Free preview during September
TORONTO — Canadian designer Sarah Richardson undertakes her most ambitious project yet in her latest series for HGTV Canada, premiering this fall. Sarah Off The Grid will follow Richardson and her family as they design and build an off-the-grid, sustainable dream home in Creemore, Ont.
Premiering Sunday, September 10 at 10 p.m. ET/PT during HGTV Canada’s free preview month, the six-part Sarah Off The Grid series offers an unvarnished look at Richardson’s day-to-day as she juggles being a business owner, a mother to her two young daughters Robin and Fiona, and now, the challenges of sharing the…
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OTTAWA — The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) shot back at Canada’s English-language private broadcasters today after Bell Media, Corus Entertainment and Rogers Media released an open letter to the CRTC yesterday in which they asked the Commission to maintain status quo on recent broadcasting decisions.
In their letter, the big three broadcasters urged the Commission to stand firm on its recent decisions regarding reduced minimum spending requirements on programs of national interest (PNI) as part of the CRTC’s group licence renewal decision in May.
Bell, Corus and Rogers were responding yesterday to a joint open letter released…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Media Producers Association, Film Ontario, the Directors Guild of Canada, the Writers Guild of Canada, Unifor and 14 other trade groups and unions have banded together to continue to push Heritage Minster Mélanie Joly to overturn a recent CRTC decision which set spending on programs of national interest (PNI) at 5% of broadcaster revenues.
In an open letter to the minister printed this morning in The Hill Times newspaper, the creative groups and unions (some of which have already officially appealed to cabinet) amped up the pressure on the minster using the same…
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THE RECENT CRTC DECISION to reset broadcaster minimum spending requirements on programs of national interest (PNI) to a lowest-common-denominator level of 5% (see here for more) dealt a blow that the Canadian television industry is still reeling from. In the aftermath, the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) filed a petition to Cabinet seeking to set aside or refer back the decision.
There was very little in the decision that provided a rationale as to why PNI minimums were so summarily slashed, making a letter that former CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais sent to Hedy Fry, the Chair of the…
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OTTAWA – On Tuesday morning, the federal government will name former Telesat and Telus executive Ian Scott as chairman of the CRTC, Cartt.ca has learned. (Scott is pictured in a screen cap from cpac.ca during 2016's basic services objective hearing.)
As well, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada legal counsel Caroline Simard will be named vice-chair, broadcasting. Both will assume their new duties and begin their five-year terms in September.
CRTC senior legal counsel Christianne Laizner will also be named interim vice-chair telecom, effective immediately, filling the slot left open by Peter Menzies’ departure last week to…
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TORONTO – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) has added two new members to its board of directors following its annual meeting of members held earlier this week in Montreal.
Lori DeGraw and Michael Schmalz succeed outgoing directors Cheryl Barker and Glenn Wong. They join current BoD chair Alain Cousineau and directors Alison Clayton, Guy Fournier, David McLennan, and Rob Scarth.
DeGraw is executive director of the Ontario Land Trust Alliance, and brings 25 years’ experience in the audiovisual industry plus extensive corporate governance experience to the role. She held the role of VP media operations at Blue Ant Media for 10…
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Creator community shares deep concerns about “devastating effects” of decisions
OTTAWA – Canada’s independent producers, performers and directors have petitioned Heritage Minister Joly to either set aside, or refer back, the CRTC’s group licence renewal decisions for large television broadcasters released last month.
The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), and the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) submitted a joint petition to the Minister Thursday, underscoring their shared concerns about the Commission’s decision to lower the amount that Bell Media, Rogers Media and Corus Entertainment must spend on Programs of National Interest…
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TORONTO – The Writers Guild of Canada is appealing to Cabinet to reject the CRTC’s “potentially disastrous” broadcast policy changes and licence renewals announced last month.
WGC said Tuesday that that the Commission’s decision to reduce Bell Media’s and Corus Entertainment’s minimum spending requirements on programs of national interest (PNI) have “created deep concern in the Canadian screenwriting community” because they cut private broadcaster funding to Canadian programs by 40% which the Guild says could lead to over $200 million in reduced broadcaster spending on Canadian shows over a five-year licence term.
“We appeal to Heritage Minister Mélanie…
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OTTAWA – Aboriginal broadcaster Wawatay Native Communications Society wants the CRTC’s recent Aboriginal radio licences decision to be overturned, and that it be granted the FM licences for the Ottawa and Toronto markets instead.
The Commission's June 14 decision awarded the broadcasting licences in those markets to First Peoples Radio Inc., an affiliate of Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), for stations at 95.7 FM in Ottawa and 106.5 FM in Toronto.
But Wawatay said in a statement that it is the only broadcaster to have “consulted and received consent from Chiefs of Ontario and all representative Indigenous nations” for those licences.
"We have a letter…
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Rights, diversity and the need for a strong, sustainable Canadian production sector
LAST WEEK, HUNDREDS OF independent producers, broadcast executives, government officials and countless other industry stakeholders made their annual pilgrimage to the heart of the Rocky Mountains for the Banff World Media Festival.
Although this year’s conference was similar to previous years in many ways – projects were pitched, deals were made, and drinks flowed freely – this year’s event felt different. Over the course of the conference there seemed to be a collective realization that the future of our industry, which has been endlessly discussed at Banff for years,…
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