TORONTO – Shaw Media’s Global News will be the presenting sponsor of the Toronto Black Film Festival (TBFF) for the fourth year in a row.
The fourth annual TBFF runs February 10 – 14 in various venues across Toronto as part of TD's Black History Month Series. Coinciding with Black History Month, the festival celebrates artistic diversity within the black community through powerful films and special events.
Global News' Rosey Edeh, anchor of News at Noon, will kick off the festival's opening night at the Isabel Bader Theatre with the film Thina Sobabili (The Two of Us), directed by Ernest Nkosi….
Continue Reading
Hearing starts Monday
TORONTO — CRTC commissioners have a lot of reading ahead of them, judging by the hundreds of submissions already made to the Commission’s review of basic telecommunications services, from industry players, consumer organizations, end-user businesses, and local and provincial governments. Then there are the thousands of individual consumers who have submitted questionnaires related to their usage of telecom services.
(Ed note: This is a re-post of a story we ran in February previewing the 14-day hearing that begins Monday. Cartt.ca will have daily coverage of the hearing, which will be available to hear…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC is asking for broadcast licence renewal applications from the country’s big English- and French-language ownership groups for their services that have licences set to expire in 2017.
The Commission said Monday that it has sent customized letters to Bell, Corus, Quebecor, Rogers, Shaw and Remstar, given that there is no licence renewal application form for television services owned by large ownership groups. Licensees are required to respond to questions set out in the letter, and the questions and responses provided will comprise the application.
The renewal applications must be submitted prior April 4 unless otherwise required or authorized. …
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CTAM Canada has tweaked its mission statement and membership rules to open the door to employees of satellite and IPTV companies operating in the CRTC-regulated television environment.
The organization, which was geared to cable companies, content providers, and others who supply products and services to the cable industry, said that the changes “will provide increased focus to the industry organization's education and research initiatives and result in a more inclusive space in the advancement of industry solutions and best practices”.
It’s new mission statement reads:
CTAM Canada is the television industry association focusing on the advancement of content distribution across…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Turns out it takes more than TV critics to get your series discovered these days amid the multitude of digital choice and platforms out there.
It takes partnerships, between broadcasters and producers, especially at early stages of production, and even between publicity, marketing and digital teams at a broadcaster. So a panel on discoverability at the Prime Time conference in Ottawa said Thursday
Mark Bishop, co-CEO and executive producer at marblemedia, insisted the indie producer routinely meets with sales, marketing and digital media teams at networks to build champions for his series in the organization. However, he added producers…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The days of a siloed approach to advertising in the digital and linear TV environments are coming to an end, according comments at a session on the evolution of advertising at the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) annual Prime Time in Ottawa event.
Barb McKergow, head of marketing ventures at Shaw Media, noted that while the broadcasters and producers may have drawn a line in the sand on the TV and digital platforms front, viewers have a different viewpoint. She described the experience as “fluid” and that consumers don’t really see two screens. From an advertising agency standpoint,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – There can be little doubt that digital platforms and their subscription-based business models are having an impact on traditional television, but a group of Canadian media leaders argued that the future of TV is going to be a mix of digital and conventional, supported by a pure advertising-based model or one that combines advertising and subscriptions.
“The future is not ad-free. From our point of view that’s a key piece of the content monetization puzzle,” said Barbara Williams, president of Shaw Media, and executive VP of broadcasting. “There will be subscription models, there will be some advertising models,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Television stations are allowed to report on the activities of other divisions owned by the same parent company, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has ruled.
The CBSC received two complaints alleging conflict of interest in two separate reports that aired in May and June 2015. The first concerned a Global Ontario report about the online video streaming service shomi, which is partially owned by Global parent Shaw, along with Rogers. The report informed viewers that shomi would soon be available to anyone wishing to subscribe to it, rather than only to Shaw and Rogers television service customers…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Access Communications Co-operative told the CRTC Wednesday while it’s not opposed to the establishment of a local news fund, it shouldn’t mean cuts to community channel funding.
Speaking at the commission’s local and community TV hearing on Wednesday, Carmela Haines, VP of finance and administration for the cableco co-op which serves Regina and many other small communities in Saskatchewan, noted funding reductions to its community channels “would have a serious impact” to the communities it serves. Besides, Access shouldn’t be providing funds to the vertically integrated (VI) broadcasters.
“A not-for-profit, community-owned co-operative should not be giving a subsidy to…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The Westin Hotel will play host to over 600 people from feature film, television, interactive media, broadcasting and telecommunications industries during the Canadian Media Production Association’s Prime Time conference, beginning Thursday morning.
CMPA CEO Reynolds Mastin kicks things off at breakfast, followed by morning keynoter John Penney, Chief Strategy Officer, Starz.
Other notable speakers over the next two days include Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly, the CBC’s Heather Conway, Shaw Media’s Barbara Williams, Bell Media’s Tracey Pearce, DHX Media’s Steven Denure, Freemantle Media’s Jens Richter, Shaftsbury’s Christina Jennings, and many others.
Sessions on advertising, branding, partnerships, international success stories,…
Continue Reading
