OTTAWA — CACTUS (the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations) announced late Monday it has been chosen by the Department of Canadian Heritage to administer funding for community TV under phases two and three of the Covid-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations.
Licensed community television stations as well as unlicensed not-for-profit community-managed corporations which support community members in producing and distributing community television programming are eligible for funding, says the CACTUS blog post.
Applicants for the Covid-19 relief funding being administered by CACTUS must demonstrate they:
are eligible community television organizations as defined above;
…
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TORONTO – Hosted by Canadian poet Ieden Wall (above), Canada’s newest late-night talk show, Canadian Jewish TV, kicks off Thursday October 1st at 11:30 p.m. on Rogers Communications’ multicultural broadcaster OMNI 1.
The show will feature interviews and performances from some of Canada’s most notable Jewish figures, and in keeping with Wall’s background, CJTV will also feature a spoken-word short-film series based on new poems from Wall’s upcoming book, The Wisdom of the Wall 2. His first book of poetry, Wisdom of the Wall sold over 30,000 copies.
“With the loss of established Jewish media like The Canadian Jewish News, CJTV…
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OTTAWA – Last week, Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault made it pretty clear, with two tweets, where the government stands when it comes to making the digital giants contribute to culture here.
In the first, he tweeted a Reuters story published by the Globe and Mail which detailed the ongoing skirmish between the government of Australia and Facebook, saying “We remain committed towards ensuring a comprehensive, more equitable digital regulatory framework here in Canada. That includes making sure that Canadian news organizations continue to inform and empower our communities.”
Minister Guilbeault then followed that up with a clarifier,…
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OTTAWA — Members of Canada’s screen-based production community will be able to pose questions and submit recommendations to Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault in advance of a virtual town hall being held September 16.
The town hall is part of Heritage’s development of a post-pandemic recovery plan for the cultural industries, and attendees are asked to fill out a short survey to submit recommendations about actions the federal government can take to help revitalize Canada’s production sector in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. The survey also allows attendees to submit questions or comments ahead of the town hall. The…
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By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Quebecor has cut funding for MAtv, Videotron’s community channel in Montreal, by 45%, prompting an anglophone member of its advisory committee to resign in protest.
Fortner Anderson, a local artist, said he can “no longer in good conscience” remain on the committee because the latest cuts “will substantially alter and reduce the benefits MAtv provides to the English language community of Montreal, and because they will diminish the vitality of that community.”
The 45% cut is the result of Quebecor’s decision to take advantage of an allowance the CRTC gave large vertically-integrated companies in 2016. As part…
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Pandemic has accelerated structural decline and ideas abound, but government has not responded
OTTAWA — The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) today released an economic study by media economist Communications Management Inc. (CMI) which projects the possible closure of up to 40 local TV stations and 200 radio stations within the next three years.
According to CMI’s The Crisis in Canadian Media and the Future of Local Broadcasting report, within four to six months up to 50 radio stations could close, with an additional 100-150 radio stations possibly shutting down during the next six to 18 months. In addition, CMI…
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OTTAWA — The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) and the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec today launched a new content portal featuring multilingual audio-visual media created by community TV stations and media centres across Canada.
Anglophone users can access the Community Media Portal at ComMediaPortal.ca. Francophone users can access le Portail des Médias Communautaires at PortailMédias.ca. Content is being developed in both official languages as well as several Indigenous ones, says the news release.
Stories on the portal come from 17 communities across Canada, ranging from Schreiber on Lake Superior’s North Shore, to…
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CAB says up to 50 radio stations may close
By Denis Carmel
TO NO ONE’S SURPRISE, Covid-19 has taken a grim toll on Canadian broadcasters. In that context, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, acting on behalf of its members, sent an emergency application to the CRTC on July 13th seeking temporary relief from several regulatory obligations.
The Commission has not yet responded, despite the letter’s expressed desire to see action taken prior to the first week of August. The letter was sent to Cartt.ca on Friday (August 21) morning. The CAB’s membership includes all big broadcasters and a large number of smaller…
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THE BROADCAST AND Telecommunications Review panel report (a.k.a. the Yale Report) has been lauded as needed, overdue and visionary, as well as decried as a dangerous, unnecessary overreach.
There have been many who find middle ground, too, but you get the picture. Some people love it (or parts of it) while some hate it (or parts of it).
The chair of the panel, Janet Yale (pictured), believes a number of the report’s 97 recommendations are simply misunderstood, which has resulted in some unfortunate assumptions which then also turned into headlines.
Examples? The report does not want to regulate…
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Xenophile may leave Ontario for B.C.
By Ahmad Hathout
PATRICK CROWE HAS sent a series of panicked letters to the digital media industry, colleagues and to Ontario’s Finance Minister Rod Phillips.
The president of Xenophile Media, an award-winning digital media and game studio in Toronto, has a serious problem: His company’s operations have stalled since 2016, he’s over half a million dollars in debt, he owes about $100,000 to his company’s contractors, and his home is about to be liquidated.
Crowe (pictured above) and Xenophile are preparing to move to British Columbia if Ontario does not apply tax credits under the Ontario Interactive…
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