News about news
- A gang trial in B.C. heard testimony about a plot to kill a journalist (which was called off because it would have attracted too much police attention). The testimony was covered by the journalist in question.
- A judge in Alberta has found CBC not guilty of contempt of court after deciding that allowing stories published before a publication ban to still be accessed does not violate that publication ban. The easy availability of archive material is one of many issues that complicate publication bans in the age of the Internet.
- Vice Canada is trying to get the Supreme Court to weigh in on the idea of journalist source protection by appealing a case involving journalist Ben Makush, which it has lost at lower levels.
- Radio-Canada has launched a journalist training centre in Regina.
- Projet J, the francophone equivalent to J-Source, is shutting down for lack of funding.
At the CRTC
- Reaction is starting to spread to last week’s decision on television licence renewals. Anger that Corus channel Séries+ has cancelled original series it is no longer required to fund, anger that Much no longer has a specific requirement to fund MuchFACT, and anger that the quotas for “programs of national interest” has dropped in English TV. NDP MP Pierre Nantel is asking the commission to appear before the House of Commons heritage committee to explain.
- The commission has posted the applications from television service providers for licence renewals. Their licences got a brief renewal last year after having their packaging rules reviewed. This time the review will include all of their licence obligations, and in particular those related to community channels, for which there are several outstanding complaints.
TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_xhb-mGU2w
- Trailer for Star Trek Discovery is out.
- The new host of The National on CBC Television is … still unknown, even though Peter Mansbridge has less than six weeks left on the job. CBC is holding its upfront presentation today, which would seem an obvious place to announce a hire, but says there won’t be such an announcement today.
- CBC’s fall announcements are here. They include The Detectives, an eight-episode documentary series about police detectives produced by Montreal’s WAM Media (which also did Debbie Travis series and Only in Montreal) and the previously announced soccer drama 21 Thunder, set in Montreal. I also note that while the Juno Awards are moving to CBC, they will still be produced by Insight Productions, so the look shouldn’t change that much.
- Blue Ant Media has rebranded its music channel Aux as A.Side and has bought production companies overseas
- TVA is being annoying about not letting its personalities be interviewed by competing media outlets again.
- BNN is starting its weekday at 6am with host Paul Bagnell, expanding its live programming schedule.
- MSNBC scored its first ratings week win in the key 25-54 demographic. Fox News still leads with overall viewers, but the race is tight between the two of them and CNN.
- Sportsnet has struck a deal with esports (i.e. watching other people play video games) content provider ESL to bring esportsTV to Canada, with a full-time channel on streaming service Sportsnet NOW and a weekly show on Sportsnet 360.
Radio
- The Beat 92.5 has started a new podcast, The Beat Inspiration Inc., hosted by Donna Saker, which interviews local businesswomen.
- CJAD has added Paul Reid, a former late-night announcer whose Christmas show still airs on the station more than three decades later, to its Wall of Fame.
- The Toronto Star has hired a new full-time columnist focusing on race and gender, after Desmond Cole embraced the martyr position in reaction to a meeting about his disrupting a police meeting. Shree Paradkar is the new columnist in question.
- Literary magazine Lettres québécoises has relaunched itself with a new look and new editorial team.
- L’itinéraire turns 25
Online
- Branchez-Vous, the technology news website that was shut down but resurrected, is shutting down again, for lack of sufficient revenue to remain viable.
News about people
- Heather Backman is back on the air. Four months after being laid off at CHOM, she’s taken a new job as a part-time swing announcer at The Beat 92.5, filling in for the summer.
- Marie Grégoire gets added to the list of former Quebec politicians who are hosting radio shows in Quebec City. Grégoire is getting the afternoon show on ICI Première in the provincial capital this summer.
- CBC has reassigned Steve Ladurantaye, the former Globe and Mail media reporter turned Twitter Canada executive turned CBC The National managing editor, after he piled on in a stupid Twitter thread about cultural appropriation.
- Davis Sanchez, the former Alouette who will be working as an analyst on TSN 690’s Als games, gets interviewed by Herb Zurkowsky.
Good reads
- The Globe and Mail on what happened to Guy Laurence at Rogers.
- La Presse on how an academic researcher is trying to protect confidential interviews in a similar way to how journalists protect sources.
Obituaries
- Roger Ailes, creator of Fox News (Monica Lewinsky isn’t too sad to see him go)
- Nicole Leblanc, actress
Jobs
- La Presse diversity bursaries and internships (deadline: June 9)
“The commission has posted the applications from television service providers for licence renewals.”
i wonder if the issue of certain tv stations being carried as part of the skinny basic package will be or has been addressed. you know, stations like “rt” which seem to be on a permanent or very extended never ending free preview. the bottom line is they have become a part of skinny basic circumventing the rules as to what stations are allowed to be in a starter or skinny basic package. at least that’s what it seems like to me. i didn’t think extended free previews were meant as a way around not being permitted in a certain channel package. it’s odd too that with skinny basic cable, the only news network you can watch comes from a foreign country. my opinion.
The situation with RT is almost certainly because RT does not charge a wholesale subscriber fee. Game TV is another situation like that. Since the TV provider gets the channel for free, it provides it to its subscribers for free.
Why would people be opposed to this?
i don’t expect most viewers to be opposed to this. as for crtc regulations i DO expect THEM to be opposed to cable companies providing channels that are “not permitted” to be part of the skinny basic ( starter ) package according to THEIR ( crtc ) rules. perhaps they’re “looking the other way”?
game tv is not free. rt is free.