KONRAD VON FINCKENSTEIN made a lot of work for a lot of us.
As he has noted since he first took the job of CRTC chair in January of 2007, he wanted to make the CRTC more open, predictable, fair, and timely. While by our judgment he succeeded, with that openness came more public processes and a quick count of the number of public proceedings under his watch comes to 103. His predecessor, the late Charles Dalfen, called just 78.
Mr. Dalfen, however, never had to deal with the likes of YouTube, Facebook or Twitter.
Coinciding with von Finckenstein’s tenure at the…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Canadian Women in Communications (CWC) has unveiled their annual award winners for 2012.
Karen Sheriff, president and CEO at Bell Aliant, has been named the CWC Woman Of The Year. This award recognizes an outstanding woman who has made a significant contribution to the communications industry throughout her career, and who has contributed materially to the advancement of women within the industry.
In the category of CWC Employer Excellence Awards, IBM Canada Ltd. was named employer of the year, while Industry Canada has been recognized for sustainability in gender diversity.
The CWC Leadership Excellence Awards celebrate women of achievement who…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Global News has named broadcast veteran Carol Wang and journalist Frank Qi to the on-air team of its new Mandarin-language newscast.
Global National Mandarin will debut Monday (Chinese New Year) on Shaw Multicultural Channel 116 in Vancouver, and on Shaw Multicultural Channel 89 in Calgary. Going forward, the 30-minute newscast will air Monday through Friday at 7pm and 11:30pm PT in Vancouver and at 10pm in Calgary.
With over 12 years of television anchoring and reporting experience, Wang moved to Vancouver in 2001 where she was a reporter and anchor for Fairchild Media’s Talentvision before hosting OMNI News: Mandarin Edition…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Bell TV is facing a class action lawsuit over its late fees.
According to a statement by Montreal-based law firm Paquette Gadler Inc., the suit is open to all persons who have paid late fees since June 1, 2010 as part of a contract for television services with Bell ExpressVu.
The statement claims that Bell ExpressVu levied an annual interest rate of 42.58% on late payments, a 58% increase compared to the annual interest rate of 26.82% charged to customers prior to June 1, 2010.
Describing the new late fee interest rate as “abusive”, the statement continues that this suit…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Canadian crime drama series Endgame premiered for U.S. audiences this week on Hulu and the Hulu Plus subscription service.
Produced by Thunderbird Films in association with Front Street Pictures, the series stars Shawn Doyle as a former world chess champion who uses his analytical skills to solve crimes. It premiered in March 2011 on Shaw Media-owned Showcase and earned five Gemini nominations, but was not renewed for a second season.
Lionsgate acquired the series for North American distribution, and Endgame is distributed internationally by Endemol.
"The emergence of new digital partners like Hulu has dramatically extended the longevity and significantly increased the syndication…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers Media has named Christos Nikitopoulos as vice-president of revenue planning and strategy, effective immediately.
Nikitopoulos was most recently VP of sports at Shaw Media, and VP of programming and revenue planning at Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium. Reporting to Shannon Valliant, VP of financial operations, he will lead the development of a centralized revenue planning and strategy team that will work across Rogers Media’s television, publishing, digital and radio platforms to deliver maximum yield and growth for the company’s assets.
“As Rogers Media continues to drive the individual and collective expansion of our powerful brands, Christos brings added…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – History Television has rolled out a new marketing campaign around three of its top series and one new one using its “Born to” tagline.
The four week, national campaign targets adults 25-54 across multiple platforms in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. Building on the channel’s Fall marketing blitz, the campaign centres around the new series Around the World in 80 Ways plus Canadian Pickers, American Restoration, and IRT Deadliest Roads: Andes. The creative features the series’ hosts in their natural environments and the consistent use of the headline “Born to…” across all executions.
It also an on-air component across…
Continue Reading
LAS VEGAS – The last decade in consumer electronics (CE) has been one dominated by the digital transition of music, film, and tape. The next era in CE will be characterized by leveraging the potential of these digital devices by creating vastly improved user interfaces (UI).
This was one of the key predictions made by Shawn DuBravac, the Consumer Electronic Association’s chief economist, during the CES 2012 pre-show press event in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Ironically it was Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer who made a very similar prediction two full years ago as the keynote speakers at CES 2010. At the time…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Shaw has tweaked its Global TV video app for viewers looking to extend their mobile viewing experience to a bigger screen.
The app now uses Apple’s AirPlay video streaming technology to wirelessly stream select shows from a users’ iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to their television via Apple TV. The device can then be used like a remote control to rewind, fast-forward, or for video navigation to find other Global content.
The upgrade makes Shaw Media the first private broadcaster in Canada to support AirPlay capabilities in its mobile application.
The company said that the free app has been downloaded 720,000…
Continue Reading
REGINA – It’s been an jarring 18 months for SCN, the former Saskatchewan provincial public broadcaster, and viewers in the province.
Back in the first half of 2010, the government there decided to close the channel down, citing a need to cut costs and get out of non-core government initiatives such as television few seemed to watch. However, just before the government faded it to black, Bluepoint Investments, which is headed by advertising executive Bruce Claassen, stepped into the breach and paid $350,000 for the operation.
The CRTC approved the transaction in late 2010 and altered the…
Continue Reading
