OTTAWA – Industry stakeholders are lamenting the anticipated shutdown of 623 CBC and Radio-Canada analog transmitters on Tuesday, a move that ends free access to the national broadcaster over the air in hundreds of small Canadian cities, towns and rural areas.
Despite the protests of more than 2,000 Canadians and a proposal by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) on how the equipment could be repurposed, the CRTC approved CBC/Radio-Canada’s plan to mothball the transmitters and repeaters with no conditions and no requirement to reach out to the affected communities.
"The CBC-TV and Radio-Canada analog transmitter shutdown…
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OTTAWA – The passage of Bill C-11 in the House of Commons trumpeted by the government Tuesday was met with trepidation by some industry stakeholders.
The Bill, known as the Copyright Modernization Act, seeks to bring Canada’s antiquated copyrights law in line with current international standards by implementing provisions of the World Intellectual Property Protection Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.
Industry Minister Christian Paradis and Heritage Minister James Moore said in a joint announcement that the legislation balances the everyday activities of Canadians while “giving creators and copyright owners the tools they need to protect…
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RICHARD STURSBERG CAN be a polarizing figure. He knows he rubs some people the wrong way (and I think he kinda likes being the thorn in some sides).
You can read that personality throughout his recent book, Tower of Babble: Sins, Secrets and Successes Inside the CBC. He admits as much on many pages, calling himself “arrogant”, “insouciant” and “insubordinate” and reading through some of what he describes about his time at the Corp., it’s hard not to disagree with his self-assessment.
Stursberg was actually my first interview when I started covering the electronic media industry in…
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(Ed note: We ran this column back in May 2012 with our overall investigation into the CBC. Given the Corp's news this week – that it will still air, but has lost control of, NHL hockey – we thought it made sense to give it a re-print, as it were, on November 27, 2013.)
AT CBC ENGLISH TELEVISION’S fall 2012 programming launch last Thursday, you could hear how the massive recent budget cut – along with the constant hectoring of the Corp. by so many Canadians –…
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MUCH HAS BEEN SAID and written over the last few weeks on the new CBC Music service, which has generated quite a bit of interest from the industry, and from the population in general for Stingray’s Part 1 application with the CRTC regarding the newly launched service (and letter to the Minister of Heritage).
Founded in 2007, Stingray’s various services, including Galaxie, the Karaoke Channel and Concert TV, are now available to over 70 million households in 48 countries around the world. With over 200 employees, a good portion of which are here in Canada, Stingray…
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MONTREAL – An informal group of radio broadcasters are banding together in the hopes of pulling the plug on CBC’s nascent digital music service CBC Music.
The coalition, which includes Quebecor Media, Cogeco Inc., Newcap Radio, Golden West Radio, RNC Media and Stingray Digital, objects to the ad-supported service which it says contributes to the inaccurate perception that music is free, plus competes with their own radio stations and subscription-based websites, counter to the CBC’s mandate.
In a letter to Heritage Minister James Moore on Friday, the broadcasters questioned whether the CBC is using “the preferential royalty rates it receives from the…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has amended the exemption order for terrestrial BDUs serving fewer than 20,000 subscribers.
The Commission said Wednesday that starting April 1, 2012, exempt BDUs will be required to make a contribution to Canadian programming of 5% of gross revenues from broadcasting activities. For the 2011-2012 broadcast year, this contribution will be payable on gross revenues from broadcasting activities earned between April 1 and August 31, 2012, and for subsequent broadcast years, the contribution will be payable on gross revenues from broadcasting activities earned over the entire broadcast year.
In addition, exempt BDUs are authorized to…
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OTTAWA – The CBC will receive the funding it needs to fulfill its five-year strategic plan, says Heritage Minister James Moore.
According to a report in The Toronto Star, Minister Moore affirmed the government’s commitment to the national broadcaster during a Commons committee on Thursday.
“CBC, through their board of directors, has approved their 2015 plan. This is a plan that we support and that we have been pushing for and hoping that the CBC would implement for a long time – staying in the regions, (enhancing) digital technology and protecting their mandate to ensure that it’s all-Canadian programming,” Moore…
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OTTAWA – While milling about on the floor of the Institute of International Communications 2011 Canadian chapter conference here at the beautiful new Ottawa Convention Centre on Monday morning, everyone had a guess (and some claimed inside information) on what Industry Minister Christian Paradis is going to say in his speech to the conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Is it to be a statement on foreign investment changes for the telecom sector? Setting out the rules on the auction of 700 MHz wireless spectrum? Some sort of direction in the long-overdue digital economy strategy?
It looks like now,…
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OTTAWA – So much for all the speculation on who will replace CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein when his term expires on January 24, 2012.
While many have guessed (including us) at who it may be, and many in power have some ideas on who would make a good chair, the federal government has not yet officially begun to look, said Heritage Minister James Moore Tuesday in Ottawa.
Speaking to reporters after his speech at the 2011 International Institute of Communications Canadian conference, Moore didn’t have much to say on who might be appointed chair, or when….
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