OTTAWA – While the TV industry was hoping to hear about more help from the $500 million Covid crisis aid funding from Canadian Heritage when it announced phase two of the plan, the federal government only announced limited components today.
Phase one funds are already being doled out to CMF, Telefilm and sports organizations.
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault today announced $25.7 million in new funding for national museums (the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Canadian Museum of History, the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, the Canadian Museum of Nature, the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada…
Continue Reading
Including two that won’t cost a cent
By Greg O’Brien
CAL MILLAR DOESN’T want to kick the federal government while it is scrambling hard to keep Canadians healthy and our economy upright. However, broadcasters need more help and Millar and his fellow broadcasters have some ideas.
The president of Channel Zero (owners of CHCH, Rewind and Silver Screen Classics) is genuinely thankful for what the federal government has already done for broadcasters, and the country, in trying to manage an unprecedented health crisis that has decimated the economy while we all tried, and try, to do the right things to make sure…
Continue Reading
By Doug Barrett
HERITAGE MINISTER STEVEN Guilbeault’s appearance at the virtual Banff World Media Festival Tuesday morning was a bit of a revelation to me, and in a surprisingly good way.
We usually show up to these things expecting the three Ps: politics, platitudes and postponement – and certainly the various industry and media appearances of one of Mr. Guilbeault’s Liberal predecessors met all three of those tests, sometimes in the case of her appearance on Toute le Monde en Parle in 2017, famously so.
However, Guilbeault’s time Tuesday was, I almost hate to say it, refreshingly different.
Why?
First, he was well…
Continue Reading
By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – The next tranche of funding from the federal government’s $500-million emergency response fund for cultural, heritage and amateur sports organizations during the pandemic announced two months ago will be rolled out in the coming days, while legislation modernizing the Broadcasting Act will have to wait until Parliament resumes its normal sitting this fall, Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said on Tuesday during a Covid-19-prompted virtual edition of the Banff World Media Festival.
The deadline for applications for the first phase of funding concluded on June 12, and was targeted to organizations which have already received…
Continue Reading
TORONTO — The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) and broadcast partner CBC today announced the 2020 Juno Award winners will be revealed in a virtual presentation on Monday, June 29 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on the free CBC Gem streaming service and CBC Music’s website and social media pages.
This follows the cancellation of the 49th annual Juno Awards event, which was set to take place in Saskatoon in March, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The virtual presentation will feature a lineup of guest presenters and special performances, with the award winners announced across all…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The PGA Tour is back and Bell Media’s TSN and CTV2 will be showing a dozen tournaments this summer, beginning this weekend with the final rounds of the Charles Schwab Challenge, airing Saturday, June 13 and Sunday, June 14 on TSN and CTV2, from the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
As a part of this expanded coverage, RBC has partnered with TSN and CTV to sponsor the full season of PGA Tour coverage on both broadcast and digital platforms. French-language coverage is available on RDS.
With the Covid-19 pandemic altering golf’s schedule this summer, the sport’s major…
Continue Reading
$100 million backstop needed
By Greg O’Brien
OTTAWA – No matter what Canadian provinces and territories do to re-open the economy and get back to work, Canada’s independent film and TV producers won’t be mobilizing for one expensive reason.
“I have one word for you,” said Canadian Media Producers Association president and CEO Reynolds Mastin (above) in an interview, “insurance, insurance, insurance.”
Simply put, production companies can’t return to action without new agreements with their insurance companies over potential coronavirus impacts and so far, those companies “are not planning on extending Covid-19 insurance coverage in their new policies,” he said. “So, while we’ve…
Continue Reading
“We don’t fit their business model”
By Lynn Greiner
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES FACE UNIQUE challenges when it comes to establishing broadband connectivity. At Canada’s Rural and Remote Broadband virtual conference (CRRBC) on Monday, a panel of experts who are addressing those challenges talked about what they’re doing, the roadblocks they’re facing, and why they’re persevering.
Moderated by Kim Barrington, Rogers Communications’ director of operations, enterprise division and chairperson for the Rogers’ Indigenous Peoples’ Network, the panel included Sally Braun, general manager, Western James Bay Telecom Network, Lyle Fabian, president/owner, KatloTech Communications, Rob McMahon, associate professor of communication and technology, Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The Government of Canada announced Thursday it has appointed Sandra Mason and Bill Tam as part-time directors of CBC/Radio-Canada’s board of directors. Each will serve a five-year term.
Mason, from Toronto, is a CPA and former board director and audit committee chair at The Canadian Press, was also board chair and treasurer at Canadian Women in Communications and Technology and was also chief financial officer at The Globe and Mail from 2008 to 2015.
Tam is described in the government’s release as a lifelong entrepreneur and has been actively involved with technology and start-ups as a founder, executive, investor,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – On Friday, the Canada Media Fund announced the criteria for the administration and distribution of $88.8 million in new federal government support to television and interactive digital media production companies.
This is part of the $500 million the government is making available through the Covid-19 Emergency Support Fund for cultural, heritage and sport organizations to help mitigate the impact of the crisis on Canada’s production sector.
“We recognize the trust the government has placed in CMF to administer and distribute these much-needed funds in the most effective and expedient way possible. We hope businesses will benefit from these…
Continue Reading
