WHO COULD BLAME CANADIAN lawyer Richard Warman for taking a shot with the CRTC last week? What would you do if someone used the web to threaten to kill you, or urge others to do it? Use as many tools as might be at your disposal to protect yourself, I should think.
As you may have read in a number of media reports over the past few days, an Virginia man, Bill White, has called for the Ottawa man’s death (and the death of all Jews, for that matter) and even posted his home address, too, in case someone…
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MONTREAL – Canadian communication policy has shifted. New media are no longer new. Convergence has come and gone and even come again. Policy makers are chipping away at facet after facet of the emerging networked mediascape.
But what role should Canadian communication researchers play in this policy environment? How can their work inform, influence, and shift the agendas of policymakers in Canadian jurisdictions? Should it at all? And just whose work is at issue, as a new generation of communications researchers, activists, and decision-makers begins to take its place in Canadian institutions?
Questions like these are a growing part…
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THE OVERFLOWING TOILET THAT was the endless stream of negative commentary last week on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was more than a little unseemly and ultimately, absolutely confusing to the average Canadian.
A letter to the editor last Thursday from Gerry Nicholls, vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, in just 107 words, perfectly illustrated the paradoxical critical firestorm of the last seven days when he criticized the Corp. both for trying a show that might produce big ratings and for producing shows "nobody wants to watch," he wrote.
Talk about sucking a blowing at the same time. His solution…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has awarded a controversial FM frequency to Aboriginal Voices Radio Inc. in Vancouver.
The group was awarded a licence in 2001 but was denied the use of 90.9 MHz because it “did not constitute the best possible use of that frequency,” the commission stated. AVR was asked to propose another frequency, and it asked to use 106.3 MHz.
However, many community members opposed it, saying it would interfere with the signal coming on 106.5 FM from KLYN in Lynden, Wa., which is receivable in the Vancouver area. KLYN is known as Praise 106.5 and is…
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BANFF – Canadian industry execs filling the halls at the Banff World Television Festival told Cartt.ca they welcome CRTC review of conventional television and the request from the Heritage Minister Beverley Oda to study the technological changes facing the broadcast industry.
“We want a little freedom,” says Phil Lind, vice-chairman, Rogers Communications.
“We have been shackled to death with regulation over the years, and we want to break out of that somehow. We’ve got to realize that people just don’t really understand all of these arcane rules and regulations that have been developed in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s,…
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TORONTO – Industry Canada and Heritage Canada will work together when it comes to telecom and media policy, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier said today.
Since many of those working in the telecom and cable side of the industry would like to see a more holistic approach to regulation, rather than maintaining two different silos of telecom and broadcast rules, Cartt.ca asked the Minister if he will be working with Heritage Minister Bev Oda on new combined policy directives for the CRTC, given her own new tasks she has set out for commissioners?
"Yes we are working very closely," said…
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MONTREAL – Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame announced this week it will hold the 2006 Telecom Laureate Awards on October 16, 2006 at The Carlu in Toronto.
The inaugural induction ceremony in October 2005 honoured nine important individuals who have contributed to the development of telecommunications in Canada, including Alexander Graham Bell, Reginald Fessenden, Terry Matthews and David Colville. The Laureate selection process is a transparent one, beginning with candidate nominations from the public at large and from professionals in the telecom industry.
Nominations are screened for eligibility by a Nominations Committee, this year chaired by Professor Hudson Janisch,…
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TORONTO – The TV-industry-created organization that was set up eight years ago to evangelize on high definition television and the transition to digital will shut down as of August 31, 2006.
The CDTV board decided at a recent meeting "that the work of CDTV as presently mandated is complete and we should wind up the Association effective the end of our fiscal year," said a note to members from CDTV president Michael McEwen.
However, www.cartt.ca was told by a source, it was the competing visions for HDTV in Canada that led to the group’s demise.
CDTV Members included Canadian…
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TORONTO – The Canadian Football League is consolidating its TV and film footage to help preserve its archives.
The CFL is working with TWI Archive, a division of IMG Media, to preserve the game’s heritage and better promote the league around the world. TWI Archive will produce Golden Moment Vignettes, highlight packages of the most memorable on-field moments, to be marketed globally.
“The Canadian Football League takes great pride in the fact that our game has produced some of the greatest moments in professional sport over the course of its rich history,” said Chris McCracken, CFL Senior Director, Broadcast…
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THIS TV POLICY REVIEW will not be an easy thing.
The new Conservative government certainly wants a say. The CBC’s TV licenses are up for renewal at the same time. Private broadcasters are demanding a fee for the carriage of their signals, a way to deal with distant signals, more ad time per hour and since the high definition conversion is under way and very expensive, maybe the right to abandon tower transmission. Televised dramatic programming is resurgent Stateside but there are few new Canadian-made dramas and not enough money in the current system to make enough of them….
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