TORONTO and OTTAWA – The XLIX Super Bowl may have been decided over a month ago, but the matter of American Super Bowl ads coming to Canadian television is still front and centre for Bell Media, the current Canadian rightsholder of the big game.
On Monday, the broadcaster filed a motion with the Federal Court of Appeal seeking to appeal BRP CRTC 2015-25, the CRTC’s January 29th decision prohibiting the practice of simultaneous substitution in Super Bowl games starting in 2017. Bell Media spokesperson Scott Henderson said in a statement that in making that decision, “the CRTC erred in…
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WE COULD WALK through the various undertakings and final replies filed by the many contributors to the CRTC’s TV Policy Review, but we’ve done more than 40 stories on the whole proceeding. The issues are well known and have been dismantled and well-explained repeatedly here – but it’s the final brief filed by American broadcaster Viacom which has set tongues wagging.
(Ed note: Yes, the filings and oral presentations of both Netflix and Google have been stricken from the record as threatened since neither company responded to the October 2 compliance deadline set by the Commission)
In its final reply…
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THE INITIAL CALL FOR THE REVIEW of the broadcasting system and the launch of the Let’s Talk TV consultation process was met with both skepticism and guarded optimism in the industry.
In many ways the industry had this coming. The price for cable television has increased dramatically over the past few decades, outpacing rises in price of most household commodities. The associated explosion in the number of channels, combined with the rise in price has created what behavioral economists call a “correlation effect”. This causes people to assume that the number of channels is the main cause of…
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GATINEAU – The biggest stir on the third day of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV policy hearing centered on the possible inclusion of revenue earned from broadcasters’ online activities when calculating Canadian programming expenditures (CPE) Bell Canada arguing that it’s illogical, odd and added insult to injury.
“Working document item 10 concerns us greatly,” said Mirko Bibic, Bell’s executive VP and chief legal and regulatory officer, adding that the proposal on the table “would treat Canadian licensees in that space differently than the Netflixes of the world.”
That bit of the CRTC’s discussion document says: “The definition…
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OTTAWA – Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, Shelly Glover issued a warning late Monday evening to the CRTC in a statement responding to day one of the Commission's TV Policy Review hearing.
It's an unusual thing for a cabinet minister to publicly interfere with a CRTC hearing but she (well, the Prime Minister's Office really, we're told) made it very clear that the federal government is mostly concerned about pick and pay – and will not stand for TV regulations being applied to new media outlets. The statement (which was e-mailed to some reporters and still can't…
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IQALUIT – The Government of Canada is providing $1,236,669 in funding to the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) to support the production of 39 hours of new, original television programming in Inuktitut.
Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of the Environment, Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and Minister for the Arctic Council, made this announcement today on behalf of the Honourable Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.
The IBC, whose programming is aimed at Inuit living in Nunavut, will produce four series, including "Takuginai," a children's program; "Niqitsiat," a cooking show; "Ilinniq," a documentary series featuring community members; and…
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TORONTO – Halla Bol! Kids TV will become the first channel in the Hindi-language kids category on U.S. satellite TV distributor Dish Network this summer thanks to independent Canadian broadcaster Channel Zero.
Part of Channel Zero World Media, Halla Bol! Kids TV, will be exclusively available starting today to Dish World subscribers as well as to Dish satellite-TV subscribers. Halla Bol! showcases the world’s best-in-class programs in Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. Halla Bol’s programming primarily caters to children 2 to 10 years old, but its multi-genre schedule provides appeal for the entire family, says the press release.
As befitting the "World…
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TORONTO – David McLennan has been nominated to the Canada Media Fund’s board of directors following the general assembly held last week in Montreal.
With more than 20 years of experience as a senior business executive, McLennan joined Sierra Wireless in 2004 as Chief Financial Officer and Secretary. Prior to that, he spent almost a decade years in a variety of senior management positions within the Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) group of companies, including Chief Financial Officer of Bell ExpressVu and subsequently as president and Chief Operating Officer. McLennan is a Chartered Financial Analyst, and earlier in his…
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TORONTO – CBC/Radio-Canada’s new strategy will result in a leaner, focused, more modern and financially sustainable public broadcaster by 2020, president and CEO Hubert Lacroix promised Thursday in a town hall session with employees.
That plan, dubbed 'A space for us all’, will “transform the Corporation from the traditional to the modern, and aims to better serve Canadians, through three fundamental shifts: the digital, the individual and the sustainable”, reads the press release.
Noting that the Corporation will have 1,000 to 1,500 fewer employees by 2020, in addition to the reductions announced to date, the strategy calls for cuts in fixed…
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GATINEAU – Quebec lawyer Yves Dupras has been appointed as a full-time member of the CRTC, designated for the Quebec Region, for a five year term effective August 11, 2014.
Dupras has been a senior business and securities lawyer with the Montreal law firm Spiegel Sohmer Inc. since 2010. He has over 30 years of experience in the areas of business, entertainment, media, communications, and strategic and regulatory affairs, and served on the CRTC as a part-time member in 1992 and as a full-time member for the Quebec Region from 1993-1998.
"I am pleased that Mr. Dupras is joining the CRTC…
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