OTTAWA – Canadian Heritage announced late last month the appointment of two members to the National Film Board.
Ana Serrano of Toronto and Victoria Wing Chi Chan of Merritt, British Columbia, have been appointed for a term of three years, the latter on a part-time basis.
Serrano is the president and vice chancellor of OCAD University, an art and design, practice and research institution. She is also a managing director at the Canadian Film Centre. A Cartt search of Chan did not yield much information.
The board was created in 1939 as an agency of Heritage to create, produce and distribute audiovisual…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – As bill C-11 faces a final vote in the House of Commons this week, “it’s unclear as to how it will work in practice” and whether streaming giants will be able to “simply repurpose” already made Canadian programming to qualify as Canadian content and how they would pay their fair share toward broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs) that require private broadcasters to make a contribution of at least 5% of their broadcast revenues to CanCon and production, according to CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Catherine Tait.
The Senate’s passing of the Online Streaming Act last week was…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – As bill C-11 sat on the doorstep of passing third and final reading in the Senate, Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez – who introduced the Online Streaming Act a year ago to the day on Feb. 2, 2022 – told a packed audience at the Canadian Media Producers Association’s annual Prime Time conference in Ottawa on Thursday that he expected the bill could return with amendments to the House of Commons, where it passed last June and which could become law by next week.
Should that happen, Rodriguez said it…
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By Connie Thiessen
English-language film and television production remains at an all-time low in Quebec, according to a new report published by the Quebec English Language Production Council (QEPC).
The Canadian Audiovisual Regional Production Report 1996-97 to 2019-20 shows that English-language Canadian content production in Quebec was equal to $166 million in 2019-20, an all-time low of just 7% of the $2.3 billion in total English-language Canadian content production. That number was consistent in three of five years prior to 2019-20, down from a record high of 26% in 1997-98.
Co-authored by Nordicity, the report offers a glimpse into how film and television production in Canada’s official languages…
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OTTAWA — Bram Abramson is the CRTC’s next commissioner representing Ontario, Canadian Heritage announced today.
The lawyer with over 20 years of experience in the communications and technology industries will complete the nine-person commission when he takes his position on February 15 for a five-year term. The vacancy was created by the exit of Monique Lafontaine.
“Bram Abramson’s extensive experience in law and telecommunications will be a great asset in his role as CRTC Ontario Regional Commissioner,” Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said in a press release. “The CRTC’s regional commissioners ensure that the tribunal’s scope encompasses the entire country, thereby enabling…
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By Douglas Barrett, featured above, adjunct professor in the arts, media and entertainment MBA program at the Schulich School of Business at York University.
This is the fifth piece I have written for Cartt.ca on the definition of a Canadian Program (the previous pieces are listed below) and I want to focus this one on the 10-point content scale used by both CAVCO and the CRTC in determining whether to certify a program. As this measurement metric is now decades old, and as the world of production has completely changed multiple times in that period, it is almost universally assumed…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Just over three months since the CRTC put in place guidance for its mandated mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) regime, the new chair wants providers to let the commission know about the status of negotiations.
“I would like to know where those negotiations are,” Vicky Eatrides, who took on the job just over two weeks ago, told Cartt as part of her rotation of media interviews on Friday. “We are going to follow up soon to figure out where those negotiations are between the larger players and the regional providers.”
The CRTC, under previous chair Ian Scott,…
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TORONTO – Corus Entertainment announced today it suffered losses in revenue and profit for its fiscal first quarter due in part to advertisers shying away as a result of the pandemic and supply chain issues.
But despite the concern, executives at the pure-play media company said on a conference call this morning they are optimistic about a future of stabilized advertising revenue as more of that supply moves from social media to trusted linear television products. They also expressed optimism about “regulatory change…on the horizon” as a new-look CRTC with new responsibilities means bringing wealthy competitive foreign streamers more under…
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GATINEAU – Canadian Heritage announced today that more than $1.2 million will go toward 16 research projects intended to “counter and educate about online harms, misinformation, and disinformation.”
The projects will “evaluate the efficacy of efforts by platforms to counter disinformation and other online harms, understand the role of non-news and alternative media sources of disinformation, or identify the behavioural and psychological underpinnings of the spread of disinformation and other harmful content in the Canadian context,” the press release said.
The projects were selected following an annual call for proposals launched in July by the Digital Citizen Contribution Program (DCCP), a…
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With nearly three decades of communications policy and regulatory experience under his belt, Ian Scott has quite a bit to say as he leaves his CRTC leadership post today. Listen in as Scott asserts his “vision” for the commission and what it truly means to serve the public interest.
Scott doesn’t hold back on accomplishments, such as narrowing the digital divide, consensus building, and the biggest challenges faced on the Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications fronts since 2017.
Scott, never a media-hound, is blunt and frank when addressing criticisms of his tenure. This is a no-holds-barred conversation that includes a few personal…
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