More delay, indecision, will force a choice upon us
By Brad Danks
IT’S TIME FOR THE GOVERNMENT to take action to re-structure Canada’s broadcasting system. The Yale Report provides a series of strong recommendations – many of which, in my opinion, could be applied by the CRTC without requiring changes to the Broadcasting Act.
There is very little difference between the regulations applied in the current broadcasting system and those needed for the digital platforms. Certainly, the core issues around access, marketing and basic commercial terms are the same. The primary difference is the new platforms are very large, foreign (mostly U.S.)…
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OTTAWA – While the TV industry was hoping to hear about more help from the $500 million Covid crisis aid funding from Canadian Heritage when it announced phase two of the plan, the federal government only announced limited components today.
Phase one funds are already being doled out to CMF, Telefilm and sports organizations.
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault today announced $25.7 million in new funding for national museums (the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Canadian Museum of History, the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, the Canadian Museum of Nature, the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada…
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$500 million total to ease pressures on culture and amateur sport
OTTAWA – The Canadian government today released details of its previously announced $500 million fund to help the cultural and sports industries weather the Covid-19 crisis.
Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault, today said partner organizations will be contacted so that funds can begin to flow. “Canadian Heritage is working closely with its partners – in particular, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canada Media Fund, FACTOR, Musicaction, and Telefilm Canada – to distribute the funds as quickly as possible using existing channels,” reads the release.
The distribution of funding…
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BANFF – The Banff World Media Festival announced Thursday Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage, will give a keynote address on Sunday, June 14, during the festival’s opening ceremonies.
“I am pleased to be taking part in my first Banff World Media Festival as Minister of Canadian Heritage,” said Guilbeault, in the press release. “The screen-based, music, interactive and production businesses that make up the creative industries ecosystem are essential to the Canadian economy. I am eager to share my vision for the future of creative industries in Canada with delegates and global leaders at this important B2B trading floor.”
We…
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OTTAWA — The Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO) published Tuesday updated guidelines for the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC) program.
These new guidelines take effect immediately and replace the previous CPTC guidelines issued on April 2, 2012.
The primary objectives of the update were to:
integrate information from CAVCO public notices issued since 2010
reflect amendments to the Income Tax Regulations in 2014 and 2016
make minor changes to administrative requirements
provide additional clarifications on CAVCO’s administration of program requirements
make wording changes, or reorder information, to improve the clarity and flow of the document
The updated CPTC guidelines…
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OTTAWA – Canadian Heritage took “positive” action to boost both official language communities when it agreed to a 2017 investment by Netflix that committed $500 million over five years in the country, which is all the law requires to fulfil its mandate, it said in new court documents.
Netflix has since said it has already spent more than $500 million in Canada, beating the five-year goal.
“The text of subsection 41 (2) provides a general obligation to take ‘positive’ action,” Heritage said in its defence. “It is an obligation to do something and not an obligation of precise result.” The department…
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By Lenore Gibson
ON WEDNESDAY, THE BROADCASTING and Telecom Legislative Review panel will deliver its long-awaited final report. Canada’s private broadcasters await that report with interest. The panel’s recommendations will set the stage for new legislation, which the government has promised to introduce by the end of 2020.
As many private broadcasters expressed to the panel, the stakes of this process are monumental. Change is needed more than ever with the arrival of new foreign streaming services in Canada. Canadian broadcasting policy was developed for a closed system. It never contemplated that massive foreign platforms would enter the market “over the…
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OTTAWA – The Department of Canadian Heritage is asking a select group of consultants to submit bids for a research contract that will do a deep dive into how the CBC impacts the country.
The contract will “assess the social, cultural and economic impacts of CBC/Radio-Canada on the Canadian media and production sectors, and on Canadian audiences more generally,” a Heritage spokesperson confirmed to Cartt.ca.
“This research is part of the department’s ongoing work to ensure our policies and programs keep pace with societal and technological changes,” the spokesperson added. “Other countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia, have conducted similar…
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MONTREAL – Francois Choquette (above), the former NDP MP who sued Canadian Heritage and the Official Languages commissioner over the Liberal government’s 2017 $500 million Netflix deal, said he has been pursuing his legal action as a private citizen.
“I’m taking this case as a private citizen since the beginning,” the former Official Languages critic for the party told Cartt.ca on Tuesday. “Nobody has funded me, I’m doing it on my own and I’m representing myself.”
That appears to run counter to a press release on the NDP website from April — when the legal challenge was filed and when…
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OTTAWA — The CMPA’s Prime Time 2020 conference at the end of the month will kick off with an opening keynote by Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault, it was announced Monday.
Guilbeault will be joined on stage by CMPA president and CEO Reynolds Mastin for a discussion about the current state of the screen-based industries and Minister Guilbeault’s vision for the future of Canadian content creation. The fireside chat with Minister Guilbeault will take place on the morning of Thursday, January 30.
“We are honoured to welcome Minister Guilbeault to Prime Time at this inflection point for the Canadian screen-based…
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