Rudy Buttignol may be Canadian broadcasting’s documentary guru but don’t expect him to be pretentious or boring.

No one has heard Cal Millar utter the words ‘U.S. network series’ recently, nor will they hear him mention the words anytime soon.

Joe Elaschuk, the grizzly young bassist from Toronto indie band Foxfire, enters the recording studio and is asked to run through his part. He glances at the reporters and photographers scattered around the equipment-packed room.

It’s business as usual at CHEK-TV, thanks to last-minute negotiations that saw the troubled Victoria station change hands from Canwest Global Communications to its employees themselves.

Public and private broadcasters have come together in yet another effort to win fee-for-carriage from Ottawa. CTV, its A channels, Global Television and the CBC unveiled a joint, national campaign looking to ‘set the record straight’ regarding their ongoing squabble with cable and satellite companies, with an eye on this fall’s CRTC hearings.

Canadian conventional networks can now air as many TV commercials in primetime as they wish, after the CRTC completed its two-year phase-out of per-hour ad-minute restrictions on Sept. 1.

A new study finds nearly seven out of 10 Canadian TV viewers want to be able to access their cable channels on the web or mobile.

The CRTC has turned down a bid by Slice to reduce its annual Cancon requirements to 60% from the current 82.5%. The regulator also rejected the specialty channel’s request to spend just 45% of the previous year’s gross revenues on Canadian content, down from 71%.

Corus and MTV Networks plan to launch new 24-hour digital channel in November