By Steve Faguy
IT WAS SUPPOSED to be to FM radio what FM was to AM: Better audio quality, a way to expand to more channels, and a future replacement with some cool bells and whistles.
In the 1990s, Canada’s radio broadcasters spent millions of dollars on new transmitters and devoted a lot of airtime to marketing the new technology: DAB, or digital audio broadcasting.
“The radio industry is primed to reinvent itself for the digital age and 1997 will be the first year of the revolution,” read a 1996 article from the Vancouver Sun. “Within a generation, AM and FM radio…
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“French to follow”
By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – This what you could read in an indignant tweet from the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française (FCCF) when the group saw the CBC had filed its final reply to the CRTC in English only. And they added facetiously that they will stop “following” the public broadcaster.
This is the culmination of CBC’s licences renewal process that lasted way too long, but we should have a decision before the end of the licence extension, on August 31, 2021. The initial renewal application by the CBC was filed with the CRTC on August 23, 2019.
That tweet…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage met for the eighth time to hear witnesses’ testimonies on Bill C-10, the Act to amend the Broadcasting Act, on Monday. We’ve pretty much got a bead on who’s thinking what, now.
We heard again from Friends of Canadian Broadcasting (Friends) whose question time had been taken up by committee business and the Fedération National des Communications which could not appear in a previous meeting due to technical problems.
They were joined by BCE, Unifor, and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). Shaw had been slotted to…
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By Jay Thomson
THE CCSA WAS FORMED in the early 1990s, around the same time as the current Broadcasting Act came into force. Like the Act back then, our members at the time did not contemplate the growth in size and influence of the “foreign digital giants”.
But also like the Act back then, our members did not contemplate the massive consolidation that would take place in the Canadian broadcasting industry.
Neither the Act nor our members contemplated that just three domestic companies – Bell, Rogers and Quebecor – would come to dominate Canada’s communications marketplace; that, through ownership of most of…
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By Steve Faguy
AS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT argues big tech giants are threatening traditional media, its annual report on advertising shows it’s buying more than four times as much in advertising from Facebook and Google alone than from the entire Canadian radio industry. And that’s despite a boost given during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
For the fiscal year 2019-20, which ended as the pandemic was only two weeks old, the government spent $24.7 million on digital advertising, representing 55% of its advertising total for the year. Of that, $5.85 million went to Facebook (including ads on Instagram), $4.3…
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OTTAWA – The next meeting of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, which is studying Bill C-10, the bill to amend the Broadcasting Act, will be held Monday with the following witnesses: Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, BCE, Fédération nationale des communications et de la culture, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and Unifor.
Shaw Communications had been scheduled to appear, too, but cancelled.
The Committee, in its meeting on committee business of March 8, agreed to ask the CRTC to appear, on March 26, and be given 10 minutes for their opening statements (this is more time than…
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Bill C-10 and Canadian ownership rules
By Len St-Aubin
BILL C-10 WOULD REMOVE from the Broadcasting Act the requirement that “the Canadian broadcasting system shall be effectively owned and controlled by Canadians”.
Would that change lead to foreign ownership of Canadian broadcasters? Answer: No.
But it’s the wrong question to ask. The better questions, so far left unasked, are:
Would Bill C-10 make it easier to remove Canadian ownership rules? Answer: Yes.
Would Bill C-10 drive broadcasters to seek removal of Canadian ownership rules? Answer: Yes, and C-10 would make it tough for the government to refuse.
Would that impact Canadian ownership in…
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Minister makes draft policy directive public
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In a somewhat surprising move, the Heritage Ministry on Thursday decided to share the draft policy directive to the CRTC which is to be delivered to the Regulator once the bill aimed at updating the Broadcasting Act is passed.
The draft direction (as in, not final) was supposed to provide more clarity into what the government expects from the CRTC after the passage of C-10, a bill to modernize the Broadcasting Act. But, to be honest, there isn’t much direction in the directive which hasn’t already been examined during our reportage…
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By Greg O’Brien
THE PRIOR ITERATIONS OF our Broadcasting Act are carefully written, specific, documents.
The first, passed in 1968, was an Act meant to, among other things, “safeguard, enrich and strengthen the nation of Canada from sea to sea,” as quoted in the History of Canadian Broadcasting. That version of the Act also established the CRTC, empowering it with the responsibility to make sure the system stays under Canadian ownership and control.
American companies who had ownership positions in our broadcasters and then-nascent cable companies were forced to divest (down to a maximum of 20% ownership, but many left completely)….
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Two top bureaucrats retiring at Canadian Heritage
By Denis Carmel
NO, BILL C-10 WON’T lead to the sale of Canadian broadcasters to foreign interests, Department of Canadian Heritage officials told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage Monday morning.
The bill, as proposed, contemplates the removal of the portion of the Broadcasting Act which says companies in the system must be majority Canadian-owned and -controlled, which has raised opposition from some quarters. When asked Monday during the committee meeting into C-10, the bill which would amend the Act, by Edmonton-Strathcona MP Heather McPherson if this means Canadian broadcasters could be sold off to…
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