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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RICHARD STURSBERG CAN be a polarizing figure. He knows he rubs some people the wrong way (and I think he kinda likes being the thorn in some sides).
You can read that personality throughout his recent book, Tower of Babble: Sins, Secrets and Successes Inside the CBC. He admits as much on many pages, calling himself “arrogant”, “insouciant” and “insubordinate” and reading through some of what he describes about his time at the Corp., it’s hard not to disagree with his self-assessment.
Stursberg was actually my first interview when I started covering the electronic media industry in…
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(Ed note: We ran this column back in May 2012 with our overall investigation into the CBC. Given the Corp's news this week – that it will still air, but has lost control of, NHL hockey – we thought it made sense to give it a re-print, as it were, on November 27, 2013.)
AT CBC ENGLISH TELEVISION’S fall 2012 programming launch last Thursday, you could hear how the massive recent budget cut – along with the constant hectoring of the Corp. by so many Canadians –…
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MUCH HAS BEEN SAID and written over the last few weeks on the new CBC Music service, which has generated quite a bit of interest from the industry, and from the population in general for Stingray’s Part 1 application with the CRTC regarding the newly launched service (and letter to the Minister of Heritage).
Founded in 2007, Stingray’s various services, including Galaxie, the Karaoke Channel and Concert TV, are now available to over 70 million households in 48 countries around the world. With over 200 employees, a good portion of which are here in Canada, Stingray…
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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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MONTREAL – An informal group of radio broadcasters are banding together in the hopes of pulling the plug on CBC’s nascent digital music service CBC Music.
The coalition, which includes Quebecor Media, Cogeco Inc., Newcap Radio, Golden West Radio, RNC Media and Stingray Digital, objects to the ad-supported service which it says contributes to the inaccurate perception that music is free, plus competes with their own radio stations and subscription-based websites, counter to the CBC’s mandate.
In a letter to Heritage Minister James Moore on Friday, the broadcasters questioned whether the CBC is using “the preferential royalty rates it receives from the…
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VANCOUVER – Non-Canadians are purchasing so many common shares of Telus that the company is in danger of violating Canada’s foreign ownership restrictions.
The telco issued a notice Thursday reminding non-Canadian investors of its reservation procedures while warning that that its transfer agent may not be able to approve all pending or new applications. Non-Canadians wanting to buy Telus’ common shares must reserve the right to obtain transfers by contacting the company’s transfer agent, Computershare Trust Company of Canada, and obtaining a reservation number after completing a reservation application.
Telus said that the catalyst for this announcement is “significant buying interest” by…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s screen-based production industry grew from $5 billion to $5.5 billion between the fiscal years of 2010/11, according to a new report.
The report, Profile 2011: An Economic Report on the Screen-Based Production Industry in Canada, is an annual economic report published by the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) in collaboration with the Association des producteurs de films et de télévision du Québec (APFTQ), and the Department of Canadian Heritage. It provides a statistical overview of the three main screen-based production sectors in Canada – Canadian independent production (including television and theatrical), foreign location and service production, and broadcaster…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has amended the exemption order for terrestrial BDUs serving fewer than 20,000 subscribers.
The Commission said Wednesday that starting April 1, 2012, exempt BDUs will be required to make a contribution to Canadian programming of 5% of gross revenues from broadcasting activities. For the 2011-2012 broadcast year, this contribution will be payable on gross revenues from broadcasting activities earned between April 1 and August 31, 2012, and for subsequent broadcast years, the contribution will be payable on gross revenues from broadcasting activities earned over the entire broadcast year.
In addition, exempt BDUs are authorized to…
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