OTTAWA – With the very future of the Canadian Television Fund in question, the CBC along with the independent production community are urging the CRTC to postpone its plans to review funding for new media in September. The CRTC has put out a call for comments (Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2008-62) regarding its proposed changes to its public benefits policy that would create new funding streams for new media within the CTF.
In just the last few weeks, the Harper government has cut tens of millions in funding to arts program and has so far given no indication if…
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TORONTO – ACTRA and the Directors Guild have both added their voices to the chorus condemning the federal government’s cuts to arts funding programs.
“These cuts are shocking and short-sighted, and they certainly aren’t business friendly,” said Stephen Waddell, ACTRA’s national executive director. “Support for arts and culture are among the most efficient investments a government can make. Government funding leverages other investments, markets Canada to the world and enriches our society here at home.”
Federal government cuts to cultural programs were announced on Friday, August 8. More cuts were discovered this week. Programs affected in the film and television industries…
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MONTREAL – The Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) and the Association des producteurs de films et de television du Québec (APFTQ) have called for an urgent meeting with the ministers from Heritage and Foreign Affairs to discuss the government’s decision to eliminate cultural programs valued at nearly $18 million.
Last Friday, the Conservative government announced that the A-V Preservation Trust ($300,000), the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund ($1.5-million), the National Training Schools Program ($2.5- million), PromArt ($4.7-million) and Trade Routes ($9-million) will be eliminated as of March 31, 2009.
“These cuts risk diminishing Canada’s international reputation,"…
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OTTAWA – The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) is calling on the Canadian Heritage minister to force the CRTC to re-examine its decision to allow TQS to cut its local news.
The decision illustrates the regulator is not serving the public interest and something must be done, the media union said in a statement.
The CEP is asking the Canadian Heritage minister to send the decision back to the CRTC for reconsideration.
“Having laid off more than half the staff of the TQS network in April, the network’s new owners have told the CRTC they…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s public broadcaster is calling the government’s decision late Thursday to not endorse the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage’s report on CBC/Radio-Canada a “missed opportunity.”
The move would have enabled the government to enhance the accountability and transparency of Canada’s national public broadcaster, said the CBC in a statement released Friday.
A seven-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that links the public broadcaster’s objectives with its services and funding should be signed between the CBC and government, recommends the report, CBC/Radio-Canada: Defining Distinctiveness in the Changing Media Landscape.
“We are disappointed that the government has not endorsed the…
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OTTAWA – The federal government asked the CRTC on Friday to report on the accessibility and quality of broadcasting services offered to minority French- and English-language communities.
The request is part of a government-wide initiative, called the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-2013, that is aimed at strengthening the vitality of minority official language communities.
The government said in a statement that it was time to re-look at the issue given the proliferation of new technologies that has transformed the broadcast industry in recent years.
“As the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality attests, our government takes very seriously the…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s film and television producers say proposed Senate amendments to Bill C-10 reflect their concerns, and if passed, can help return stability to the industry.
“Canada’s independent film and television producers feel that they have been listened to and understood. The proposed amendments to Bill C-10 are fully consistent with Criminal Code compliance recommendations made by the Canadian Film and Television Production Association to the Senate committee,” said CFTPA President and CEO Guy Mayson.
The proposed amendments were released Wednesday by Senators Francis Fox and Wilfred Moore, and will be introduced when the Senate banking committee proceeds…
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WINNIPEG – Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) CEO Jean LaRose praises the CRTC for seeking to “strike a fair middle ground” in its recommendations on how to fix the Canadian Television Fund (CTF).
He added that he’s pleased that the regulator recognized the “special place” that APTN has in meeting the goal of the Broadcasting Act of reflecting the country’s Aboriginal people.
The CRTC recommended that APTN be permitted to tap into both the public sector and private sector streams it is suggesting be created. The CRTC’s suggests APTN get one-third of its funding from the public sector side…
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OTTAWA – Just prior to Parliament’s summer break, the federal government tabled new amendments to the Copyright Act “that will bring it in line with advances in technology and current international standards,” it says.
The bill (C-61) is “a win-win approach because we’re ensuring that Canadians can use digital technologies at home with their families, at work, or for educational and research purposes. We are also providing new rights and protections for Canadians who create the content and who want to better secure their work online,” said Industry Minister Jim Prentice, in a press release.
"These proposed amendments represent…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC said today that while many things should change about the Canadian Television Fund, Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media still have to pay into it – and in a timely manner.
And, while the Commission also said it would alter the BDU regs to make monthly contributions to the CTF mandatory, the report says it won’t make that move until the federal government has dealt with the substantive issues covered by the report.
That means distributors could still choose to withhold monthly payments in favour of quarterly or annual ones until Heritage Minister Josee Verner and…
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