By Catherine Edwards
IN THE LEAD UP TO the Broadcasting Act review, Canada’s five associations representing the community element (two TV, three radio) were dismayed the Creative Canada Policy Framework, the Shattered Mirror, and the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review reports barely mention community broadcasting, despite it being one of the three pillars of the system.
This omission was significant. The community element is uniquely positioned to address the most pressing issues that face our broadcasting system:
the lack of local programming outside major population centres
the lack of programming made by and for minorities, especially Indigenous communities
…
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By Doug Barrett
WHEN BILL C-10 WAS TABLED last November, it didn’t take long to notice that the first section in the Broadcasting Policy for Canada (“the Canadian broadcasting system shall be effectively owned and controlled by Canadians”) had been deleted.
Not modified or amended, but completely deleted.
Since that time, the bill has been debated in Parliament and wended its way through the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage – which has now heard comments from lobby groups, sages, elders, and experts and will soon be considering its own amendments. Many of those appearing before the Committee (including independent broadcasters, producers, associations,…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Government agencies normally say as little as possible when facing a committee of politicians, even when queries from the elected folks repeatedly demand personal opinions. On Friday, however, while appearing in front of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, which is studying Bill C-10, which will amend the Broadcasting Act, the chair of the CRTC tried to reassure the MPs the CRTC is up to the task of writing new regs – and offered a few good nuggets of wisdom.
When Conservative member and former sportscaster Kevin Waugh commented, “Actually today, you have the authority to…
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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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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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MONTREAL — Following the Department of Canadian Heritage’s announcement last month that the Short-Term Compensation Fund (STCF) for Canadian audiovisual productions is being extended until March 2022, Telefilm Canada today announced the new opening date for applications is March 4, 2021 for coverage starting on or after April 1, 2021.
“Producers who have already applied to the STCF for a project that begins shooting before March 31, 2021 and extends beyond that date must reapply for the portion that takes place after March 31, 2021,” reads Telefilm’s industry advisory. “This measure has been put in place to allow all…
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Real battles will come in front of the CRTC
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – It was likely not done by design, but the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage could not have lined a more diverse set of individuals and groups as it did on its Friday, February 26 meeting to talk about Bill C-10, the bill to amend the Broadcasting Act.
Author and former CBC English services chief Richard Stursberg, Corus Entertainment, SOCAN, Rogers Communications, Netflix and two community television association groups.
Most, even including Netflix, support Bill C-10 and wish for speedy adoption (the real battles will come in front of the…
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OTTAWA – On Monday, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage continued its study of Bill C-10, which would amend the Broadcasting Act, and heard from representatives of the Canadian Media Production Association, Reynolds Mastin, president and CEO, Erin Haskett, chair of the board and Damon D’Oliveira, vice-chair.
CMPA began by endorsing the bill, but with needed changes. “(1) empowering the CRTC to ensure fair deals between streaming services or broadcasters with independent producers through codes of practice; and (2) ensuring that Canadians continue to own Canadian content,” Haskett said.
The CMPA has proposed codes of practices or terms of trade to…
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