Corus Entertainment, the parent company of Global News, has announced the elimination of nearly 80 positions

Corus Entertainment, the parent company of Global News, has announced the elimination of nearly 80 positions in a move away from producing television news content. 50 new digital news positions will be added, including multi-platform journalists who will file for new, local versions of Globalnews.ca in Ottawa, Kitchener, Guelph and Barrie. The changes will also see Global Halifax and New Brunswick’s 6 p.m. newscasts anchored out of Toronto.

CTV Montreal  is expanding its news production by delivering regular morning news updates during CTV’s Your Morning, weekdays from 6 – 9 a.m. ET. Caroline Van Vlaardingen is contributing local news, weather, and traffic updates every half hour beginning at 6:25 a.m. ET.

CTV, CBC, Global News, Postmedia and APTN were denied a request to film and broadcast portions of Gerald Stanley’s second-degree murder trial by the chief justice of Saskatchewan’s Court of Queen’s Bench. Broadcasting or publishing court proceedings is generally prohibited in almost all criminal cases in Canada. Justice Martel Popescul wrote in his decision that the trial was not the right case with which to experiment. Stanley was acquitted on Feb. 9 of second-degree murder in the 2016 shooting death of Colten Boushie. Among those in favour of cameras in the courtroom was the Boushie family.

The Alberta legislature will have its own dedicated TV channel starting this Spring. While televised proceedings of the legislature started in 1972 and webcasts of question period in 2003, daily question period hasn’t been airing with regularity in Edmonton and Calgary since last year. The Legislative Assembly was able to secure its own broadcast licence from the CRTC in December for a 24-hour a day, commercial-free channel that will carry proceedings directly from the floor of the legislature, as well as committee meetings.

Quebecor has filed for leave to appeal a Jan. 2017 CRTC decision on TVA Sports to the Federal Court of Appeal. Quebecor is seeking a review of the decision with respect to the rate paid by Bell TV for distribution of TVA Sports. In a statement, Quebecor says it finds the regulator’s decision baffling in view of the fact that TVA Sports, a relatively recent market entrant, has carved out a strong position with nearly 1.9 million subscribers and a market share close to that of RDS.

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and APTN have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will pool their efforts in implementing programs, training and other initiatives aimed at strengthening relations with Indigenous Peoples and creators. As part of the implementation of recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the partnership will allow the organizations to develop protocols regarding  access and use of archival materials in the NFB’s Indigenous collection, develop projects that could make use of the archive, and work jointly to make the collection accessible through distribution.

CTV has announced the American Idol reboot will anchor CTV Two’s midseason schedule Sundays and Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/ 9 p.m. MT, beginning Mar. 11. American Idol joins the previously announced pick up of three new CTV Two mid-season comedies Living Biblically (Feb. 26), Splitting Up Together (Mar. 27) and Alex, Inc. (Mar. 28).

Darcy MichaelCraveTV’s first original stand-up comedy special Darcy Michael Goes To Church, begins streaming on Mar. 9. The one-hour special was developed in partnership with Just For Laughs, and joins CraveTV’s Stand-Up Comedy Collection.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir have landed the most-watched moment of the Olympic Winter Games with 4.3 million tuning in for their gold medal moment on Feb. 19. After 10 days of competition, 29 million Canadians (82 per cent of the population) have watched some part of CBC/Radio-Canada’s coverage of PyeongChang 2018 across all English and French television network partners and digital streaming simulcasts. CBC’s English-language primetime coverage across all broadcast networks has garnered a 2+ average minute audience of more than 3 million viewers to date, with CBC alone delivering a 24 per cent primetime audience share since the start of the Games.