THE LOCKOUT AT THE CBC is entering its fifth week because no one in senior management is directly responsible or accountable for their actions.
Consider this: CBC president Robert Rabinovitch approved the plan to lockout 5,500 people as a way to force extreme concessions – namely a staff structure with far more reliance on temporary work.
Based on the emails to Rabinovitch that are copied to me and based on general media coverage, I don’t think this approach is resonating with Canadians, even the most conservative of them. But who exactly can redirect Rabinovitch?
There’s the rub. The CBC’s…
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TORONTO – Reports swirling around all weekend long after the Liberals’ cabinet retreat in Regina suggest that Heritage Minister Liza Frulla is hoping to get her fellow cabinet ministers on-side to ask the CRTC to review or rescind its June 16th decision to license a pair of satellite radio companies.
Both companies are taking the reports seriously, executives told www.cartt.ca on Monday. Cabinet has until September 14th to decide what it may do.
“From the outset Madame Frulla has been worried about the overall number of French stations. No surprise,” said SIRIUS Canada president Kevin Shea. “In fairness, she…
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OTTAWA – Some of the greatest achievements over the long and illustrious history of the Canadian telecommunications industry will be honoured and celebrated on October 17th, 2005 at the inaugural ceremonies of Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame.
Organizers of the gala event announced this week that Canada’s telecommunications industry will pay homage to eight of its pioneers and leaders at the inaugural laureate induction ceremonies and gala dinner to be staged on Monday, October 17, 2005 in Room 107 of Constitution Hall at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre North Building.
Laureates will be inducted in four categories: Inventors and…
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TORONTO – Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club found Mark Breslin was unveiled today as the programming director of Canadian Satellite Radio’s proposed Laugh Canada channel.
Pending CRTC licensing, which is said to be coming in the spring, CSR plans to broadcast Canada’s “undiscovered comic talent as well as our rich comedic heritage to a North America-wide audience on the Laugh Canada channel – the first-ever dedicated radio comedy outlet in Canadian broadcast history,” says the release.
"Mark has been the industry leader in Canada’s comedy scene since its inception – it seems fitting for him to take the leading role…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC’s vice president of broadcasting said Wednesday that some of the base contribution money collected from online streamers, which is to be delivered to Canadian content funds, has already been released, despite a court-ordered stay of that policy.
Scott Shortliffe told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, in a briefing about the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, that the streamers’ money from the previous broadcast year – which ended on August 31 – has been collected by an independent company and that some of the money has already been delivered.
“We understand that the money has been…
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Indigenous broadcaster APTN, public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) announced last week they are once again partnering to produce Remembering the Children: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the annual national commemorative gathering in Ottawa.
Supported by Canadian Heritage, the 90-minute live event Remembering the Children “will share the powerful truths of residential school Survivors and pay moving tribute to the children who never made it home,” says a CBC press release.
Hosted by Earl Wood and Melissa Mollen Dupuis, the multilingual commemorative event will encompass…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC is expanding eligibility for the independent news fund by including Corus’s 15 Global stations into the fold.
Because Corus is a large media company vis-à-vis other eligible services – and would likely receive the majority of the funding – the CRTC said it is also instituting a funding cap of 45 per cent to any one entity to ensure the other recipients of the Independent Local News Fund (ILNF) are not adversely affected by its inclusion.
“The Commission notes that Corus plays an important role in producing and broadcasting locally reflective and locally relevant news and information…
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Quebecor Media subsidiary TVA Group announced Wednesday several layoffs, primarily in its television division, as the broadcaster faces an uncertain future due to ongoing financial challenges, the Montreal-based company said.
“TVA Group, like other private broadcasters, is operating in a steadily deteriorating business environment and continues to absorb substantial financial losses while competing on an uneven playing field,” Quebecor President and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau, who is the acting president and CEO of TVA Group, said in a press release.
“In this alarming situation, TVA Group is forced to cut some 30 jobs,…
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By Connie Thiessen
CBC/Radio-Canada’s board of directors has announced it’s discontinuing executive performance bonuses, following an independent review.
The executive bonus structure, known as the Short-Term Incentive Plan, sparked outrage in late 2023 when the Canadian Taxpayers Federation released data indicating that in 2022, the CBC paid out more than $16 million in bonuses in the face of a looming $125 million budget shortfall. Catherine Tait, then president of the public broadcaster, went on to defend the bonus structure before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage saying that “like every other Crown Corporation” performance pay was a key part of the…
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Newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new cabinet was sworn in Tuesday morning in Rideau Hall, with Mélanie Joly becoming Minister of Industry and Steven Guilbeault staying in his role as Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity.
A one-time Minister of Canadian Heritage from Nov. 2015 to July 2018 in former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first cabinet, Joly most recently served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under both Carney and Trudeau. In addition to her new industry minister role, Joly is also Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions. Her new appointment…
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