were three shows that we were bidding on and Netflix was the competitor – a competitor…
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TORONTO — Since launching five years ago with 11 full-time employees, under the leadership of Canadian TV industry veterans Jay Switzer and David Kines, commercial-free movie service Hollywood Suite has slowly but surely been growing.
After rejigging its original studio-focused channels a year ago and rebranding them as a quartet of decades-focused channels in anticipation of the rollout of the pick-and-pay regime, company executives believe the company is well positioned for the new market reality of a la carte TV channel choice.
Despite continuing to be small in stature, now employing 14, Hollywood Suite’s success shouldn’t come as too…
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GATINEAU – The demise of Shomi has raised a number of questions regarding the future of domestic streaming services in the face of competition from global competitors such as Netflix, including some from CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais today. But for Rogers Media, it means that partnering with global giants might be the best approach going forward.
Rick Brace, president at Rogers Media, noted during the company’s appearance before the CRTC’s major English language broadcasters licence renewal hearing, that while shomi was a response to Netflix, it quickly became apparent that the cost to acquire programming was escalating quickly and the…
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OTTAWA – Three Canadian programs won the Shaw Rocket Prize for best in kids and youth programming as well as the best in digital experience at an industry gala held this week in Ottawa.
DHX Media’s Kate & Mim-Mim and Slugterra (pictured) plus Breakthrough Entertainment’s Anne of Green Gables each won a $25,000 prize after earning the most votes by children from across the country.
"On behalf of the Shaw Rocket Fund, we would like to congratulate Kate & Mim-Mim, Slugterra and Anne of Green Gables for producing quality kids and youth television shows which incorporate innovative digital experiences that Canadian…
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OTTAWA – The Wireless Code plus customer service improvements by the country’s wireless and Internet providers helped to cut telecom service complaints for a third straight year, the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) said Thursday in its annual report.
The report, Guidance In A Sea Of Change, showed that the CCTS received 8,197 customer complaints in 2015-16, down 18% from 9,988 in 2014-15, and that it increased its resolution rate two points to 89%. Wireless services complaints once again topped the list with 50.3% of all complaints, followed by 26.5% for Internet, 19.6% for local telephone service and 3.6%…
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LAVAL — After a day of pushing major French-language television broadcasters to justify their demands for fewer regulatory burdens, the CRTC pushed the other way on Wednesday, for interest groups to justify the need for regulatory intervention as Canadians increasingly get their audiovisual content from unlicensed sources.
“I see a representation of a corporate interest, but not necessarily from the person that the CRTC must serve, the TV viewer,” chairman Jean-Pierre Blais told the Association québécoise de la production médiatique, one of many production groups to present at the licence renewal hearing in Laval, north of…
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