By Len St-Aubin
DEBATE ABOUT BILL C-10 thus far has focused on Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s goal to make big foreign online audio and video streamers, like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, YouTube and Spotify, contribute to the creation of Canadian content.
But Bill C-10’s scope is vast. It will impact broadcasting and the internet in Canada, and all Canadians
It’s a valid public policy goal to expect big foreign streamers which have significant market share and revenues in Canada to engage with Canadian creators in the production of Canadian stories for Canadian and global audiences. It’s a valid question whether amending the…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The 2021 Parliamentary season is back in full swing and the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage began to dig into a pair of important topics over the past few days
This session’s first two meetings, on Friday and Monday January 29 and February 1, dealt with “Relations Between Facebook and the Federal Government,” said the meeting notice – and Bill C-10, the amendments to the Broadcasting Act.
That first meeting was spurred by an email from Kevin Chan, global director and head of public policy, Facebook Canada, sent to the director general of broadcasting, copyright and creative…
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By Doug Barrett
FOR SOMEONE AS QUEASY as me worrying major chunks of the Canadian broadcasting system might end up in the hands of foreign owners, Denis Carmel’s article (Will Bill C-10 do away with Canadian Ownership?) last week was not particularly reassuring.
Mr. Carmel quoted a statement provided by the Department of Canadian Heritage which said:
“The Bill makes no changes regarding the requirements for Canadian ownership and control of traditional broadcasters. The CRTC will continue to license traditional broadcasters. Only Canadian individuals, companies and organizations, as defined in the Direction to the CRTC on the Ineligibility of Non-Canadians, will…
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By Denis Carmel
WHEN BILL C-10 WAS TABLED by Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault on November 3, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting noted some amendments to the Broadcasting Act could, as a consequence, wipe out foreign ownership restrictions on broadcasters.
Friends said it is “concerned by the fact that multiple sections of the Broadcasting Act have been repealed or amended to remove protections for Canadian culture… It also removes language that the broadcasting system should be owned and controlled by Canadians, opening the door to foreign companies to buy up what’s left of Canada’s traditional broadcasting system.”
So, we asked the department of Canadian…
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And can we please deal with all the delays?
By Lynn Greiner
TORONTO – The regulatory world is a strange and often not-too-wonderful place, and annually the ISP Summit’s regulatory panel takes a look at its current state. The panel’s theme this year: To Compete or Not Compete in Canada’s Telecom Sector – That is the Question.
This year, moderator Greg O’Brien, editor and publisher of Cartt.ca was joined by panelists Christian Tacit, principal, Tacit Law; Dr. Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law, University of Ottawa; Laura Tribe, executive director of OpenMedia, a community-driven organization that…
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OTTAWA — CACTUS (the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations) announced late Monday it has been chosen by the Department of Canadian Heritage to administer funding for community TV under phases two and three of the Covid-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations.
Licensed community television stations as well as unlicensed not-for-profit community-managed corporations which support community members in producing and distributing community television programming are eligible for funding, says the CACTUS blog post.
Applicants for the Covid-19 relief funding being administered by CACTUS must demonstrate they:
are eligible community television organizations as defined above;
…
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TORONTO – Hosted by Canadian poet Ieden Wall (above), Canada’s newest late-night talk show, Canadian Jewish TV, kicks off Thursday October 1st at 11:30 p.m. on Rogers Communications’ multicultural broadcaster OMNI 1.
The show will feature interviews and performances from some of Canada’s most notable Jewish figures, and in keeping with Wall’s background, CJTV will also feature a spoken-word short-film series based on new poems from Wall’s upcoming book, The Wisdom of the Wall 2. His first book of poetry, Wisdom of the Wall sold over 30,000 copies.
“With the loss of established Jewish media like The Canadian Jewish News, CJTV…
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OTTAWA — Members of Canada’s screen-based production community will be able to pose questions and submit recommendations to Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault in advance of a virtual town hall being held September 16.
The town hall is part of Heritage’s development of a post-pandemic recovery plan for the cultural industries, and attendees are asked to fill out a short survey to submit recommendations about actions the federal government can take to help revitalize Canada’s production sector in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. The survey also allows attendees to submit questions or comments ahead of the town hall. The…
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OTTAWA — The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) and the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec today launched a new content portal featuring multilingual audio-visual media created by community TV stations and media centres across Canada.
Anglophone users can access the Community Media Portal at ComMediaPortal.ca. Francophone users can access le Portail des Médias Communautaires at PortailMédias.ca. Content is being developed in both official languages as well as several Indigenous ones, says the news release.
Stories on the portal come from 17 communities across Canada, ranging from Schreiber on Lake Superior’s North Shore, to…
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OTTAWA — The final components of the federal government’s $500-million Covid-19 relief fund for the cultural and sports industries were announced Tuesday by Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault.
The cultural industry has been waiting on the announcement, which helps to address some of the gaps identified since the fund was first implemented. Phase one of the funding included $88.8 million for the Canada Media Fund and $27 million for Telefilm Canada. Some phase two components were announced in June, but they did not include additional details of funding for broadcasters and the audiovisual sector, for example.
With yesterday’s…
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