As has been widely reported, CBC management is considering changes to the dissemination of CBC television signals to the Canadian public. This would involve replacing many, perhaps most of CBC television's terrestrial transmitters and relying upon other technologies to distribute CBC television's signals to Canadians.

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Alberta's most senior CBC television executive quit May 18, partly because of management's plan to eliminate local supper-hour television newscasts. The resignation of Joe Novak, regional director of television for the province, is a blow to the corporation, and comes on the heels of a controversial restructuring blueprint detailed earlier in the week by CBC president Robert Rabinovitch.

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CBC and Power sell TRIO and Newsworld International
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp and Power Broadcasting Inc (PBI) have sold their two U.S.-based cable television channels, TRIO and Newsworld International (NI), to USA Cable, a division of USA Networks, Inc. The sale will generate about $155 million for the CBC. Launched in 1994, both services were equally owned and managed by PBI and CBC. TRIO and NWI collectively reach 11.7 million satellite and cable subscribers in the U.S. But the channels have struggled over the years to even achieve that level of penetration in the highly competitive U.S. market. One of its major distribution agreements was with satellite TV operator, DirecTV Inc. TRIO is a general entertainment channel that features contemporary dramas, documentaries and films from Canada, the U.K. and Australia. For the last six years, TRIO has been the largest exporter of Canadian TV programs to the U.S. with over 3,000 hours of content. Produced by CBC, NWI is the only 24-hour news network dedicated to global news in the U.S. Patrick Vien will continue in his role as president of both networks.

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The Weather Network and its French- language affiliate MétéoMédia have made a deal with the Canadian Red Cross to bring viewers up-to-the-minute public service information during environmental disasters.

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The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) wants the CRTC to force Class 1 broadcast distributors to insert their commercials on U.S. superstations. Signal – or simultaneous -substitution is common practice on other U.S. channels when a Canadian broadcaster carries the same program at the same time as the American service.

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Canada's major industry associations continue to lobby both the CRTC and Canadian Heritage for reforms, but their strongest allies may be in the Prime Minister's Office and the Senate.

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The inaugural meeting of a Senate review into the future of Canada's communications industry appears to have attracted far more interest from industry than from the committee itself. Only two members of the five-member Senate Subcommittee on Communications – chair Marie-P Poulin (Lib) and Sheila Finestone (Lib) – stayed for the duration of the first proceeding.

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Canadian Broadcasting Corp president Robert Rabinovitch revealed to a Parliamentary committee that six suitors are interesting in bidding for the public broadcaster's massive transmission infrastructure. Appearing May 16 before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, he said money raised from selling the transmission system won't save the 14 supper-hour news casts that will be cut. But it could provide stability to other programming.

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Statistics on digital TV subscribers in Canada show that, for all of the expectations surrounding the launch of new digital TV channels, cable operators have yet to convert more than eight per cent, or 323,688, of their subscribers to digital. Direct-to-home satellite TV continues to lead the digital TV race with 875,000 subscribers, although the gap is closing.

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