MONTREAL – Both of Canada's two French-language private television networks made commitments to increase local news programming as CRTC hearings concluded Friday in Montreal.
Remstar, which bought the TQS network out of creditor protection in 2008 and eliminated its news-gathering operations, read the writing on the hearing walls and committed to increase local news programming on its five owned-and-operated stations after spending the week resisting calls to do so.
In '08, the CRTC gave what is now called V Interactions three years of reduced local news minimums when the station was purchased (from…
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TORONTO – The Movie Network, Movie Central and Shaw Media have signed on as Canadian partners for the international co-production of The Heretics.
The 12 x 60 minutes historical miniseries is set in 13th century France and is based on the Cathars, a ruthlessly repressed Christian religious sect. It is scheduled to go into production in Romania and the South of France in June 2012, with writing and post production in Canada.
The Heretics will have its Canadian broadcast premiere on Astral’s The Movie Network (eastern Canada) and Corus’ Movie Central (western Canada) in 2013, followed by a second window on…
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OTTAWA – A number of Canada’s independent cable operators have balked at signing a new omnibus carriage agreement for the up-to 30 specialty channels owned by Bell Media and instead are demanding the CRTC step in and decide who’s right.
According to sources with direct knowledge of the agreement and the ongoing battle, both Cogeco Cable and the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance have been through a few rounds of official CRTC staff mediation, which hasn’t yielded much in the way of results. It now looks like the disputes are headed towards binding, final offer arbitration in front of a CRTC…
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VANCOUVER – Global News is launching a Mandarin-language newscast in Vancouver and Calgary starting next month on Chinese New Year.
The 30 minute show is set to air Monday through Friday at 7pm and 11:30pm PT on Shaw Multicultural Channel 116 in Vancouver, and at 10pm MT on Shaw Multicultural Channel 89 in Calgary, starting January 23.
Global National Mandarin's team will work closely with Global National to air original content and footage for its Mandarin-speaking audience by seeking out commentary from prominent sources in the Mandarin-speaking community to offer their expertise on the key stories of the day, the company…
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TORONTO – CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada in Punjabi is returning for its third season starting December 10.
Thanks to sponsorship support from Chevrolet Canada, two games will be available every Saturday night during the regular season, as well as one series per round during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Punjabi play-by-play voice Harnarayan Singh will once again call the action.
“We’re thrilled to bring back our Punjabi broadcasts with Harnarayan Singh for another season as a part of CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada thanks to our new presenting sponsor, Chevrolet,” said Julie Bristow, CBC’s executive director of studio and unscripted programming,…
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TORONTO – SOCAN appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada this week to represent the interests of Canadian music creators and publishers in three copyright cases related to the use of music on the Internet by corporations that include Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Telus, and Apple.
The organization said in a statement that its appearance comes in support of the decision made by the Copyright Board of Canada and confirmed by the Federal Court of Appeal to licence the use of music on-line in the form of downloads and musical previews, as well as the use of music in on-line games.
Composers,…
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LOS GATOS, CA – Netflix has locked up the Canadian rights to the critically-acclaimed British drama The Hour.
Hailed as England's answer to Mad Men, The Hour is a six-part political thriller set in 1956 against the backdrop of a BBC public affairs TV show during the Suez Crisis.
An intimate look at sex, ambition and espionage in the workplace, the series originally aired on the BBC in the United Kingdom and stars Dominic West, Romola Garai and Ben Whishaw.
www.netflix.com
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TORONTO – Shaw Media and production partner Insight Productions have sold the worldwide format rights for the original series Canada Sings to Endemol, the largest independent television and digital production company in the industry.
Canada Sings challenges Canadians to form glee clubs with their co-workers and compete in a head-to-head battle against another workplace glee team for their charity of choice. Global and Insight Productions recently announced season two of the one-hour series.
Under the deal, Endemol will sell the Canada Sings format internationally and draw on its network of production companies to produce locally adapted versions of the show in major…
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TORONTO – With subscriber additions at Wind Mobile, Public Mobile and Mobilicity well below what many had hoped, is the model failing?
That’s what Canaccord Genuity telecom analyst Dvai Ghose asked on Monday in a research note to clients. Noting the departure of Mobilicity CEO Dave Dobbin is the second new entrant CEO to leave over the past six months, Ghose wrote what many have been saying for some time now: This isn’t how is was supposed to be.
“Independent new entrant subscriber growth has been weak — WIND only added 41k net subscribers in Q3/11, down from 45k…
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LAST YEAR AT THIS time, Kevin Crull was into week three of his transition from long-time telecom executive to the leader of the largest Canadian broadcasting company.
Now president of Bell Media, the company which owns the CTV and CTV2 conventional TV networks, 29 specialty channels including market leader TSN, 33 radio stations and the Sympatico.ca portal, Crull came over from Bell Canada’s telco side, having run Bell Residential Services for five years. For a decade prior to that he was a senior executive with AT&T and US West.
One of his final projects at Bell Canada was writing the business…
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