CBC/Radio-Canada has announced highlights of its coverage of the XXIV Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 which will take place from Friday, Feb. 4 to Sunday, Feb. 20, featuring seven sports and 109 medal events across 13 competition venues. CBC/Radio-Canada will broadcast from every venue, including Canadian medal-winning moments, totalling more than 3,500 hours of live content across all platforms, with broadcast partners TSN, RDS and Sportsnet also offering live event coverage. Throughout December and January, CBC Sports will air the weekly Road To The Olympic Games, available on CBC TV and CBC Gem, as well as live streams of key competitions on cbcsports.ca and the CBC Sports app. Starting Dec. 21, Radio-Canada Sports will air Le rêve olympique, an original series of athlete portraits profiling top Canadian medal contenders. The eight-part docuseries will be available on ICI TÉLÉ, ICI RDI and ICI TOU.TV.
TSN’s coverage of the 108th Grey Cup featuring the reigning champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers and hometown Hamilton Tiger-Cats will include six hours of preview coverage on Grey Cup Saturday, co-hosted by CFL ON TSN’s Marshall Ferguson and BarDown’s Luca Celebre, live on-location in Hamilton. Sunday’s live coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET with a five-hour pre-game show, with the game to begin at 6 p.m. ET on TSN, TSN.ca, and the TSN app. The broadcast team will be led by play-by-play announcer Rod Smith alongside game analyst Glen Suitor, and a panel featuring host Kate Beirness with analysts Matt Dunigan, Milt Stegall, and Davis Sanchez. James Duthie will also be joined by Jim Barker and Calgary Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell to provide additional analysis, with TSN Football Insiders Dave Naylor and Farhan Lalji. SPORTSCENTRE reporters Sara Orlesky and Matthew Scianitti will focus on the Bombers and Ticats, respectively.
The Banff World Media Festival (BANFF), in partnership with Netflix, the Black Screen Office (BSO), the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO), and the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), has opened a call for applications for the 2022 edition of the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative. In its fifth year, Diversity of Voices will welcome up to 100 BIPOC creators and producers of film, television, and digital media content from across Canada. Selected participants will receive full registration to the 2022 Banff World Media Festival as well as a tailored stream of programming and access to networking opportunities with key industry decision-makers. A sub-group of 25 professionals within the 2022 cohort will be selected to take part in the Diversity of Voices Pitch Program, which will provide them with additional mentorship and networking or pitching opportunities. The deadline to apply is Jan. 7.
CineFAM is launching a Women of Colour (WOC) Content Creator Database that will live on the Canadian not-for-profit’s website. Founded by award-winning filmmaker and Academy member Frances Anne Solomon, CineFAM aims to build capacity and viability for women creators of colour and provide multiple platforms for their work to be shown. The goal of the database will be to enhance the visibility of women of colour in the film industry in hopes of widening their networks and accessibility to larger resources. CineFAM wants to feature as many creators as possible. If you identify as a WOC filmmaker or creator (director, videographer, screenplay writer, actress etc.), you are encouraged to fill out an application.
Liquid Media Group says it’s in the final stages of an agreement to provide recoupable last-mile financing for three films through the company’s newly-formed production funding unit Liquid Media Production Funding. The film slate will mark the unveiling of Liquid’s blockchain approach, designed to help independent producers participate in the benefits of blockchain, including community engagement, owner-controlled distribution and monetization opportunities. In development with Eluvio, it leverages tokenization and NFTs as value-adds for filmmakers across the content lifecycle. This week, Liquid also announced the closing of its acquisition of content recommendation engine iGEMStv, which uses a blend of machine learning and human curation to help audiences discover movies and TV series.
HISTORY drives into the New Year with two Corus Studios series leading the network’s 2022 lineup. New series Lost Car Rescue premieres Jan. 13, following a team of young car hunters as they travel to uncover and extract classic cars that have been abandoned in the Northern Canadian wilderness. Then, Rust Valley Restorers – which had its most successful launch with Season 3 – returns for fourth season Feb. 24. Other series rolling out in the New Year include Beyond Oak Island premiering Jan. 9, and Swamp People premiering Jan. 27.
Food Network Canada’s winter lineup sees the addition of the highly-anticipated Peacock Original series Baking It (6×60) premiering with back-to-back episodes (Dec. 8). W Network will also simulcast the first episode which features hosts Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg overseeing challenge teams of bakers creating holiday-themed culinary creations, judged by opinionated real-life grandmothers. Premiering Jan. 3 is the return of Corus Studios series Wall of Chefs (10×60). Additional new series and seasons include Raid the Fridge (6×60), Guy’s Chance of a Lifetime (6×60), Alex vs America (5×60), Kids Baking Championship, Season 10 (10×60) and new episodes of Carnival Eats (8×30).
Bell Media-owned French-language network, Noovo has acquired the rights to adapt Survivor for French Canada. The Banijay reality competition series has been produced in 48 territories since its launch in 1997 with this year the format’s most successful to-date with 24 productions confirmed. Bell Media is working with ToRoS productions on a local version that will resonate with Quebec viewers.
Off the Fence, winner of this year’s BAFTA and Oscar for Best Documentary Feature (My Octopus Teacher), has announced a distribution deal with Canadian production company Infield Fly Productions for Curb Your Carbon, a humorous documentary narrated by Ryan Reynolds. Commissioned by CBC and premiering Jan. 14 on The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, Curb Your Carbon travels the globe to unveil 10 ways to fight climate change like waste less food, eat less meat and eat more bugs. Curb Your Carbon was written by Liam O’Rinn, who also directed with P.J. Naworynski. It was produced by Dugald Maudsley and Gillian Main of Infield Fly Productions, and produced in association with CBC.
