The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were the most-watched Summer Games in Canadian history, CBC/Radio-Canada said Tuesday of the two-week event that wrapped up Sunday night. In a press release, the public broadcaster said that between Aug. 5 and Aug. 21, 32.1 million people tuned into Olympic coverage. CBC’s main network coverage of the Games was “the top-ranked programming in morning, daytime, primetime and Pacific primetime,” among viewers, with an average full day audience clocking in at 1.27 million viewers — an...
Netflix Inc. and CBC/Radio-Canada are partnering with Northwood Entertainment for a new TV series based on the classic Canadian novel Anne of Green Gables. The show will be broadcast in Canada on the CBC in 2017 and stream globally on Netflix’s over-the-top service, said a Monday press release. Production on the eight hour-long episodes is scheduled to begin in September in Ontario, the release said. CBC and Netflix have also teamed up to co-produce Alias Grace, a series based on a Margaret Atwood book. ...
Twitter Inc.’s Canadian division announced Monday it had hired Jennifer Hollett as the company’s new head of news and government. Hollett, who began her new role Monday, stepped into the...
The first 10 days of Olympic coverage were watched by about 30.4 million Canadians “across all networks and platforms,” CBC/Radio-Canada said Tuesday. The ongoing Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,...
While digital and mobile options for watching the Summer Olympics are gaining in popularity and engagement, television continues to own the podium for the Canadian outlet broadcasting the two-week...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. said in a press release Tuesday that it “strongly disagrees” with a group of shareholders who filed a complaint with the Ontario Securities Commission regarding the...
Heritage Canada’s announcement of an expert advisory panel for its review of Canadian content in a digital age, which includes representatives from a number of broadcasters, was met with both praise and criticism Tuesday. The panel will “provide advice and ongoing feedback” to the Heritage Minister during the consultations and review, the heritage department said in a press release Tuesday. The 12 members of the panel “represent a cross-section of the Canadian arts and culture sectors,” the release added, noting members were “selected on the...
CBC/Radio-Canada is teaming up with Netflix Inc. and Halfire Entertainment to produce a miniseries based on a Margaret Atwood book. Production will begin in Ontario in August, the broadcaster said in a...
The number of anglophones subscribing to TV service continues to fall, according to a new report by Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. In the spring of 2016, 73 per cent subscribed to TV...
Louis Lalande, CBC/Radio-Canada’s executive vice-president of French services, is stepping down at the end of the year, the public broadcaster said Thursday. CBC president Hubert Lacroix announced...
According to a new report, 76 per cent of anglophones used the Internet at the same time as they watched television in 2015. “While multitasking has grown immensely over time, incidence has slowed over the past year,”...
A group of Quebec broadcasters say that unless accountability measures are put in place, the increased funding the federal government has slated for CBC/Radio-Canada will be a “blank...
CBC/Radio-Canada is not the cause of problems facing private broadcasters, CEO Hubert Lacroix said in a speech Tuesday. Speaking at the University of British Columbia, Lacroix said that “at a time when Canadian...
OTTAWA — CBC/Radio-Canada’s English news division is undertaking aggressive “re-engineering” of its newsrooms, CBC News editor-in-chief...
CBC/Radio-Canada says that its Montreal headquarters will stay at its current downtown location. Three years ago, the public broadcaster issued a request for proposals for the site, and it said earlier this March...
CBC/Radio-Canada has applied to the CRTC to continue broadcasting ads on its ICI Musique and Radio 2 networks and stations, according to a notice posted by the regulator Wednesday. The commission authorized the ability to broadcast paid national advertising as a condition of licence approved in 2013, but only for a three-year period, since the initial proposal to introduce ads was “met with considerable opposition from listeners and broadcasting industry representatives.” CBC wants to extend the licence to 2018, to coincide with the renewal of its other radio...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. is going private in a move it plans to close by the end of the fourth quarter of 2016, the company announced Friday. “SiriusXM and certain Canadian shareholders will form a new company to acquire shares of Sirius XM Canada not already owned by them pursuant...
OTTAWA — The results of the sweeping review of Canadian content in a digital age announced by Heritage Canada last week could take 10 years to materialize, University of Ottawa law professor...
Private conventional TV station revenues fell another 2.6 per cent in 2015, continuing a five-year downward trend, according to new data released Wednesday by the CRTC. The 93 over-the-air (OTA) stations brought in $1.76 billion...
CBC/Radio-Canada’s coverage of the summer Olympics in Brazil will incorporate some virtual reality content. The broadcaster said in a press release Wednesday that “it will provide viewers with both...
Industry insiders and observers are calling Canadian Heritage’s impending study of Canadian content in the digital age — which could potentially affect CBC/Radio-Canada, legislation like the broadcasting, telecom and CRTC acts, and Canadian content rules for TV and radio — long overdue. Ken Engelhart, former Rogers Communications Inc. senior vice-president and principal of Engelhart Law, said in a phone interview that he hasn’t seen a review like this during...
Steve Ladurantaye, head of news and government partnerships at Twitter Inc.’s Canadian division, will be the new managing editor of digital news at CBC/Radio-Canada. The move is effective May 9, Ladurantaye said in a...
CBC/Radio-Canada said in a press release Wednesday that Katherine Wolfgang will be its new head of publicity as of April 26. Wolfgang most recently worked as vice-president of marketing and communications at...
Following the release of the first Liberal budget, the Canadian Media Guild (CMG) said funding for CBC/Radio-Canada should be used for producing in-house content, while the Canadian Media...
The percentage of Canadians subscribing to TV service in Canada fell to 77 per cent in the fall of 2015, according to a new report released Tuesday by Media Technology Monitor, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. That’s a...
In its first budget, the new Liberal government is continuing the previous Conservative government’s practice of setting aside funds for broadband service in underserved areas, cyber security and research frameworks,...
CBC/Radio-Canada said in a French-language press release Tuesday that it hasn’t decided on the future of its Montreal headquarters. It said it is currently studying its options,...
OTTAWA — Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly told a Senate committee Wednesday evening that the government aims to have a gender-balanced board of directors for CBC/Radio-Canada, as part of review of the governance...
While advertising will remain a key part of the TV ecosystem, the television industry will have to provide better audience data in order to keep up with digital competition, said Barbara Williams, president of Shaw Communications...
Heritage Minister Melanie Joly is refusing to specify that the CBC will receive the $150 million in extra funding the Liberal government promised during last year’s election, despite receiving questions on the subject from both the opposition and the media in recent days. “Fair observers are sort of torn between having no reason to distrust the prime minister at this point and yet, it’s a sensitive subject because of what’s happened in the past,” when previous governments reversed positions on CBC funding, said Ian Morrison, spokesman for the watchdog group...
CBC/Radio-Canada told the CRTC Friday that if it sets up a fund for local news, the public broadcaster should be able to participate, despite the Liberal government’s promise to increase its...
Following last fall’s election, the government is set to boost CBC/Radio-Canada's funding, but when that will happen and under what conditions is unclear. It also remains to be seen whether...
The CRTC is proposing a new fund to support local TV news programming, which would be funded by existing financial resources within the broadcasting system. The proposal was included a paper released Tuesday, which will be used...
As the Canadian TV industry approaches an era where customers have more choice over the channels they subscribe to, large broadcasters should “pick their winners” and consolidate into a...
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has directed Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains to increase “high-speed broadband coverage and work to support competition, choice and availability of services,” according to a mandate letter released Friday. He also said Bains should “foster a strong investment environment for telecommunications services to keep Canada at the leading edge of the digital economy.” Bains was named innovation minister on Nov. 4, a position that effectively replaces the industry minister. The government has also renamed...
TORONTO — The newly elected Liberal government has indicated infrastructure will be a priority, and that could include telecom infrastructure, said lawyer Chris Tacit during a panel...
Navdeep Bains, MP for the Ontario riding of Mississauga-Malton, was named minister of innovation, science and economic development on Wednesday, a post intended to replace what was previously the...
The Canadian Media Guild said in a press release that it has taken “the unprecedented step of publicly declaring our lack of confidence” in Hubert Lacroix, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, and the public...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media division has asked the CRTC to approve the disaffiliation of two TV stations it owns in British Columbia from CBC/Radio-Canada. Bell Media filed applications with the commission, which appeared online...
Most French-speaking Canadians watch some English television and film, and most of those do so at least once a week, according to a newly released survey. CBC/Radio-Canada's Media Technology Monitor said in a report released...
In full election platforms released last week, the NDP is promising to implement changes to Canadian privacy law and look into Internet of Things (IoT) privacy, the Conservatives are pledging funding for rural broadband and...
Internet advocacy group OpenMedia released a “report card” Thursday ranking the federal parties’ digital policies ahead of the election, in which the NDP received an overall grade of...
The Green Party supports reversing recent years' cuts to CBC/Radio-Canada and boosting its funding further, though the party doesn’t oppose the public broadcaster's attempt to find alternative sources of funding,...
Advocacy group Tout Amis de Radio Canada is organizing a march from Montreal to Ottawa ahead of the federal election. The group said in a press release Friday the march will start on Oct. 6 at CBC/Radio-Canada’s Montreal headquarters, and end on Oct. 12 at Parliament Hill. Shuttle buses will run between Montreal and the location of the march daily, meaning individuals can march for whatever distance they like, it added. Once they arrive at Parliament Hill, the participants will submit a declaration of principles on the future of the public broadcaster, it said....
Apple Inc.’s iPhone owners stream audio and video content more than any other device owners, according to a new report released by Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. The report said that among...
Advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting said in a press release Tuesday that a Nanos Research poll it commissioned found the NDP is the party “most trusted by voters to protect the CBC,” followed by the...
CBC/Radio-Canada said the Canadian Media Guild’s claim that the public broadcaster is selling off all of its buildings is false. The union issued a press release Monday claiming that CBC had announced at a town hall meeting...
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that he would provide $150 million in new annual funding for CBC/Radio-Canada if the Liberals win the federal election in October. That will reverse cuts made to CBC by the Conservative...
CBC/Radio-Canada CEO Hubert Lacroix, speaking at an international conference, said public broadcasters should speak out about how dropping revenues are affecting them. Public broadcasters in countries such as Australia, France and Canada are dealing with shrinking resources, he said in a Sept. 10 speech at the Public Broadcasters International Conference in Germany. “Let me immediately say that we are not blameless. In many ways, we have failed to make a compelling enough case for public broadcasting,” Lacroix said, according to text posted on the CBC website. A recent Senate...
Smartphone penetration among anglophone Canadians was at 73 per cent this spring, according to a new report by Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. MTM said in a report Tuesday that the proportion of...
As the telecommunications and media industries continue to converge, the production sector must pay more attention to what were traditionally considered telecom issues, according to Reynolds Mastin,...
The advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting says CBC/Radio-Canada is refusing to air TV advertisements critical of Prime Minister Stephen Harper for cuts to CBC. The group said in a press release that the ads in question...
Susan Marjetti has been appointed executive director of radio and audio for CBC's English services, CBC/Radio-Canada announced Tuesday. CBC said in a news release Tuesday that Marjetti has been with the broadcaster for almost...
The CRTC on Monday said commercial-radio revenue in Canada was down 0.5 per cent for the 12 months ended last August, describing the trend as “stable from the previous year in spite of competition from satellite, online and...
In supplementary comments on a House of Commons heritage committee report on the feature film industry, the federal NDP and Liberal parties said government should have access to information about revenues and viewership of...
Quebec and Ontario are making the case to federal political parties for more financial support for CBC/Radio-Canada. The offices of Jean-Marc Fournier, Quebec’s minister of Canadian intergovernmental affairs, and Madeleine...
CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais will give the keynote address to the Banff World Media Festival on June 7, according to a press release from the organizers of the event. Blais will speak to the...
Having five Canadian teams reach the NHL playoffs for the first time in more than a decade is set to translate into a winning season for Rogers Communications Inc. as it completes the first of 12 years of a $5.2-billion rights agreement with the National Hockey League. The inclusion of the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Ottawa Senators, Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames in the playoffs will “spark a number of good outcomes for us,” Rogers Sportsnet president Scott Moore said in a phone interview, citing higher ratings, more advertising revenue and subscriptions,...
Canada’s national news channels face new obligations from the CRTC even as the regulator is taking away their place on basic cable, raising questions about their future finances. Last month, as...
CBC/Radio-Canada and the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada (SODRAC) recently argued before the Supreme Court of Canada over whether a tariff on “broadcast incidental...
CBC/Radio-Canada cut 244 positions from its English and French services, the broadcaster announced Thursday, with the majority of the cuts coming from English-language local news. CBC News editor in chief Jennifer McGuire...
CBC/Radio-Canada’s English-language conventional TV stations reported a loss of $20.9 million in the financial year ended on Aug. 31, 2014 despite an increase in revenue, which amounted to $799.5 million, according to...
Jeffrey Orridge, former head of CBC/Radio-Canada’s sports division, has been named the new commissioner of the Canadian Football League. Orridge takes over for Mark Cohon, who served in the position for eight years. According to a news release, the new commissioner has a degree from Harvard Law School and has worked in sports marketing and licensing with Time Warner Co. and Reebok International Ltd. Orridge officially starts with the league on April 29....
Broadcasters participating in a consultation on moving 600 MHz spectrum from its role of carrying television signals to mobile usage are intent on avoiding the kind of costs borne by the industry as a result of the 2011 conversion...
Advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting say a television ad was turned down by Canada’s largest broadcasters, yet at least one company says it has no record of the denial. In the...
CBC/Radio-Canada is considering selling its headquarters in Toronto, according to a report in the National Post. An article published Thursday said a consultant has been hired to determine whether it should sell the...
OTTAWA — CBC/Radio-Canada will emphasize "content over all other expenditures going forward," Heather Conway, the public broadcaster’s executive vice-president of English services, told the Senate's...
Five Canadian senators are going to the United Kingdom this month on a "fact-finding mission" as part of a study on the difficulties faced by CBC/Radio Canada. The Senate's transport and communications standing...
MONTREAL — NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is promising, if elected, to reverse funding cuts imposed on CBC/Radio-Canada in recent years, though political observers do not expect the Conservative...
CBC/Radio-Canada announced Monday that Mary Kreuk has been hired as the public broadcaster’s new executive director of multi-platform media sales for Toronto and Western Canada. Kreuk was previous a sales executive at BCE...
As new over-the-top (OTT) services continue to be launched both in Canada and the United States, online alternatives for live sports have also been increasing. But in a world where live sports...
CBC/Radio-Canada is making changes to its news operations across Canada, cutting back on the length of its evening TV newscasts and introducing new French-language digital content. The public broadcaster said in a Thursday press release that its 90-minute local English TV newscasts will switch to either a 60-minute or a 30-minute format, and that it will begin televising its local Radio One morning shows. There will also be new “local hourly news breaks” on television throughout the day, CBC said. The schedule and duration of local radio programs will not be affected, according...
MONTREAL — CBC/Radio-Canada employees grilled CEO Hubert Lacroix over cuts to the public broadcaster during its annual public meeting in Montreal Wednesday. Radio-Canada journalist...
CBC/Radio-Canada said Jenna Bourdeau is the public broadcaster’s new senior director of acquisitions. Bourdeau, who was previously vice-president of distribution in its proper rights division, will “oversee the acquisition of distinct, bold and engaging Canadian and international...
CBC/Radio Canada and The Weather Network announced a content-sharing agreement on Monday. CBC and Pelmorex Media Inc.'s Weather Network said in a press release that, starting Dec. 8, national weather forecasts on CBC News...
CBC/Radio-Canada says it will either break even or earn a profit on its acquisition of the broadcasting rights for the 2018 Olympics in South Korea and the 2020 Olympics in Japan. During a conference...
Sonja Chong has been named a part-time member of the board of directors for CBC/Radio-Canada. Heritage Minister Shelly Glover announced Chong's appointment Monday in a press release that also said Chong would serve at term of five years. Chong has been involved in income-tax consulting since 1985, and is a partner with Harris & Chong LLP, Chartered Accountants, in Toronto, according to the release. She is chairwoman of the Canadian Foundation for Chinese Heritage Preservation, a former president of the Hong Kong-Canada Business Association and a regular media commentator on...
Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser on Thursday warned CBC/Radio-Canada and the federal government about obligations they have to provide programming services in both official languages as...
CBC/Radio Canada said the 2014 FIFA World Cup was the most watched ever in Canada, with 30.7 million people viewing at least a portion of the month-long tournament. The broadcaster said in a release Monday that the July 13 final...
CBC/Radio-Canada’s re-focusing of its priorities on its digital and mobile presence is “not a very logical thing to do,” said Barry Kiefl, president of Canadian Media Research Inc....
CBC/Radio-Canada will unveil a five-year strategic plan to employees and the general public on Thursday, outlining how it intends to move forward in an era of increasingly limited financial resources. France Bélisle,...
Amid the many challenges television service providers were already facing, along came an Ottawa company making devices with digital recording capabilities and electronic-guide functionality for those...
The number of anglophone Canadians who are streaming television content on their smartphones increased 71 per cent from a year earlier, according to a new report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM). In 2013, 12 per cent of...
The CRTC has approved an application by a Thunday Bay, Ont., broadcaster to disaffiliate from CBC/Radio-Canada. Thunder Bay Electronics Ltd. said in a Feb. 28 letter filed with the CRTC that it was seeking the disaffiliation...
The Canadian Media Production Association said Jamie Brown has been appointed the organization's chairman. Brown is the founder and executive producer of Frantic Films, the CMPA said in a press release issued Saturday. The...
OTTAWA — CBC/Radio-Canada will stop over-the-air broadcasts of its Radio 2 service and make it an “exclusively on-line music offering,” advocacy group Friends Of Canadian Broadcasting said at a news conference on Thursday. Speaking on Parliament Hill, spokesman Ian Morrison outlined a series of cuts that he said will be presented to the CBC’s board of directors during a meeting in June. Other planned cuts, he said, will affect local programming, including cancelling afternoon radio shows in places such as Thunder Bay, Ont. and halving regional news broadcast in four...
CBC/Radio-Canada’s conventional-television operations improved their financial performance in the 12 months ended last August while private-sector, over-the-air TV stations collectively recorded...
BCE Inc.’s chief legal and regulatory officer told a Senate hearing on Wednesday night that his company’s targeted advertising program respects Canada’s current privacy laws. Mirko Bibic repeatedly compared his...
Hubert Lacroix, CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, discussed at last week’s town hall meeting the possibility of having a levy attached to bills of cable- and satellite-TV customers and using that money to support the network. The...
As CBC/Radio-Canada on Thursday announced another round of job cuts and other reductions throughout its organization, observers expressed impatience over the lack of a fundamentally different vision emerging from the public...
The CRTC on Wednesday said it had denied requests by both BCE Inc.’s Bell Media division and CBC/Radio-Canada to calculate local-programing hours for their conventional TV stations differently. Both are generally required to have 14 hours a week of local programing in metropolitan areas, and seven hours a week in smaller communities, in English-language markets, the CRTC notice said. Bell, which owns the CTV network, and CBC were asking that these quotas be averaged quarterly to provide flexibility around covering special events and providing programing during the holidays when there...
More job cuts are expected at CBC/Radio-Canada as CEO Hubert Lacroix is scheduled to address all employees at a town hall meeting Thursday, according to a report by the Financial Post. An article that appeared on the Post’s...
The CRTC on Tuesday said it had approved requested amendments to some of the conditions applied to CBC/Radio-Canada’s broadcasting licences as they pertain to advertising on Radio 2 and Espace...
Thunder Bay Electronics Ltd. has put in a request to the CRTC to disaffiliate from CBC/Radio-Canada, the company said in a Feb. 28 letter filed with the CRTC. It said it was seeking the disaffiliation “so that CKPR-DT can...
Cecil Hawkins, the Toronto executive who heads metal fabricator Canerector Inc., has been appointed to the board of CBC/Radio-Canada, Canadian Heritage announced Monday. Hawkins, president and CEO of Canerector, has been involved...
CBC/Radio-Canada announced Thursday that will be adding a subscription-based section to its ICI Tou.tv streaming platform, and a partnership with Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. will give...
OTTAWA — The CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada told a Senate committee Wednesday night that he has never asked for “one dollar more” of public money but that the public broadcaster needs...
About 15 million people in Canada tuned in to at least part of the Olympic men’s hockey gold medal game on Sunday, which had an average audience of 8.5 million throughout the contest,...
Regulatory oversight over CBC/Radio-Canada should be loosened, former CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein told the Senate standing committee on transport and communications on Tuesday. The CRTC should...
A non-commercial CBC/Radio-Canada should be considered, Ian Morrison, spokesman for watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, told the Senate standing committee on transport and communications Tuesday. According to speaking notes of Morrison’s presentation, he said CBC’s loss of national broadcast rights for the National Hockey League to Rogers Communications Inc. over the next 12 years, announced in November, and the associated loss of ad revenue, presents “an excellent opportunity to do what SRC Television did 12 years ago — to wean itself from excessive...