CTV’s gambit to blunt CBC’s Rio Summer Olympic Games coverage with their broadcast premiere of Game of Thrones is off to a bloody start. In Monday’s head-to-head matchup, CBC’s primetime Olympic coverage drew an overnight, estimated 2,021,000 viewers vs. the 667,000 who watched the very first episode of the sword-and-sandal fantasy epic. It was about the
There was an invasion on the shores of Lake Ontario this week. Soldiers dressed in authentic, WWII-era moss-green uniforms dodged explosive charges as they ran up from the water. All this while cameras rolled on CBC’s upcoming 10-hour epic Canada: The Story of Us. The historical miniseries will bow next spring in time for the Canada
Is there a more beautiful acreage in Toronto than the grounds of the Canadian Film Centre? E.P. Taylor’s little horse ranch got the traffic cops treatment Thursday in Toronto at its annual Garden Party. This is a way less crowded and better catered affair than the annual TIFF BBQ, more of a thank you to the high rollers
Banff, Alta– The second panel I moderated at Banff was “Broadcasting the 4K Way.” The panelists were Mary Ellen Carlyle, SVP & GM of Dome Productions, Scott Moore, President of Sportsnet and head of all things NHL at Rogers and my cousin Ken MacDonald, GM & VP of Discovery Canada. MacDonald, who I’ve been interviewing
BANFF, Alta.–There should be a law against blogging at Banff. It is just too damn beautiful outside. Everywhere you look is a picture postcard. So let’s run through Monday’s Banff World Media Festival experience as quickly as possible. I moderated two sessions. The first was called, “The Future of Canadian Content” and the Alberta room
Took a little back and forth, and credit the CP editors for their patience, but I was able to break this news about Don Cherry off Monday’s Rogers Media upfront in Toronto: he’ll be back next season, at least, on Hockey Night in Canada. Cherry, 82, who signed a two-year contract when Rogers made their
They had to know the risk. The headlines: “Curtains for CBC!” Thursday in Toronto at their rapidly rented-out broadcast bunker, CBC held it’s annual fall launch in Toronto. Reporters were lifted up to the 10th floor in service elevators and led down hallways where bare walls were wrapped in thousands of yards of curtains and drapes.
Still several time zones removed from reality, I managed to scramble downtown earlier this week to attend Wayne & Shuster in Black and White, a presentation of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. Held at the University of Toronto’s Innis College (a wonderful mid-size screening room I hadn’t been in since attending U of T), the