By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – Netflix’s announcement last Thursday that it will open a Canadian office and, in the words Ted Sarandos (above), co-CEO and chief content officer, hire a “dedicated content executive to work directly with the Canadian creative community” is a “first good step,” federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told Cartt.ca in an interview on Friday.
His concern, though, is the “cozy relationship” the federal government appears to have with major digital platforms, including Netflix.
Singh referred to the “secret deal” between the California-based company and Ottawa in 2017 in which then-Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly provided little…
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By Doug Bingley
AS A RADIO BROADCASTER, I’ve seen governments and their policies to support Canadian culture come and go. The formation of the CRTC in 1968 ushered in an era where a key goal was to ensure Canadian artists and Canadian content creators receive the exposure they deserve.
Creating and supporting Canadian content remains an important part of the work I do today, through the three stations I own in Ontario. I am proud of the creative output of our talented staff; I see how important our stations have become to the communities we serve, and equally important, how we…
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But captures much of it anyway, and that’s a big problem
By Len St-Aubin
BILL C-10’s GOAL IS TO engage online streamers with Canadian creators in the production of Canadian stories for Canadian and global audiences. To do that, Bill C-10 proposes to modernize the Broadcasting Act by sweeping-in online (internet) audio and video.
The rationale is the impact of growing competition from unregulated internet audio and video on the regulated ‘broadcasting system’, as outlined in the report of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Policy Review (BTLR) Panel.
The first article in this series showed how Bill C-10 is problematic for Canadian broadcasting,…
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OTTAWA and MONTREAL — Canadian Heritage minister Steven Guilbeault announced in a tweet today the Short-Term Compensation Fund (STCF) for Canadian audiovisual productions has been extended until March 31, 2022 and it will now make up to $100 million in coverage available to the film and TV production industry.
This is a $50 million increase and the full release can be found here.
The STCF was launched in October 2020 as a temporary measure to minimize the consequences of the void created by the lack of insurance coverage for interruptions in filming and the shutdown of productions caused…
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GATINEAU — Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault hosted a videoconference on Tuesday with his foreign counterparts from Australia, Finland, France and Germany to discuss their shared priorities concerning the diversity of content available online and its importance in ensuring strong democratic societies.
Taking part on the video call were Paul Fletcher, Australian minister of communications, urban infrastructure, cities and the arts, Annika Saarikko, Finnish minister of science and culture, Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, French minister of culture, and Dr. Günter Winands, German deputy minister of state for culture and the media.
“The ministers discussed the importance of promoting a healthy online information…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – Bill C-10 and other forthcoming federal government legislation was top of mind for Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault on Monday when he participated in a question-and-answer session at the Canadian Media Producers Association’s (CMPA’s) first virtual Prime Time conference.
He explained that in promoting diversity under C-10, which received first reading in the House of Commons last November and would amend the Broadcasting Act, the government will among other things, in a policy directive to the CRTC, ask the regulatory body to “incentivize the role of racialized minorities and Indigenous people in key creative positions”…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Tabled on November 3, 2020, Bill C-10 finally reappeared in the House of Commons on February 5, 2021 in the House of Commons, for discussion on its second reading.
It ended on a motion by the Conservatives that “Bill C-10, be not now read a second time but that the order be discharged, the bill withdrawn and the subject matter thereof referred to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.” The amendment was not voted on.
Also on Friday, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (CHPC) held its second meeting on the bill to amend the Broadcasting Act….
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By Len St-Aubin
DEBATE ABOUT BILL C-10 thus far has focused on Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s goal to make big foreign online audio and video streamers, like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, YouTube and Spotify, contribute to the creation of Canadian content.
But Bill C-10’s scope is vast. It will impact broadcasting and the internet in Canada, and all Canadians
It’s a valid public policy goal to expect big foreign streamers which have significant market share and revenues in Canada to engage with Canadian creators in the production of Canadian stories for Canadian and global audiences. It’s a valid question whether amending the…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – When Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault tabled Bill C-10 in November 2020, his department issued a Q&A which stated: “As the independent regulator, the CRTC will determine whether and how broadcasting services with differing characteristics are required to contribute, and the form of these contributions.
“If the CRTC requires online broadcasters to contribute to Canadian content at a similar rate to traditional broadcasters, online broadcasters’ contributions to Canadian music and stories could amount to as much as $830 million per year by 2023.”
Members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (CHPC), during a meeting held on…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The 2021 Parliamentary season is back in full swing and the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage began to dig into a pair of important topics over the past few days
This session’s first two meetings, on Friday and Monday January 29 and February 1, dealt with “Relations Between Facebook and the Federal Government,” said the meeting notice – and Bill C-10, the amendments to the Broadcasting Act.
That first meeting was spurred by an email from Kevin Chan, global director and head of public policy, Facebook Canada, sent to the director general of broadcasting, copyright and creative…
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