OTTAWA – NDP Official Languages Critic François Choquette wants Canadian Heritage to prove that its $500 million production agreement with Netflix will include the production of French-language content.
Choquette says that the agreement, which promised to produce original Canadian content in both official languages, committed only 5% through a $25 million envelope to French-language content but without any guarantee that content will actually be produced. And that, the Quebec MP maintains, runs counter to the Official Languages Act.
"Where is the equality among Canada's official languages in this case? This is a real shame in a country where 22% of the population’s…
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Shortliffe to become ED, broadcasting
GATINEAU – CRTC chair Ian Scott announced today it has filled a newly created position with Scott Hutton, who will leave his long-time post as executive director, broadcasting, to become the Commission’s new chief of consumer, research and communications.
Hutton “brings to the role 27 years of experience at the CRTC and has extensive experience in both the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors. He is a seasoned expert of the communications industry and the regulatory environment,” reads the chair’s memo.
“Scott will lead the CRTC’s work as we engage in a conversation with Canadians, key stakeholders and industry…
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CEO says he feels alone fighting for our culture
IT WAS A PIERRE KARL PÉLADEAU in fine form with whom we had a phone conversation on Tuesday after a speech he gave at the Montreal Council on Foreign Relation. That speech was part of public relations campaign he is leading on the future of the Canadian broadcasting system.
This time the Quebecor CEO is attacking Netflix, the specialty channel affiliation regime, the CRTC, the CBC, Bell and the apathy he feels from so many. While the system is crumbling nobody is being spared, and not enough Canadians…
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TORONTO – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) is adding new programs and tweaking others to keep pace with market developments, it said Friday while laying out its $353 million program budget for 2019-2020.
The CMF said that the changes to its program guidelines include revisions to its Convergent Stream and Experimental Stream, which were influenced by policy direction from the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Creative Canada Policy Framework as well as feedback received from stakeholders during its consultation.
“The CMF is aware of the impact program changes have on the industry and strives to offer some stability in the…
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Our specialty channels are in danger
TVA GROUP’S SPECIALTY CHANNELS, which include amongst others TVA Sports, LCN, addikTV and CASA, are enormously popular with Québec television viewers. We are proud to carry content made by Quebecers for Quebecers, shows that reflect their tastes and expectations. However, as everywhere in the world, the digital revolution and globalization have disrupted an already precarious business model that also suffers from patently unequal treatment of industry players under increasingly obsolete regulations. Today, the survival of our channels is at risk.
All specialty channels depend on subscription revenues from the cable and satellite carriers (such as…
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CALGARY – The Shaw Rocket Fund is celebrating 20 years of fuelling high-quality, Canadian-made media.
Since 1999, Shaw Rocket Fund has invested more than $220 million in 865 audio-visual programs and associated digital media content for children, youth and families. It supports creative programming in both of Canada's official languages, as well as Indigenous and various languages, on all platforms that air Canadian children's and youth programming.
When it was first established, the Fund provided top-up equity funding for Canadian children's television programs based on investment applications from the independent production sector. In 2004, it shifted its approach and became a…
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TORONTO – Bell Fibe TV subscribers may now tune in for a taste of the tropics with the launch of One Caribbean Television, a destination channel devoted to all things Caribbean.
One Caribbean Television offers daily news, weather, sports and entertainment programming about the Caribbean and its people, plus boasts the most Caribbean carnival coverage anywhere.
The service is available now in free preview on Bell Fibe’s channel 2481 until early April.
“We are excited about accomplishing our goal to bring One Caribbean Television to the millions of Canadians who are connected to the Caribbean through culture, heritage or travel,” said network GM…
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OTTAWA-Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s first appearance at the annual Canadian Media Producers Association Prime Time national conference in the capital last Thursday was short – lasting 17 minutes – and sweet, based on the effusive reception that greeted the Argentinian-born, guitar-playing Liberal cabinet minister.
“What I’ve noticed in the past few months since your appointment is what I’ve been calling Rodriguez-mania,” the CMPA’s affable president and CEO, Reynolds Mastin, said of his special guest prior to beginning a friendly question-and-answer session with Rodriguez. “You just effortlessly relate to people, and people open up to you…
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OTTAWA – Four sessions from the Canadian Media Producers Association’s Prime Time in Ottawa conference this week will be available for livestream.
No advanced registration is required, just click on the links available here when the events begin as follows:
– Opening address by CMPA president and CEO Reynolds Mastin: January 31 at 9:00 AM ET;
– Beyond Disruption: Crafting a Framework for the Future of the Industry: January 31 at 9:15 AM ET;
– Keynote: The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism: January 31 at 12:35 PM ET;
– The Battle for Talent: Overcoming Scarcity to Build a Winning Team: January…
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THE START OF GOOGLE’S submission to the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review panel may be just be a boilerplate presentation of what they do (“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”), but when it gets to the subject at hand, boing!
The digital giant’s submission calls out the discrepancy between the Creative Canada Policy Framework (former Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly’s pet project) and the policy objectives in Broadcasting Act (the Principles).
“Most of the policy objectives articulated in the Broadcasting Act are primarily focussed on cultural policy, namely the protection and preservation of…
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