News about news
- La Presse has officially transitioned from a division of Power Corporation to an independent nonprofit company controlled by a trustee. Louis LeBel, former Supreme Court of Canada judge, has been named that trustee, charged with ensuring the publication follows its mandate. Alain Gignac, former TC marketing boss and general manager of the group that organized Montreal’s 375th anniversary, has been named chair of the board of directors, and will recommend other directors to LeBel. The trust’s rules state that, once the founding board has been formed, further appointments to it will be made by the trustee on recommendation of a 2/3 vote of the board.
- Myanmar has filed charges against two Reuters reporters for violating the Official Secrets Act. They were investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya men. Reuters has an entire section of its website devoted to updates.
- Vice Canada has cut another 23 jobs.
- London’s Times newspaper has fired a journalist for posting fake reviews in order to get free stuff.
At the CRTC
- There’s a new commissioner: Joanne T. Levy of Balmoral, Manitoba, commissioner for Manitoba/Saskatchewan, on a five-year mandate that started July 3. Levy is a former CBC Calgary journalist and director of programming at APTN. The commission has one vacancy, for B.C./Yukon, replacing Stephen Simpson.
- The commission has selected winners for new FM radio stations in two markets in southern Ontario: Durham Radio will get to launch a new station in Grimsby/Beamsville, just southeast of Hamilton, and Torres Media won a licence for a station in Georgina, north of Toronto near Lake Simcoe. Both were three-way fights between mainly midsize broadcasting groups and in both cases, the winner has proposed an oldies format. Both groups have two years to get their stations on the air, though extensions can be given.
- Comedy Gold is now on death’s door. The CRTC has approved its sale from Bell Media to WOW! Unlimited Networks, which plans to turn it into a youth channel. WOW had proposed to spend some of the required tangible benefits money on a program to support young producers who could create content that would (non-exclusively) appear on WOW’s channel. The CRTC shot down that suggestion as self-serving.
- The commission has approved the acquisition by Newcap of two radio stations in New Glasgow, N.S., for $2.7 million. Newcap, the second-largest radio broadcaster in Canada by number of stations, is itself seeking to be acquired by Montreal-based Stingray for $508 million.
- The CRTC is giving yet another chance for CFOR-FM in Maniwaki, renewing its licence for two years and imposing mandatory orders despite the station failing to respect every single one of its conditions of licence, including provisions related to correcting previous issues of non-compliance.
- Some early statistical information is out about the broadcasting industry based on data from the 2016-17 financial reports. Besides TV distribution revenue being down yet again, one bright spot is that IPTV in particular (services like Bell Fibe and Telus Optik) were profitable for the first time.
- The commission has issued fines to online advertising networks Datablocks and Sunlight Media for allowing malware to be distributed through their networks in violation of Canada’s anti-spam law. They have been fined $100,000 and $150,000 respectively.
Ethical reviews
- Canadian Broadcast Standards Council: NOW! Radio in Edmonton (CKNO-FM, owned by Jim Pattison Group) erred by failing to edit out all the F-bombs out of the song Crazy Bitch by Buckcherry in a segment on the morning show.
- Someone complained to the CBC ombudsman that a story that had the words “fraudulent immigration consultant” in the headline used the term “immigration consultant” to describe someone who was fraudulently using that title.
- CBC ombudsman: Ontario Today host was not biased against Progressive Conservative party in interviews.
- CBC ombudsman: Map of Middle East that cropped out the box identifying Israel is not an example of anti-Israel propaganda.
TV
- Sacha Baron Cohen has a new series on Showtime that has gotten a lot of attention because of complaints by the people he interviewed that he misled them. Like a U.S. Congressman who blindly read off a teleprompter that he supports arming preschoolers.
- Primetime Emmy nominations are out. The Handmaid’s Tale, based on Margaret Atwood’s book, is nominated for best drama series, plus a lead actress, three supporting actress, a supporting actor and three guest actress noms
- Bell Media is trying out new 30-second ad breaks on The Amazing Race Canada.
- La Presse reports TVA Sports lost $21 million in 2016-17, though that is better than the previous two years.
- Netflix is recording 32 comedy specials at Just For Laughs this year, including four in French.
- TSN will be streaming all matches from the World Lacrosse Championship, and airing the semifinals and final on TSN2.
Radio
- CBC has activated a new FM transmitter in Marathon, Ontario, retransmitting CBQT-FM Thunder Bay. The transmitter was approved by the CRTC last year. Marathon is 200km east of Thunder Bay near the top of Lake Superior.
- TSN Radio 1150 in Hamilton has reached a deal with McMaster University and will broadcast McMaster games, including the entire football season.
- Postmedia (my employer) reported its quarterly results, and it’s the same as usual: double-digit online revenue growth that doesn’t come anywhere close to making up for the drop in print ad revenue.
- Glacier Media is shutting down the press room at the Victoria Times Colonist, and outsourcing printing of the newspaper. The move will result in 18 job cuts.
Online
Megacorporations
News about people
#BreakingNews: we’d like to welcome the newest little addition to the #YourMorning family! Say hello to Vivian, Lindsey’s baby girl! She was born Friday morning, weighing 8lbs, 2oz. Both mom and baby are happy and healthy. ?? Congrats, @LindseyDeluce!!!! ?????? pic.twitter.com/7768XQqzFj
— CTV Your Morning (@YourMorning) July 9, 2018
- Dave Jaffer is now an editor-at-large at Cult MTL
- Jayme Poisson is leaving as investigative reporter at the Toronto Star. Something new is planned “in the coming months,” she says.
- Nesta Matthews is leaving Kiss 102.3 in Winnipeg to move to Calgary, where her husband just got a new job.
Good reads
Jobs
- Reporter, The Wire Report in Ottawa (deadline: July 18)
- National reporter, Globe and Mail (deadline: July 20)
- Parliamentary reporter, CTV News in Ottawa (deadline: July 21) — this is Mercedes Stephenson’s former job
- Washington Bureau Chief, The Canadian Press (deadline: July 31) — this is Alexander Panetta’s former job
- Columnist/beat writer, Calgary Flames or Edmonton Oilers, The Athletic
- Reporters (3), Report on Cannabis, Globe and Mail
- Assistant editor, Report on Cannabis, Globe and Mail
- Content editor, visuals, Report on Cannabis, Globe and Mail
Concerning the CRTC and licence extensions..Recently, you posted in previous Digest post, that TTP’s AM600 amongst other outlets, were called for their licence renewals for next year, I assume that that 940 had the callout last year for this November’s deadline..
What is the process, how long does the CRTC have to tell licence holders that they’re granted, do you see being shorter, or with a condition that they start soon with their news/talk format promised at the hearings in 2011 ??
What’s the point to continue with automated music from a back office…?
The CRTC has until the end of the current licence term to tell a station if its licence will be renewed. Sometimes they’ve cut that very close. Often they’ll issue administrative renewals of a year or less, continuing current conditions of licence, to give themselves more time to come to a decision. For CFNV 940, the licence expires on Aug. 31, 2018. Its renewal was filed last fall and published by the CRTC two weeks ago (I’ll have more on it in a bit). For CFQR 600, it expires Aug. 31, 2019.
I thought LaPresse had been without profit for a long time already… I guess this just makes it official :)