Joly says 6,000 have responded to early culture consultation
TORONTO – Businesses should invest in the cultural sector – including hiring artists – in order to help the economy grow and open new markets, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly told a business audience Thursday in Toronto.
“Does that mean you need artists, writers and musicians in your business? Well, at the very least you need some people who think like artists, writers and musicians,” Joly told the Economic Club of Canada. Joly urged industry to invest in the cultural sector because not only do companies have the money but also because it…
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VANCOUVER and MONTREAL – The heads of three private Québec broadcasters have taken exception to comments made by CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Hubert Lacroix this week that they claim “mischaracterized” their position on the role of the public broadcaster.
Speaking Tuesday at an event at the University of British Columbia about the Corp’s ongoing transformation, Lacroix all but accused some unnamed Canadian private broadcasters of trying to “undermine” public broadcasting to stave off competition.
“Some private broadcasters have suggested that the solution to their declining revenue is to limit what CBC does for Canadians to some sort of "status quo" or…
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Outlines fresh approach to local news
OTTAWA – The national public broadcaster got a relatively easy ride at the Heritage committee on Thursday. CBC/Radio-Canada was given the opportunity to explain how its recent $675 million increase in funding would affect local news and its operations in general.
During its appearance, the broadcaster noted it is transforming its newsrooms to a multiplatform environment where there will be a single assignment desk for TV, radio and digital. The expectation is that all journalists will have to file for all platforms.
Decisions to shift news operations based on digital first mantra and adopt…
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No easy answers
TORONTO – Yes, there were a ton of regulatory lawyers and policy wonks there and probably not as many newfangled content creators and distributors as organizers hoped, but the two-day Discoverability Summit, which wrapped up Wednesday in Toronto, seemed to us a worthwhile exercise even if the problem of discoverability remains unsolved and looks to be a challenge for some time.
The summit will definitely have helped flesh out ideas for the federal government’s just-started review of all things Canadian content.
1. What goes viral? No one really can predict. During the Youth Summit portion held last week in…
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Heritage Minister says culture spending can lead to economic growth
TORONTO – The federal government is turning its attention to overhauling the laws and regulations governing the cultural sector in Canada because it sees creativity as the driving force behind innovation, which will drive the growth of the Canadian economy, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly told delegates at the CRTC and NFB’s Discoverability Summit in Toronto on Tuesday.
While noting that the government has promised a $1.9 billion investment in arts and culture over the next five years – the first G7 country to make such an investment,…
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SAINT JOHN, NB – The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) has announced the shortlisted nominees for their Tuned-in Canada awards – a national celebration of excellence in communications service delivery, community-mindedness, and community channel content development.
“We received a record number of nominations this year, many from our member companies – but many others from their customers across the country,” said Alyson Townsend, CCSA president and CEO. “That level of support really shows that Canada’s local cable and telecommunications companies are a valued part of our country’s communications ecosystem.”
“The nominations this year highlighted amazing local television content, introduced us to…
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Feds must study past report to lead the future, according to Audet
TORONTO – The Canadian financial markets suffer a bias against risk, which has led to an unfortunate under-investment in innovation, Cogeco Inc. CEO Louis Audet told the Canadian Club today at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto.
In a wide-ranging speech that touched upon a wide number of things, Audet tied them all to the problems he believes are afflicting Canada and its economy. He noted many of the developed economies around the world are now facing stagnant growth rates – but noted that as Canadians, we have the…
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NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ON – The Federal Government has announced plans to extend its rural broadband initiative Connecting Canadians to include an additional 65,000 households.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development minister Navdeep Bains said Friday from Niagara-on-the-Lake that 23 Internet service providers across Canada are receiving approximately $34.5 million to increase broadband Internet access for more than 65,000 households in rural areas across Canada.
"Helping to extend high-speed Internet across the country is one of the most important infrastructure investments the Government of Canada can make to help unlock the tremendous potential of our country's northern and rural regions”, said Minister Bains, in the…
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The viewer rules
By Greg O’Brien
WHILE THE NEW DIGITAL GIZMOS and software used for TV newsgathering, dissemination and consumption has undergone wholesale, massive change, the way TV stations construct their evening news shows still looks very familiar.
Reporters spend the day gathering stories, editing video, voicing and so on and then anchors hit the air at six and 11 introducing those stories and throwing things over to the sports anchor, weather specialists and bantering with each other, live. While the reporters stories run and commercials air, anchors generally still sit and wait for that red light to go back on, the…
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WITH THE ELECTION OVER WITH, there will be debate and discussion around the priorities of the new Liberal government with regard to shaping communications and digital policy.
I suspect that, perhaps with the exception of more funding for the CBC, and a few other election promises, communications will not be an immediate priority for the transition team or for Cabinet. It’s not that communications/digital policy isn’t relevant, whether in respect of competition and choice, price, culture, accessibility, economic growth, innovation in IT or jobs. It’s just these things are not seen, politically, to be broken enough, particularly on the carriage…
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