All posts by Greg David

Prior to becoming a television critic and owner of TV, Eh?, Greg David was a critic for TV Guide Canada, the country's most trusted source for TV news. He has interviewed television actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes folks from hundreds of television series from Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He is a podcaster, public speaker, weekly radio guest and educator, and past member of the Television Critics Association.
Industry News

Let’s Talk TV: CRTC proposes measures to empower Canadian TV viewers

From a media release:

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today unveiled a draft code that will help Canadians make informed choices and resolve disputes with their television service providers.

During the Let’s Talk TV conversation, many Canadians said that cable and satellite companies do not always provide enough information about their packaging and pricing. Canadians also said that, in their view, the companies sometimes provide misleading or inaccurate information, as well as poor or inconsistent customer service. The CRTC’s code reflects what it heard from Canadians.

Under the proposed code, cable and satellite companies would be required to provide easy-to-understand agreements to their customers and notify them of changes to their services. The code would also clarify the terms surrounding the addition or cancellation of channels, early cancellation fees and installation appointments, among others. Combined with the CRTC’s previously announced prohibition of 30-day cancellation policies, Canadians will have the freedom and necessary information to switch service providers if they are not satisfied.

To help the CRTC finalize the code, Canadians are invited to share their views on the following questions:

  • What kind of information should cable and satellite providers give subscribers when they sign up?
  • How much notice should cable and satellite providers have to give when they change the price of channels or packages of channels?
  • What would constitute a reasonable timeframe for service calls by cable and satellite providers?

The CRTC is welcoming comments on the draft code until May 25, 2015. Canadians can participate by:

For more information on how to participate in a CRTC consultation, please see: It’s Your CRTC: Here’s How to Have Your Say!

The CRTC will also host an online discussion forum to promote further discussion among Canadians on the proposed code. Details of the discussion forum will be announced shortly.

In addition, Canadians are increasingly obtaining their various communications services from the same company through bundled offerings. For this reason, the CRTC is proposing that Canadians would be able to direct their complaints relating to the code to the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services. This industry ombudsman currently works with Canadians to help resolve complaints relating to their wireless, Internet and telephone services, and administers the CRTC’s wireless code.

Improved access for Canadians with disabilities
Canadians with disabilities will have access to more content that has been adapted to their needs and which will provide them with a seamless viewing experience. The CRTC expects that when television programs with closed captioning are made available online and on mobile devices, the closed captioning will be included.

In addition, the CRTC expects broadcasters to increase the amount of programs with described video they offer over the next few years. By September 2019, most broadcasters will have to provide described video for programs aired in prime time, from 7 to 11 p.m.

Finally, the CRTC will require television service providers to make accessible hardware, such as set-top boxes and remote controls, available to subscribers, where they can be obtained from suppliers and are compatible with their networks. This requirement will be implemented by the end of 2015.

About Let’s Talk TV
In 2013, the CRTC launched Let’s Talk TV: A Conversation with Canadians on the future of their television system, and how it can adapt to evolving technologies and viewing habits. The CRTC received more than 13,000 comments from Canadians during the conversation’s various phases.

Today’s announcement is the fifth in a series of decisions that ensure Canada’s television system adapts to a World of Choice, in which Canadians are watching the content they want on different devices and at a time of their choosing.

Over the past few months, the CRTC has introduced significant changes that will foster a more dynamic marketplace in which there are incentives for: (1) television service providers to offer reasonably priced services that meet the diverse needs and interests of Canadians; (2) creators to produce high-quality, original content that is compelling to audiences; and (3) Canadians to switch television service providers without having to give 30-days advance notice if they are not satisfied, to choose over-the-air television as a free, competitive alternative and to make informed decisions about their service providers.

Quick Facts

  • The CRTC has unveiled a draft code that will help Canadians make informed choices about, and resolve disputes with, their television service providers.
  • The code proposes to ensure that Canadians receive easy-to-understand agreements and are notified of changes to their services.
  • The code proposes to clarify the terms surrounding the addition or cancellation of channels, early cancellation fees and installation appointments.
  • Canadians are invited to share their views on the proposed code by May 25, 2015.
  • If they are not satisfied, Canadians can take advantage of a more dynamic marketplace and switch their television service provider without having to give advance notice.
  • Canadians with disabilities will have access to more content that has been adapted to their needs and which will provide them with a seamless viewing experience.
  • Today’s decision concludes the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV conversation, which was launched to ensure that Canada’s television system adapts to an audiovisual environment that is in profound evolution.
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Featured, Vikings

The cinematic magic of making Vikings

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The advances in visual effects in television has made it difficult to tell what’s real and what isn’t, especially on a program like Vikings. That’s where the folks at Mr. X and Take 5 come in. The production houses are charged with creating everything in History’s Thursday night drama, from Ragnar Lothbrok’s longboats to King Ecbert’s expansive compound to the soaring peaks surrounding Kattegat.

That work falls to Mr. X Inc. and Take 5 Productions, two studios specializing in visual effects and animation for television and feature film.

“We get scripts later in the process than the producers and the directors,” Dominic Remane, visual effects supervisor at Mr. X, says. “We’ll make a note of an establishing shot of Kattegat that has to start high and wide, or a fleet of 60 longboats leaving Kattegat for Wessex.” From directions in the script, Remane and his team of 60 know they’ll have to add in more of Ragnar’s ominous ships—only a handful of real longboats exist—and that the end of the real lake the boats are on needs to be deleted and elongated to look like a Scandinavian fjord.

Bill Halliday, visual effects producer at Take 5, says both companies see Vikings as a project with the hallmarks of a feature film look hemmed in by the constraints of a television show budget. And, as Halliday points out, Vikings regularly surpasses movies when it comes to the number of visual effects done in one episode.

“In the first episode of Season 3 there were over 100 visual effects, which by television standards is a huge amount,” Halliday explains. “In Episode 8, the invasion of Paris, there are over 300 visual effects which is remarkable. I worked on The Tudors and we did fewer effects in a season than we would on one episode of Vikings. A feature film runs around 200 visual effects.” It’s a stunning scope, Halliday explains, and one that—if everyone has done their jobs right—nobody notices.

A difficult aspect of the job with regard to Vikings is meeting the demand of show creator Michael Hirst, whose imagination pushes everyone to be creative. There have been times when they couldn’t deliver; Halliday notes a recent request to create a fully-digital animal to interact with a character couldn’t be created within the short time frame TV works in.

Perhaps the biggest jewel of Vikings’ Season 3 crown will be Ragnar’s invasion of Paris. It’s a story angle that’s been ramping up all season and cast member Clive Standen told me it will blow viewers’ minds. Remane worked closely with the show’s production designer, Mark Geraghty, to research the oldest castles in Europe to base Ragnar’s 850 AD attack on. They found it in Carcassonne, France, where surveying was done to select parts for which they could base Paris of the time period on.

“I’ve always wanted to be working in visual effects, but I never thought I’d be doing it to this level,” Remane admits. “I never thought I’d be going to Europe, France and Ireland, going to Norway and filming plates for the show.”

Vikings airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on History.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: Brojects returns with out-there outdoor projects

I’ve never owned a cottage, but I can certainly understand the allure of going to one to relax. Of course, after a few days of that, I can imagine getting a little antsy. But where I’d go for a walk, hike, swim or read a book, guys like Kevin and Andrew Buckles quaff some suds and come up with outlandish things to build.

Like a dock that can be turned into a bowling alley, for instance. Yup, that’s the first project tackled by the boys in Thursday’s Season 2 return of Brojects on Cottage Life. A warning before each new segment of Brojects warns viewers that the siblings aren’t professional builders and the program is purely for entertainment and it is certainly that, especially when the pair are taking verbal and physical swipes at each other on the road to project completion.

With just three days to replace their rotting, rusting, too-short old deck with a sweet, bowl-worthy new one is a tall task and thing start off shakily for what they dub The Browling Alley. A trip to the local alley gives the pair the measurements, information and inspiration to start, but initial trials aren’t that promising, especially when it comes to an effective ball return system. Several soaks in the hot tub, even more Solo cups full of beer and a call to Andrew’s buddy leads the pair on the path to success and—I have to say it—a pretty darned cool dock/bowling alley.

They may not be experts but Andrew and Kevin are able to get the job done. And it’s definitely a fun trip along the way.

Brojects airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Cottage Life.

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Featured, X Company

Review: Truth and lies on X Company

Say what!?!? Just when I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen during Wednesday’s new episode, the folks at X Company threw a knuckleball I watched go past me.

“In Enemy Hands” began dramatically enough, with Harry stabbed in the neck and suffering shrapnel wounds following an attack on a German factory. Knowing Connor Price wasn’t going to die—he’s part of the main cast after all—didn’t ease up on the tension. For a few minutes it looked like Harry could very well have died on that table no matter what the pretty Irish nurse did for him. Ah, that pretty nurse who was so beguiling to the youngest member of the team. Harry’s Achilles heel is a lady, and he was simply smitten with her.

Too bad she turned out to be working for the Germans. The episode’s twist wasn’t that the German radio operator had been telling the truth when he’d hit an extra “H” in his report back to HQ and helped them escape. No, the shocker was Siobhan (Emily Taaffe) was more interested in ousting the English from Ireland, a promise Franz Faber vowed to uphold if she kept feeding him intel and the Germans won the war.

Now Faber knows of Alfred’s abilities and that he is the most important member of the team. With just a few episodes of X Company left, it would appear my belief Alfred is captured will end up coming true.

And while a lot of time was spent with Siobhan tending to Harry’s injuries, the most dramatic scenes of the night came between Neil and radio operator Rolf Bauer (Rick Okon). The claustrophobia of the bottle episode was made even more so in the confines of that basement, where Neil did everything he could not to murder Rolf with his bare hands. At first refusing to trust the German, Neil let down his guard as Rolf explained he loved his country, but hated what the war had become. By the time Rolf messed up that second transmission he was going to become a double agent and Neil had bonded with him. Which made it even more difficult for Neil to kill Rolf for his apparent alert to high command.

Warren Brown hasn’t shown a lot of emotion so far this season, but he laid it all out last night, playing a man haunted by the death of his mother and sister during the Blitz and furious with himself for becoming attached to Rolf. No wonder he keeps everyone he cares about at arm’s length.

Notes and quotes

  • Was Alfred drumming out Morse Code on the armrest at the beginning of the episode, or is it just me? I’m looking for clues all the time now.
  • “Lucky Harry. He opens his eyes and sees a pretty nurse.” You got that right, Tom.
  • My heart almost stopped when the German officer opened the door to the basement … and Tom came out dressed in a German uniform.
  • “I’m glad it’s you doing it and not a stranger.” Rest in peace, Rolf.

X Company airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

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Industry News

Statement by Kevin Crull, President, Bell Media on CTV News

From a media release:

“CTV News is Canada’s leading news organization because of its longstanding commitment to the highest levels of journalistic integrity. With that reality in mind, I would like to explain events around discussion of last week’s CRTC decisions on CTV and other Bell Media news channels.

I reached out to the CTV News leadership team to let them know I felt the focus on the CRTC itself by CTV and other Canadian news organizations would be better placed on a broad and necessary discussion of the impacts of the CRTC’s decisions on consumers, our team members, and our business.

It was wrong of me to be anything but absolutely clear that editorial control always rests with the news team. I have apologized to the team directly for this mistake. Indeed their strong and straightforward reaction to my intrusion only heightens my appreciation of their independence, integrity and professionalism. It is crucial to note that CTV’s coverage of the CRTC’s decisions was fair, balanced and extensive, and stands up in comparison to coverage of the issue by any Canadian news organization.

In short, I’ve re-learned a valuable lesson from the best news team in the business.”

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