TORONTO – Shaw Media and the Banff World Media Festival announced the recipients of this year's Shaw Media Mentorship Programs that take place at the annual Festival from June 7-10 in Banff.
Both the Shaw Media Drama & Comedy Showrunner Training Program and Shaw Media Writer's Apprentice Program attract experienced producers, directors, and writers from across Canada each year to participate in instructive training programs that provide insights into the demands of producing and programming successful television programs.
The recipients for the 2015 Shaw Media Drama & Comedy Showrunner Training Program are:
Larry Bambrick
Andrew Carr
Josh Gal
Mike McPhaden
Raj Panikkar
The recipients for the 2015…
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TORONTO – The top-rated broadcaster's splashy, star-driven upfront presentation to ad buyers on Thursday at the Sony Centre in Toronto, featuring stars from DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Gotham and Marvel's Agent Carter, was a tour-de-force in messaging.
Staged with big screen visuals and pyrotechnics, newly-installed Bell Media president Mary Ann Turcke talked about a push for data-driven TV commercials, and Perry Macdonald, senior vice president of CTV sales, told invited agencies and clients his network had the hit shows and ratings to earn media dollars quite possibly headed elsewhere in a fast-changing digital landscape.
"We deliver more and we deliver better,"…
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TORONTO – Despite relentless digital disruption and CRTC deregulation causing stormy seas for Canadian broadcasters, top Shaw Media programmer Christine Shipton on Wednesday said she isn't ready to build an ark.
The network's chief creative officer instead told Cartt.ca she remains committed to – and after the recent Los Angeles Screenings – heavily invested in, that traditional advertising stalwart – conventional TV.
"It's not like we are going to suddenly readjust our schedule because there are over-the-top competitors. It's not suddenly in our minds to make a left-turn to what we are offering," Shipton said as her network got its 2015-16…
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TORONTO – Journalists treated to a showcase of City's 2015-16 Upfront programming Tuesday morning were shown a 45-minute video about Rogers Media's varied media platforms that climaxed with a 10 minute-plus reel of Vice Media's digital content.
The takeaway: Rogers Media wants to offer ad agencies and brand marketers dazzled by Google and Facebook an equally effective way to target ad dollars to young audiences increasingly migrating from traditional TV to new digital platforms. "The longest video was from Vice Media, which is a good exclamation mark for how the industry is changing," Rogers Media president Keith Pelley told Cartt.ca….
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TORONTO – Calling ongoing discussions on net neutrality a “distraction”, John Lawford, executive director and general counsel for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) said the bigger issues needing to be examined currently are vertical integration and competition law in Canada. Lawford spoke during a panel discussion Monday on “Competition in Telecom: Net Neutrality and Innovation” at the Canadian Telecom Summit being held this week in Toronto.
“Net neutrality is done,” Lawford said, with the CRTC’s acceptance in 2009 that the Telecom Act’s non-discrimination provision (Section 27(2)) applies to Internet services in Canada.
“The real work is at the…
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OTTAWA – The iconic American talk show Late Show with David Letterman may have wrapped up last week, but it’s still top of mind with some angry Canadian viewers, and the CRTC.
The Commission has fired off letters to Rogers Media, Rogers Communications, and Shaw Communications over alleged simultaneous substitution errors made by the companies during the show’s much-hyped finale on May 20. According to the letters, dated May 27, the Commission has received “several complaints regarding improperly executed simultaneous substitutions” that took place near the end of the show.
Referencing Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2015-25, where the CRTC…
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TORONTO – Heads up binge watchers, here comes shomi. The streaming service said Wednesday that it will be made available to all Canadian Internet users this summer, whether or not they have a paid subscription to a TV service provider.
For $8.99 per month, shomi can be streamed on tablet, mobile, online, and to TV screens via Xbox 360, Apple TV and Chromecast. It's also available on the set-top boxes of Rogers' and Shaw's TV subscribers. New users get one month free when they subscribe, the announcement said.
In addition to Canadian content like Vikings, Rookie Blue, and Mr. D, shomi’s Canadian exclusives…
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TORONTO and THUNDER BAY – Movie service Hollywood Suite today announced Tbaytel has launched Hollywood Suite GO (HSGO) to their Digital TV subscribers on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.
HSGO is available for free to all Tbaytel Digital TV customers who subscribe to Hollywood Suite. Customers can download the Hollywood Suite GO app and take the company’s catalogue of films wherever they want. HSGO includes a customizable watchlist with optional push notifications and social features allowing users to share their watchlists and experiences with friends. The notification options keep users informed about new movies and collections, while the…
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TORONTO – Rogers and Shaw’s streaming service shomi is is now available on Apple TV and Google Chromecast.
Chromecast, a thumb-sized media streaming device, is plugged into HDMI ports on TVs, allowing shomi subscribers to cast the streaming service’s content from the app on their mobile device, tablet, or computer directly to a TV.
"Even before we launched, Chromecast was on our shomi roadmap as a must-have for our service and I'm delighted that we're now able to deliver this experience to our members," said Ann Tebo, shomi’s director of product management, in the news release. "With Chromecast, Apple TV, and…
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OTTAWA – The merging of the statutes governing the communications industry has been addressed a number of times in the past. The first panel session at this year’s Communications Law and Policy Conference attempted to put some meat to the bones of whether having unified communications legislation would be good, or bad, for the sector and even if it’s doable at all.
Former CRTC commissioner Tim Denton provided a pretty succinct argument as to why the Broadcasting Act and Telecommunications Act are essentially incompatible, can’t be unified and be effective at the same time. On one hand, the Telecom Act…
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