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…
Continue Reading
By Connie Thiessen
Canadian Heritage Min. Pablo Rodriguez has announced a newly-reconstituted independent advisory committee that will recommend candidates to serve on the CBC/Radio-Canada Board of Directors.
In a statement issued late Wednesday, Rodriguez said the government is committed to ensuring that the process is “independent, merit-based and results in the recommendation of high-quality candidates” as some current board members near the end of their mandate.
The new non-partisan body is tasked with conducting a selection process for Governor in Council appointments and providing Rodriguez with recommendations “of highly qualified candidates that respect gender parity and truly reflect Canada’s diversity,” according to the Canadian Heritage release.
The members…
Continue Reading
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The House Canadian Heritage committee yesterday unanimously adopted an NDP amendment to the Online News Act, bill C-18, that would give technology platforms an interim one-year exemption from negotiations with news organizations to host their articles until they can be granted a full five-year exemption.
The five-year moratorium on negotiations with news organizations was adopted in a committee hearing on Friday, and the committee was looking to define the limit on an interim exemption that exists in the current version of the bill.
So yesterday, the committee decided that the interim period should be limited to…
Continue Reading
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The Senate transport and communications committee today unanimously adopted an amendment introduced by Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne that will add a right to privacy clause in the proposed Online Streaming Act, which would empower the CRTC to further regulate digital entities.
“This approach would be similar to that taken in the Telecommunications Act,” federal privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne said when he appeared in front of the committee in September. “It would ensure that privacy is fully taken into account in the interpretation and application of the bill, both by the CRTC…
Continue Reading
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The House Heritage Committee on Friday unanimously adopted an NDP amendment to the Online News Act that will give big tech platforms immunity from negotiations with news platforms for a period of five years.
The proposed legislation, bill C-18, will force platforms like Facebook and Alphabet to negotiate payments to news organizations for linking to their articles on their websites. But the platforms have argued that having to negotiate with news organizations constantly, month after month, year after year is untenable.
So, an NDP amendment was introduced and passed unanimously Friday that would see a moratorium on…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The Senate Transportation and Communications Committee defeated five of six amendments introduced by a Conservative senator intended to define parameters in bill C-11, a proposed around proposed legislation that would allow the CRTC to further regulate online streaming platforms.
The bill, also known as the Online Streaming Act, went through a clause-by-clause process at committee on Wednesday.
Saskatchewan Conservative Senator Denise Batters introduced six amendments, five of which did not survive. The first was to amend the definition of community channel to use “language of their choice” rather than “language used in a…
Continue Reading
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – A Conservative amendment that would place monetary thresholds on which companies qualify for CRTC regulation under new legislation would allow those companies to skirt the rules, according to a Liberal MP Tuesday during a House Heritage committee hearing.
In its current form, Bill C-18, the Online News Act, would give the CRTC the ability to determine which companies must compensate news publishers to host on their platforms links to news articles.
But the Conservatives are proposing an amendment that would place limits on the application of this law by the…
Continue Reading
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA — The House of Commons Heritage Committee started considering amendments to Bill C-18, the Online News Act, today and dealt with only three amendments during the two-hour session.
Although they seem to have agreed not to filibuster, the Conservatives clearly used delay tactics that had the effect of angering Liberal and NDP members alike.
This became obvious once the committee took 20 minutes to deal with administrative issues that could have been avoided.
Given the text of the amendments and even the number of amendments are deemed confidential, it is difficult at this stage know how many there are,…
Continue Reading
BPF reviewing whether it will continue awarding funding to CMAC moving forward
OTTAWA – A month and a half after the federal government announced it was cutting funding it awarded to the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC), the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage is trying to figure out why the organization received the funding – to develop an anti-racism strategy – in the first place.
Funding was cut to CMAC’s project after numerous concerns were expressed about antisemitic and other racist tweets posted by Laith Marouf, a senior consultant with the organization.
At a meeting last Friday, committee members, who argued CMAC…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) is expecting Canadian news businesses will receive around $329.2 million per year in total compensation from digital platforms if Bill C-18, the Online News Act, is implemented, according to a cost estimate report for the bill released yesterday.
For context, the heritage committee was told last month the Australian news media bargaining code is currently generating over $200 million for news businesses from digital platforms.
In Canada, the PBO estimates the revenue generated from digital platforms will equal around 30% of the costs of content creation for news organizations. “For broadcasters, the cost of content…
Continue Reading
