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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TORONTO – Jesse Wente has been appointed director of Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office, a role he will assume starting February 1, 2018, it was announced today.
The ISO is an initiative first announced by the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage, at the Banff World Media Festival in June.
A film expert, broadcaster and cultural industries leader, Wente (pictured) has spent two decades working in the creative community and advocating for Indigenous rights. He has been director of film programmes at the TIFF Bell Lightbox for the past seven years, and has contributed to CBC Radio as a critic,…
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IT’S BEEN MORE THAN 25 years since legislation guiding the communications sector came into force. There have some minor changes, but both the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act have remained largely the same – their objectives essentially left untouched. They have stood the test of time, some say. Others, however, point to the enormous impact of the Internet in arguing for big changes to these laws.
“The Internet has really become the central communication mode in our life now, and yet we have legislation that makes a distinction between telecom and broadcasting and also between wireless and wireline. It…
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TORONTO – The Canadian film, television and print production industry “is in a death spiral” that only government action can halt, several experts agreed at a digital media conference held Saturday in Toronto.
The former Harper government, current Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly, the CRTC and private broadcasters came in for heated criticism for failing to give content producers the tools to fight the falling advertising which print publications have been seeing – and the flight of viewers from conventional television to Netflix, Facebook, Google and others.
There were no shortage of solutions offered, but speakers on a film and TV panel…
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IF YOU’RE AGAINST THINGS like theft and plagiarism, then support of the FairPlay Coalition is a no-brainer.
Over 25 companies, unions, associations and other groups have banded together to file an application to the CRTC to try to curb blatant content piracy in Canada. The group (a list of organizations who are often at each other’s throats) is calling themselves the FairPlay Canada Coalition and the application (to which Cartt.ca was granted early access) calls for the creation of the Independent Piracy Review Agency, an independent, third party organization with a strong mandate to protect both net neutrality as well…
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Proposes new agency to battle billion-dollar problem
OTTAWA – FairPlay Canada, a new coalition of Canadian artists, content creators, unions, guilds, producers, performers, broadcasters, distributors, and exhibitors is has filed an application with the CRTC urging the Regulator to have Canadian ISPs shut down access to websites which enable content piracy.
According to the coalition, the jobs of hundreds of thousands of Canadians who work in the creative sector (songwriters, set builders, TV writers, makeup artists, reporters, as well as cable technicians, engineers and customer service reps) are at risk as a result of increasing online piracy…
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OTTAWA – Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly will once again return to Prime Time in Ottawa (PTiO) for a sit down with CMPA president and CEO Reynolds Mastin on the state of the Canadian screen-based industries.
This will mark the third time that Minister Joly has attended the annual confab. The 23nd edition of PTiO will take place January 31 to February 2, 2018 at The Westin Ottawa.
“Canadians are fiercely proud of our creators and creative industry professionals,” said Minister Joly, in a statement. “I am delighted to join industry leaders here at Prime Time to discuss how we can…
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