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CTF, Telefilm working together
In the Oct. 10 issue of Playback (‘February wedding date for Telefilm & CTF,’ p. 23), I am quoted as saying, ‘Folks who are now our employees will move over to Telefilm. We are not ‘co-operating.’ We’ve been told to step back and let Telefilm do the job…’
Playback Readership Poll Results
Many Playback readers believe the CBC won’t be seriously hurt by the staff lockout. In a recent online Playback poll asking, ‘How will CBC Television fare now that the lockout is over?’ 39% of respondents thought the net would perform the same as before the lockout, while 32% felt the Ceeb would lose viewers. Meanwhile, 29% agreed that hockey and big-ticket programs would lure above-average audiences.
Big-ticket TV languishes on the Ceeb
A couple of weeks ago, my wife was on the phone with her mother, explaining that we were about to sit down to watch Trudeau II: Maverick in the Making.
Sepia doing its Duty
Vancouver: Sepia Films and U.S.-based Landslide Pictures will this month wrap the feature Civic Duty, ending a three-week stay in B.C. The psychological thriller stars Peter Krause (Six Feet Under) as a man who is obsessed with terrorist plots and whose new neighbor is an Islamic grad student, played by Egyptian star Abol Naga.
Features
Greenberg backs 24 in development
NHL return bodes well for The Tournament
Montreal: The second season of The Tournament, CBC’s mockumentary series about children’s hockey and overzealous parents, is shooting in Montreal until Nov. 15.
The 10 x 30 season will continue to follow the Warriors, a fictional team of misfit kids and their obnoxiously ambitious parents and, this year, the producers say that they have an advantage. The hockey strike is over.
Docs
16 months in 10 minutes
Broadcast
Shaw shoots Dead
Service
Vikings invade Vancouver
Briefly
* The pilot episode of Blade – a new series based on the Wesley Snipes vampire movies – is underway in B.C. for Spike TV.
Smith, Air Farce lead special awards winners
This year’s Gemini Award special winners recognize long-running CBC comedy talents as well as behind-the-scenes players.
NFB, CBC dominate nonfiction noms
There’s more than one way to slice a Gemini, as illustrated by the fact that this year’s nominees in the nonfiction categories are shared among several coproducing entities. Through it all, the National Film Board emerges as the biggest force in production, while the CBC is unsurprisingly dominant among broadcasters.
Uphill fight for CBC
The end to its eight-week lockout leaves the CBC facing a lingering rift with its workers, a jilted audience that must be wooed back from the competition, calls for president Robert Rabinovitch’s resignation and an uphill battle in the already crowded fall TV season.
‘No one is going in without realizing this was a big rupture in this [worker-management] relationship, and there’s work needed to overcome this,’ Arnold Amber, president of the Canadian Media Guild’s CBC branch, said after his membership returned to work on Oct. 11.
Pay-TV hopefuls prep for face-off with TMN/MC
It’s no surprise that all sides are talking tough ahead of the Oct. 24 CRTC hearings on new pay channels. What is perhaps unexpected is some of the opposition the proposed channels are facing.
Four applicants have made proposals for four new services – Spotlight Entertainment, the Canadian Film Channel put forth by Channel Zero, Allarco Entertainment, and Quebec-based Groupe Archambault, which is looking to launch an English/French service called BOOMTV.
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