Monthly Archives: March 2019

March 30, 2019 | Media

Media News Digest: Budgets, CSAs, Finnerty and Campbell take breaks from CBC mics

News about news

The federal government’s 2019-20 budget gives a bit more detail on its plans to subsidize the news (and particularly newspaper) industry, putting a total figure of $595 million on it. The budget introduces the concept of a Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization, whose exact criteria will be established by a panel of experts (it’s not clear who decides who these experts will be). But the criteria already laid out has issues. As Tim Bousquet of the Halifax Examiner points out, it disqualifies very small news operations right off the bat.
The Quebec budget, meanwhile, didn’t have much of interest to media. There was $25 million for Télé-Québec, and some nickels and dimes for various cultural projects. Also of interest is that the government will move to allow business registry searches by the names of administrators. The government is in a legal battle with the website Open Corporates because that website scrapes the official one and offers the name search function.
Apple has announced a new subscription service for news, with some Canadian partners on board including the Toronto Star, La Presse, CTV and Global. The service, which grows out of its acquisition of the digital magazine service Texture, costs $13 a month, and Apple will keep half that money. That deal wasn’t good enough for some organizations, like Le Devoir and the Globe and Mail, who make some content available on Apple News’s free service but aren’t part of the subscription tier.
CTV, CBC, Citytv and Postmedia have teamed up to broadcast the Alberta leaders’ debate on April 4. It will be on all three TV networks plus OMNI, as well as CBC News Network, CTV News Channel, 660 News (Rogers) and CBC Radio One in Alberta. Global isn’t part of the group but has extensive election coverage plans of its own.
BuzzFeed has successfully defended a libel case brought by the man behind Central European News, which a BuzzFeed investigation accused of being a purveyor of fake news. A story by Craig Silverman and two other reporters called him the “king” of fake news.
The Globe and Mail looks at a case of a small community newsletter, the kind of one-person operation that’s taking the place of discontinued local newspapers, and the challenge it faces when someone doesn’t like what’s written and decides to sue.
The Associated Press has announced more style changes, the biggest one being that we’ll no longer be using “per cent” as two words. Instead, the % symbol is to be used when following numerals, and “percent” can be used as one word in other contexts.
Union protesters at an ABI plant in Bécancour, locked out for more than a year, harassed TVA Trois-Rivières journalist Patricia Hélie and made her fear for her safety. The union has called for calm.
Peel Regional Police have released complaints they received — including 911 phone calls — after an Amber Alert was sent out late at night. The child in question was found dead.
CBC employees who are part of the CMG union have voted 80% in favour of a new collective agreement. The five-year deal ends in 2024.
The Wall Street Journal answers how the National Enquirer managed to get Jeff Bezos’s sexts: from his lover’s brother, by paying him $200,000. (He denies this, sort of.)

March 25, 2019 | TV

Bell Media wants to shut down 28 more CTV transmitters

UPDATE: The CRTC has approved Bell Media’s request.

Two years after requesting to shut down more than 40 over-the-air retransmitters of CTV and CTV2 stations as part of its licence renewal, Bell Media has applied to the CRTC to shut down more than 28 more of them, saying they have little viewership, provide no original programming and are expensive to maintain.

The application published on Monday includes six transmitters Bell Media said it wanted to shut down in places like Swift Current and Flin Flon during the process to reconsider its licence renewal.

If this application is approved, Bell Media will have dropped from 126 transmitters for its CTV and CTV2 stations before 2016 to under 50.

“With the increased focus on the financing, production and distribution of programming content, signal distribution through a repeater network is becoming an increasingly lower priority and an outmoded business model as Canadians have other ways to access television programming,” Bell Media says in its application.

The shutdowns are being prompted by the federal government’s new DTV transition plan, which will require stations to change channels to free up spectrum that is being auctioned to wireless providers. Consistent with that plan, Bell plans for the shutdowns to occur mostly in 2021.

These are the transmitters Bell is proposing shutting down, along with their dates, their transmitter power (maximum ERP) and the population in their coverage area, according to Bell Media’s estimates.

Nova Scotia

Rebroadcasters of CJCH-DT Halifax and CJCB-TV Sydney (CTV Atlantic):

CJCB-TV-3 Dingwall, 3 December 2021 (64W, 785 people)
CJCH-TV-3 Valley Colchester County, 3 December 2021 (150W, 32,957 people)
CJCH-TV-4 Bridgetown, 3 December 2021 (58W, 3,823 people)

New Brunswick

Rebroadcasters of CKCW-DT Moncton and CKLT-DT Saint John (CTV Atlantic)

CKAM-TV-3 Blackville, 3 December 2021 (88W, 2,884 people)
CKAM-TV-4 Doaktown, 3 December 2021 (22W, 1,409 people)
CKLT-TV-2 Boiestown, 3 December 2021 (24W, 904 people)

Ontario

Rebroadcasters of CJOH-DT Ottawa (CTV):

CJOH-TV-47 Pembroke, 2 May 2020 (492,000W, 75,388 people)
CJOH-TV-6 Deseronto, 9 October 2020 (100,000W, 436,141 people)

Rebroadcaster of CKCO-DT Kitchener (CTV):

CKCO-TV-3 Oil Springs, 2 May 2020 (846W, 293,703 people)

Rebroadcaster of CKNY-TV North Bay (CTV Northern Ontario):

CKNY-TV-11 Huntsville, 9 October 2020 (325,000W, 174,627 people)

Rebroadcaster of CITO-TV Timmins (CTV Northern Ontario):

CITO-TV-2 Kearns, 3 December 2021 (325,000W, 88,472 people)

Manitoba

Rebroadcasters of CKY-DT Winnipeg (CTV):

CKYA-TV Fisher Branch, 16 July 2021 (62,000W, 15,759 people)
CKYD-TV Dauphin, 16 July 2021 (140,000W, 30,897 people)
CKYF-TV Flin Flon, 16 July 2021 (2,060W, 7,762 people)
CKYP-TV The Pas, 16 July 2021 (2,130W, 9,996 people)

Saskatchewan

Rebroadcasters of CKCK-DT Regina (CTV):

CKMC-TV Swift Current, 26 February 2021 (100,000W, 29,035 people)
CKMJ-TV Marquis (Moose Jaw), 26 February 2021 (98,000W, 87,838 people)

Rebroadcasters of CFQC-DT Saskatoon (CTV):

CFQC-TV-1 Stranraer, 26 February 2021 (100,000W, 36,546 people)
CFQC-TV-2 North Battleford, 26 February 2021 (30,300W, 39,686 people)

Alberta

Rebroadcasters of CFRN-DT Edmonton (CTV):

CFRN-TV-3 WhiteCourt, 26 February 2021 (17,900W, 32,832 people)
CFRN-TV-4 Ashmont, 26 February 2021 (26,650W, 23,673 people)
CFRN-TV-5 Lac La Biche, 26 February 2021 (8,656W, 9,149 people)
CFRN-TV-7 Lougheed, 26 February 2021 (21,000W, 9,752 people)
CFRN-TV-12 Athabasca, 26 February 2021 (3,300W, 9,621 people)
CFRN-TV-9 Slave Lake, 16 July 2021 (840W, 9,683 people)

British Columbia

Rebroadcasters of CFCN-DT Calgary, Alta. (CTV):

CFCN-TV-15 Invermere, 26 February 2021 (10W, 4,843 people)
CFCN-TV-9 Cranbrook, 26 February 2021 (446W, 43,765 people)
CFCN-TV-10 Fernie, 26 February 2021 (23W, 6,568 people)

The application requires CRTC approval because it amends licences for stations these transmitters rebroadcast from. But the CRTC hasn’t been pushing the networks to keep retransmitters running. Instead, it’s more focused on preserving local stations with original programming.

UPDATE: The application drew six interventions from individuals during the open comment period. Bell’s reply was a single page, reiterating why it has taken the decision and adding this:

While we appreciate the concerns expressed by the intervenors, we would like to reiterate that the majority of these shutdowns will not occur before February 2021. Further, our Application is fully compliant with existing Commission policy.

UPDATE (July 30): The commission has approved the request, saying it can’t force Bell Media to keep operating the transmitters:

… licences such as those held by Bell Media are authorizations to broadcast, not obligations to do so. This mean that, while the Commission has the discretion to refuse to revoke broadcasting licences, even on application from a licensee, it cannot generally direct a licensee to continue to operate its transmitters.

March 20, 2019 | Media

Rogers sells publishing division, including Maclean’s, to St. Joseph Communications

Rogers just announced it has sold its publishing division, including magazines, digital publications and custom content business, to St. Joseph Communications, the owner of Toronto Life and other magazines. The deal is expected to close in April but no financial information was announced. St. Joseph says it will keep all current employees.

It’s been known for a while that Rogers has been trying to offload its magazines to focus on broadcasting and telecom. The big question was who was going to buy it. A sale was reportedly in the works last fall to Graeme Roustan, owner of The Hockey News, but that deal fell apart. There was also reportedly a proposal by employees of the division to buy it, but Rogers did not seem to like that idea.

The deal includes Maclean’s, Chatelaine (English and French), Today’s Parent and HELLO! Canada, plus the “digital publications” Flare and Canadian Business. It does not include MoneySense (the Roustan deal also excluded that website, and it was sold to another buyer) nor anything Sportsnet-branded.

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March 18, 2019 | Media

Media News Digest: NNA noms, Lilly Singh gets late-night show, telecom bureaucrat in conflict of interest

News about news

The Associated Press’s blind republication of press releases on its website has gotten it in hot water after a press release with right-wing misinformation got published this way. The pages include AP logos and could easily lead people to believe they are AP news stories. Several Canadian websites also automatically post press releases, including the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Montreal Gazette, the Toronto Sun (and other Postmedia papers).
The federal government is investigating itself after queries from a Postmedia journalist about Irving Shipbuilding were sent by the government to the company before it even responded to the journalist.
Exo, which runs Montreal’s commuter train network, has ended its agreement with free newspaper 24 Heures that distributed the paper in its stations. Quebecor did an access-to-information request and found an email suggesting the organization may have ended the contract because it was not happy with the paper’s coverage of its service. It’s unclear if that was the main reason, but Exo’s bosses have refused to explain themselves.
Radio-Canada has cut nine jobs in its Atlantic offices.
Finalists for the National Newspaper Awards have been announced. The Globe and Mail leads with 20 nominations (including a sweep of the business category), the Toronto Star and La Presse have six each, and The Canadian Press has four. The Montreal Gazette has one nomination.
RTDNA Canada has announced its regional award finalists (East, Prairies, West). In the Central region (Quebec and Ontario), which gives out the awards April 6 in Toronto, Quebec nominees include:
- 18 for CBC Montreal
- 4 for CTV Montreal
- 2 for Global Montreal
- 2 for CBC Quebec City
- 1 for MAtv

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March 13, 2019 | Radio

Montreal radio ratings: The Beat doubles Virgin, and a spike for Rouge

Numeris came out with its quarterly metered market radio ratings last week. Here’s the top-line data.

I’ll start by pointing out that this is the winter period, covering the Christmas holidays, when radio listening habits are a bit out of the ordinary. But even if you do a year-over-year comparison, two changes are noteworthy.

On the anglo side, The Beat is continuing to pull away from its main competitor Virgin Radio. Among anglophone audiences, The Beat had a higher average audience this winter than Virgin and CHOM combined.

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March 11, 2019 | Media