OTTAWA – In his first public appearance as chair of the CRTC where he was the one answering and not asking the questions, Jean-Pierre Blais gave the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage a brief look at the direction and the future he envisions for the Regulator so many Canadians (including some MPs) misunderstand.
Chairman Blais has already put his stamp on the CRTC by signalling rather overtly that under his watch the Commission will be consumer, or citizen-focused like never before. He has already hired a chief consumer officer, Barbara Motzney and during the hearing into…
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TORONTO – Bill Roberts, a 12-year broadcast veteran who built VisionTV into a specialty channel that reached 10 million Canadian homes and was head of S-VOX and most recently ZoomerMedia (TV), is calling it quits effective October 31, 2012.
During Roberts’ tenure he shaped VisionTV into Canada’s preeminent multi-faith and multicultural broadcaster. Seen in over 10 million households across Canada, VisionTV presents inspirational, insightful and original programming that celebrates diversity and promotes understanding among people of different faiths and cultures. Under Roberts’ leadership, VisionTV has grown to be among Canada’s top 25 specialty channels in…
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MONTREAL – One of the open questions about CBC/Radio-Canada as it heads into its CRTC licence renewal hearing in November has been the fate of its president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix.
His original five-year contract to head the public broadcaster expires in December of this year and it would be unusual to the extreme to have Lacroix lead the CBC team to a hearing with his personal job status either unknown, or to have a CEO push through a hearing knowing he won’t be in the position a month later.
However, Cartt.ca has determined through a number of Montreal media executive sources who…
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GATINEAU – CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais announced Friday that he has created a new position within the Commission: Chief Consumer Officer.
It’s first CCO will be Barbara Motzney, who is currently director general, border policy and international affairs at Public Safety Canada. Prior to joining Public Safety, she was director general of copyright policy at Canadian Heritage where she lead the introduction of two Bills to modernize Canada’s copyright legislation, and virtual and in-person national consultations on the topic.
“I am pleased to announce the creation of the position of Chief Consumer Officer and the appointment of Barbara Motzney to this…
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OTTAWA – The Copyright Modernization Act received Royal Assent last week and is expected to become law this fall, once its regulations have been published. Parliament will review the law every five years.
"We never doubted that we would see this day but it has been a long road, in particular for creators, whose livelihoods have been deeply eroded by piracy. We commend the government and Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore in particular, for their tenacity in pursuing a modern copyright framework and legislation that will enable Canada to ratify the World Intellectual Property Organization Internet Treaties," says Graham Henderson,…
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BANFF – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has released two new publications that it says provide new perspectives on the convergence of television and connected platforms and the state of financing of the interactive media sector in Canada.
Unveiled at the Banff World Media Festival, the first research project, New Directions for the Financing of Interactive Digital Media, examines the state of financing of digital media in Canada and the effectiveness of financial mechanisms, including those from the private sector. Published by the Canadian Interactive ALLIANCE interactive canadienne (CIAIC) with research by MDR, the research is the result of a…
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TORONTO – CTAM Canada has declared its first CTAM Canada U course “a huge success”, and promises to return with another session next year.
More than 40 Canadian CTAM members packed the inaugural class last month at Corus’ Toronto headquarters to hear Harvard Business School Professors Bharat Anand and Rajiv Lal present five cases, including an analysis of the strategies used by Apple and Netflix, as a starting point to explore key issues in today’s highly competitive environment.
The students, who hailed from Astral, CCSA, Corus, Stingray Digital, WFN, the CRTC, Rogers, AOV, A&E, Hollywood Suite, Super Channel, Teletoon, TV5 Quebec, Ogilvey…
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OTTAWA – After months of rumour and innuendo, the federal government made one of the many rumours official and appointed Jean-Pierre Blais as chairman of the CRTC, effective June 18, 2012.
“Mr. Blais is well qualified for the position of chairperson of the CRTC,” said the Prime Minister in the press release. “He brings a strong legal background and a comprehensive understanding of the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors and the role of the…
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CAN’T. HELP. MYSELF.
I’ve told everyone who’s listened to me of late that I won’t write any more speculation on who will be the new chair of the CRTC. “I look foolish,” and “I’m tired of being wrong,” is what I keep telling people. We’ve speculated here throughout the year, we’ve been wrong quite a bit, and since these are real people with real feelings and aspirations, we do take these sorts of stories seriously before putting names out there into the ether, even if our tone sounds a little flippant.
That said, a good publication is also supposed to reflect…
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STOP US IF you’ve heard this before: “Psst, I hear (insert name here) is going to be the next CRTC chair.”
Today it’s Jean-Pierre Blais, a former executive director, broadcasting at the CRTC (during CRTC chair Francoise Bertrand’s tenure), former assistant deputy minister of international and intergovernmental affairs and former ADM of cultural affairs both at the Department of Canadian Heritage – and current assistant secretary of the government operations sector at the Treasury Board. He was the senior bureaucrat in charge of the federal government’s pre-budget strategic and operating review, so he is quite familiar now to the Conservative…
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