From the CBC:
New heritage minister Mélanie Joly says money coming to the arts, CBC
Melanie Joly, Canada’s newly-minted minister of Canadian heritage, wasted no time in assuring arts groups across the country that she’s ready to honour Liberal campaign promises to substantially increase federal spending. Continue reading.
From a media release:
Rogers and VICE Media, the youth media brand and digital content studio, today announced details of the new 24-hour Canadian VICE channel, VICELAND, and unveiled the new VICE Canada production facility, located in the heart of Toronto.
The newest addition to the Rogers Media specialty portfolio, VICELANDÂ will launch in Winter 2016, featuring hundreds of hours of new and exclusive programming developed and produced by the young creative minds that are the heart and soul of VICE. The license currently used for bio. will be rebranded to VICELAND. Additional details will be announced in the coming weeks.
Boasting the country’s brightest young talent and serving as an incubator for the next generation of Canadian creators, the VICE Canada studio, which operates under VICE’s creative direction and ownership, is currently in development and production on nine new, Canadian original series. Since the Rogers-VICE partnership was announced in October 2014, more than 100 writers, directors, editors, producers, and filmmakers have been hired to create sought-after, homegrown content for all screens, to be exported around the world.
VICELAND will launch with a full slate of prime-time shows, including Gaycation with Ellen Page (Freeheld) and friend and co-host Ian Daniel, and Black Market with Michael K. Williams (The Wire). Also a proud home to Canadian content, VICELAND will feature many series produced out of the VICE Canada studio, including Terror with VICE Media Co-Founder Suroosh Alvi.
Focusing on the often underreported issues and topics that matter most to today’s millennials, the world-class slate of Rogers commissioned Canadian-made programming ranges from hard-hitting documentary series – Cyberwar and RISE – to unscripted entertainment series – Abandonment Issues, Dead Set on Life, Payday, and Shroom Boom – to seminal pop culture guides – VICE Essentials Canada, VICE Guide to Comedy, and VICE Guide to Film. Additional broadcast details to be announced at a later date.
From a media release:
CBC announced today a 13-episode order of WORKIN’ MOMS, a new original half-hour comedy series created by Catherine Reitman.  Based on her personal experiences with motherhood, Reitman will star in WORKIN’ MOMS and will also direct. An alumna of The Groundlings Theatre, Reitman is esteemed both for her work on screen (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Blackish) and off. She recently wrote, directed and starred in 100 episodes of her own YouTube show, Breakin’ it Down With Catherine Reitman. Reitman’s producing partner and husband, Philip Sternberg, will produce with Reitman, through their company Wolf and Rabbit Productions. They are repped by Tina Horwitz of Vanguarde Artists Management Ltd. The series will begin production in Toronto in July 2016, and is slated to debut on CBC in fall 2016.
Can you have it all? For these workin’ mothers, some days you can and some days… not so much. When longtime friends Kate (Reitman) and Anne meet Jenny and Frankie in a judgmental mommies’ group, the four quickly band together and form an unlikely friendship. While the women might not necessarily have started off as friends, at this critical moment in their lives they appear to be fighting the same fight: to continue personal growth in the face of challenging relationships, insatiable babies, horrific co-workers and lastly, a Mommy and Me class filled to the brim with disapproving mothers. Whether it be rediscovering their sexuality or merely having the will to stay alive in the face of postpartum depression, these badass women are doing everything they can to make it to the end of each day in one piece.
Additionally, Reitman and Sternberg have another Reitman-penned project in development with the CBC, half-hour scripted comedy series STARTING OVER; a hilarious look at life post-separation. After April discovers her husband has slept with the majority of her friends and boss, her comfortable and predictable life is put into a tailspin. With nowhere else to turn, she moves back home to her impulsive twin sister and lonely father and in a moment of late night desperation enlists an unorthodox life coach named Georgina Stone.
From a media release:
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today released the final part of the 2015 Communications Monitoring Report, which provides information on the state of the broadcasting industry in Canada. The Communications Monitoring Report is now available in its entirety.
While the time spent watching conventional television declined slightly across all age groups in 2014, the overall average remained stable at 27.4 hours each week compared to 27.9 hours in 2013. Canadians aged 18 and over also watched 2.7 hours of television content over the Internet, an increase from 1.9 hours the previous year. Eight percent of Canadians report watching television exclusively online.
The percentage of Anglophones who watched Internet video content on a tablet grew from 20% in 2013 to 26% in 2014, while among Francophones it increased from 16% to 25% during the same period. The amount of Internet video content consumed on a smartphone grew from 23% in 2013 to 38% in 2014 for Anglophones, while it increased from 16% to 27% during the same period among Francophones.
The percentage of Canadian households subscribing to cable, satellite or Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services went from 83.7%, or 11.8 million households, in 2013 to 82%, or 11.6 million households, in 2014. IPTV, a relatively new means of receiving television services, grew more than four-fold to over 1.7 million subscribers in the last 5 years.
Canadians also had access to a variety of radio stations and audio services. In 2014, there was a small decline in the average time spent listening to radio stations across all age groups. As a result, Canadian listeners in markets measured by diaries consumed 18.8 hours of radio content per week in 2014, compared to 19.3 hours in 2013. Twenty-two percent of Canadians also streamed an AM or FM station’s signal online, and 18% used personalized online music streaming services.
In 2014, total broadcasting revenues increased 1.4% to reach $17.3 billion. The broadcasting sector invested nearly $3 billionin the creation of new television content made by Canadians, as well as nearly $60 million in new Canadian audio content and to support Canadian artists.
The 2015 Communications Monitoring Report provides a detailed overview of the Canadian communication industry, as well as industry data and information, including emerging trends and issues.
This year, the CRTC released the report in three parts. The first part deals with the state of the Canadian communication system and the second part focuses on the telecom sector. With today’s release of the third and final part, the full version of the report is now available.
Quick Facts
Choice of services
Television
Radio
Television service providers
From a media release:
The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) and DHX Media Ltd. are pleased to announce the launch of The DHX Experience, an exciting new multi-year initiative designed to inspire and help develop a new generation of creative talent for the family/tween/kids marketplace.
The DHX Experience will first be integrated across the CFC’s film, TV, music and acting programs, engaging more than 40 screen-based entertainment industry professionals a year by introducing them to this specialized market through in-depth workshops and practical exercises. Additionally, the initiative will extend beyond the CFC’s talent base to offer a showrunner bootcamp and a British Columbia-based voice for animation workshop.
The DHX Experience kicks off with a symposium at the CFC on Wednesday, October 28, 2015. Led by top practitioners and DHX executives, this daylong event will provide an all-encompassing overview of the kids/tween/family world. The symposium will initiate a series of workshops and bootcamps to further explore creative processes and best practices as the initiative seeks to develop talent destined for the kids/tween/family market. Additional offerings of The DHX Experience include a voice for animation exercise, a hands-on music creation workshop, a storyroom for an animated show experience, as well as pitching and concept development bootcamps.
