TORONTO – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has set its 2018-2019 program budget at $352 million, up $2.3 million from last fiscal year due in part to a “stable contribution” from the federal government announced last month in Budget 2018.
The CMF program budget is supported by revenue estimates for the coming year based on ongoing and new contributions from the Government of Canada; Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors; and recoupment and repayment revenues from funded productions. This year’s budget reflects the Feds’ contribution with the addition of a top-up of up to $15M to offset declining contributions…
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And what about the Radiocom Act?
THE 2017 BUDGET ANNOUNCED the following legislative review.
“To ensure that Canadians continue to benefit from an open and innovative Internet, the Government proposes to review and modernize the Broadcasting Act and Telecommunications Act.
In this review, the Government will look to examine issues such as telecommunications and content creation in the digital age, net neutrality and cultural diversity, and how to strengthen the future of Canadian media and Canadian content creation.”
The government is to be commended for conducting a review of the broadcasting legislation and telecommunications given that the present legislation stems from the 1980’s…
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MONTREAL – The National Film Board of Canada is offering over 200 films by Indigenous creators for free streaming through a new collection known as Indigenous Cinema (#NFBIndigenous).
Developed as part of the NFB’s three-year Indigenous Action Plan, Indigenous Cinema makes it easier than ever to find Indigenous stories and perspectives – searchable by subject, director’s name or Indigenous people or nation – along with curated and contextualized playlists for different age levels, plus filmmaker biographies.
The titles include both feature-length films and shorts from 1968 through 2017, and the films are sharable in a web story or on social…
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TORONTO and HALIFAX – Afroglobal Television is now available to Eastlink customers after launching on channel 886 earlier this month.
Based in Toronto, the channel informs, empowers, uplifts and entertains with the best of Africa and the Diaspora, including Canadian success stories, reads the news release. Programming includes two movies daily, music, biographies, documentaries, talk shows, drama, sports, reality, faith, current affairs, and children's programming showcasing the rich heritage of Africa, the Caribbean and Canada.
Afroglobal added that it will air documentaries, current affairs and biographies from Atlantic Canada, including town hall events.
"African Canadians have contributed to the development of the Maritimes for over…
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OTTAWA – The federal government has followed through on its commitment to top up the Canada Media Fund in the face of declining contributions from broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs). Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly first made the announcement last September when she unveiled Creative Canada.
Budget 2018 has committed $172 million more dollars over five years, starting this year, to maintain the CMF’s funding” at 2016-2017 levels. CMF will receive $15 million this year, $29 million in 2019-20 and then $42.5 million in the following three years.
The Liberals noted that the actual amount of money will vary each year…
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FOR MANY DECADES, THE Canadian TV market had the luxury of being a walled garden protected by the limits of technology. We even carved out a national production industry and nurtured significant cultural achievements next door to the world’s largest content market.
Now, however, digitalized content has climbed over the garden’s walls and caused content markets to globalize and flatten.
We responded to this change with the defensive strategy of vertical integration. We tried to create barriers, concentrating our domestic market, but the problem was this just deepened our dependence on our domestic market and made us less competitive globally. We’ve…
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Part V in our series on rewriting the Broadcasting and Telecom Acts. An exclusive interview
BACK IN 1999, WHEN Pierre Karl Péladeau was the CEO of the world’s largest printer and a significant Canadian newspaper publisher, he didn’t know or care about the CRTC’s New Media Exemption Order, released that year. Why would he?
Back then, cell phones were still-new devices that primarily just made phone calls – which only about one in five of us owned.* Everyone got their TV off-air or via cable and just over a quarter of Canadians reported a home internet connection – upon which precious…
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Part IV in our series on rewriting the Broadcasting and Telecom Acts
THE CANADIAN TV INDUSTRY faces a growing crisis. Financial contributions from the broadcast distributors to support the production of Canadian stories are on the decline. This is combined with the fact that online TV providers, namely Netflix, aren’t required to pay into the Canadian system like their Canadian competitors.
Since Netflix has emerged as a major competitor to traditional broadcasting services, many have called for the U.S. company to being paying into the Canadian system. Some have suggested taxing internet service providers is the best approach. Others have simply…
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WINNIPEG – The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and APTN have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work together to strengthen relations with Indigenous Peoples and creators in the Canadian audiovisual industry.
The two organizations said Thursday that agreement will allow them to pool their respective efforts and expertise to implement various protocols, programs, training and other initiatives, such as promoting and utilizing archival materials in the NFB’s Indigenous collection; jointly developing best practices around hiring, training and retaining Indigenous employees; and sharing audience-data analysis and research.
“The NFB and APTN have a long history of working together. This…
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OTTAWA – According to the latest figures released today by the Canadian Media Producers Association, overall production volume in Canada soared to an all-time high of $8.38 billion in 2016/17.
This is a 24% rise in volume over the previous year, helped generate 171,000 full-time jobs and added $12 billion to the country’s GDP, says the association’s annual report Profile 2017: An Economic Report on the Screen-Based Media Production Industry in Canada.
“With record growth across much of Canada’s production sector, there is much to celebrate this year, including the creation of jobs and a significant contribution to the country’s economy,”…
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