By Konrad von Finckenstein
THE BROADCAST AND Telecom Legislative Review panel’s lengthy report is divided into institutional recommendations, telecom recommendations, broadcasting recommendations and others.
It made 46 regarding the Broadcasting Act. Apart from the recommendations on the CBC about which I express no comment, some are well thought out and would improve the present system substantially. The extension of the Broadcasting Act to “electronic communications services” on the internet is the area of greatest concern.
The Panel recommended:
… the Telecommunications Act be amended to establish explicit jurisdiction over all persons and entities providing, or offering to provide, electronic…
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By Steve Faguy
TORONTO – In what it describes as “unprecedented times,” CBC has decided to cancel local English TV newscasts in all markets except CBC North, replacing them with broadcasts from CBC News Network.
In a memo to staff sent Wednesday signed by CBC executives Susan Marjetti (general manager of news, current affairs and local), Brodie Fenlon (editor-in-chief of CBC News) and Cathy Perry (executive director of current affairs, investigative and long-form journalism), CBC cites “fewer staff in the Toronto Broadcast Centre and much stricter newsgathering protocols” as the reason for the change, which will be temporary.
CBC North newscasts are…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications last week announced its keynote speakers for IIC Canada 2020, to be held April 20-21, at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa.
The big names are:
Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage
Monika Ille, president and CEO, APTN
Grace Koh, U.S. representative and head of delegation to the International Telecommunication Union World Radiocommunication Conference 2019
Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO, Quebecor
Ian Scott, CRTC chair
Catherine Tait, CBC president and CEO
Details of IIC Canada plenary sessions are also now available on the IIC Canada website. The session subjects…
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BANFF – The Banff World Media Festival announced Thursday Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage, will give a keynote address on Sunday, June 14, during the festival’s opening ceremonies.
“I am pleased to be taking part in my first Banff World Media Festival as Minister of Canadian Heritage,” said Guilbeault, in the press release. “The screen-based, music, interactive and production businesses that make up the creative industries ecosystem are essential to the Canadian economy. I am eager to share my vision for the future of creative industries in Canada with delegates and global leaders at this important B2B trading floor.”
We…
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OTTAWA — The Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO) published Tuesday updated guidelines for the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC) program.
These new guidelines take effect immediately and replace the previous CPTC guidelines issued on April 2, 2012.
The primary objectives of the update were to:
integrate information from CAVCO public notices issued since 2010
reflect amendments to the Income Tax Regulations in 2014 and 2016
make minor changes to administrative requirements
provide additional clarifications on CAVCO’s administration of program requirements
make wording changes, or reorder information, to improve the clarity and flow of the document
The updated CPTC guidelines…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – After hearing Janet Yale and Monique Simard from the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review panel on Monday, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage had the new Heritage Minister, Steven Guilbeault, in for a discussion about the contents of his mandate letter.
He appeared with Hélène Laurendeau, his deputy minister and Jean-Stéphen Piché, the Heritage Ministry’s senior assistant deputy minister for cultural affairs. Of course, some questions were on other subjects and there was some discussion about the BTLR/Yale Report.
First, the Minister said not once but twice that he would table legislation based on the…
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OTTAWA – Canadian Heritage took “positive” action to boost both official language communities when it agreed to a 2017 investment by Netflix that committed $500 million over five years in the country, which is all the law requires to fulfil its mandate, it said in new court documents.
Netflix has since said it has already spent more than $500 million in Canada, beating the five-year goal.
“The text of subsection 41 (2) provides a general obligation to take ‘positive’ action,” Heritage said in its defence. “It is an obligation to do something and not an obligation of precise result.” The department…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – We’re going to have to wait a little longer to learn more about the next steps in the legislative process following the publication of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review (BTLR) panel report.
In its first public meeting after the 2019 election, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage invited representatives of the panel to brief the committee members on its report, which is actually called Canada’s Communications Future: Time to Act, issued on January 29th. Many are also calling it the Yale report.
In its appearance at the committee today, the panel’s chair, Janet Yale and panel…
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OTTAWA — The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) identified a major omission in the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review panel report released at the end of January in that there was no mention of the community element in Canada’s broadcasting system.
While Recommendation 52 in the report (officially titled Canada’s Communications Future: Time to Act) maintains the existing definition of the Canadian broadcasting system as consisting of “public, private, and community elements”, there is no mention of the sector throughout the remaining 235 pages of the report, says CACTUS.
“Everyone acknowledges the crisis in local news and…
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To effectively regard the whole communications field through the broadcasting lens results in a distorted view
By Konrad von Finckenstein and James Mitchell
IN AN EFFORT TO PROVIDE a critical overview of the recent report by the Broadcast and Telecommunications Review Panel (the so-called Yale Report or BTLR Report), with particular focus on its ‘machinery’ recommendations (i.e., those having to do with institutional and ministerial mandates and powers), this analysis will highlight why the new-concept CRTC should be set aside.
What the panel recommended
The BTLR was asked, as part of its mandate, to comment on the institutional framework employed for the regulation…
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