Search Results for: Canadian Heritage

Radio / Television News

Canadian screen-based production industry grows 9%: report

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… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

CRTC revises small BDUs exemption order

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… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Moore says CBC will get funding: report

OTTAWA – The CBC will receive the funding it needs to fulfill its five-year strategic plan, says Heritage Minister James Moore. According to a report in The Toronto Star, Minister Moore affirmed the government’s commitment to the national broadcaster during a Commons committee on Thursday. “CBC, through their board of directors, has approved their 2015 plan. This is a plan that we support and that we have been pushing for and hoping that the CBC would implement for a long time – staying in the regions, (enhancing) digital technology and protecting their mandate to ensure that it’s all-Canadian programming,” Moore… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

IIC 2011: Moore defends Canadian culture business, CBC

OTTAWA – Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore on Tuesday delivered a hearty endorsement of the industry his ministry oversees as well as the CBC during his appearance at the International Institute of Communications Canadian conference. During his breakfast speech, Moore dipped into history to show how far the Canadian cultural sector has come, from a pipsqueak in the 1950s, scrambling for an identity, to a robust $46 billion annual industry now boasting over 630,000 employees, many of whom “do it for the love of the craft.” Those figures are “three times the size of the Canadian insurance industry and twice… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

IIC 2011: Speculation hot heading into Industry Minister’s speech this afternoon

OTTAWA – While milling about on the floor of the Institute of International Communications 2011 Canadian chapter conference here at the beautiful new Ottawa Convention Centre on Monday morning, everyone had a guess (and some claimed inside information) on what Industry Minister Christian Paradis is going to say in his speech to the conference on Tuesday afternoon. Is it to be a statement on foreign investment changes for the telecom sector? Setting out the rules on the auction of 700 MHz wireless spectrum? Some sort of direction in the long-overdue digital economy strategy? It looks like now,… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Official process to pick new CRTC chair to begin “soon”

OTTAWA – So much for all the speculation on who will replace CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein when his term expires on January 24, 2012. While many have guessed (including us) at who it may be, and many in power have some ideas on who would make a good chair, the federal government has not yet officially begun to look, said Heritage Minister James Moore Tuesday in Ottawa. Speaking to reporters after his speech at the 2011 International Institute of Communications Canadian conference, Moore didn’t have much to say on who might be appointed chair, or when…. Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

CBC unwillingly gives up documents; sealing some

OTTAWA – The CBC has complied with an order by the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics to provide documents requested under Access to Information (ATI) by Quebecor Media and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. But the public broadcaster’s president, Hubert Lacroix, told an audience at the National Press Gallery Monday that the documents were given under protest, and some were sealed. Lacroix later told reporters that the decision on whether to open the sealed documents is in the committee’s hands. He said it’s the first time the committee has ordered the public broadcaster to release documents that… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Canadian Broadband for All: Rogers interested, Shaw launches $49 triple-play bundle

WHILE WE’VE YET TO hear back from the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Bell Canada or Telus – and Industry Canada hasn’t yet responded to our request for a better answer to our original question, Canada’s two largest cable companies have responded to our plea that our country come up with a plan to get broadband Internet access to low-income families. As we reported, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission along with many cable companies and other contributors, have devised a program to offer broadband connectivity to low-income families for… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Canadian Broadband For All: Silence and spin, so far

READERS MIGHT HAVE sensed with my column Thursday that I am taking the issue of getting broadband to low-income families very seriously. I called the fact that we have nothing in Canada to help the poor get broadband in their homes embarrassing, especially when compared to the ambitious and comprehensive Connect 2 Compete program that was launched in the United States this week by the Federal Communications Commission, numerous cable companies and other firms. Then, reporter Peter Nowak reports today that Canada is the ONLY country in the G8 with no assistance… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

CBC/Radio-Canada updates Parliament on its strategic plan

OTTAWA – CBC/Radio-Canada appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage Tuesday morning to provide an update on the progress of its five-year strategic plan launched last February.
The plan, known as Everyone, Every way, promises to improve regional coverage and expand local service to more than 6 million Canadians over the next five years; to double the investment made in digital platforms; and to offer more Canadian programming. In the nine months since the launch of the strategy, the public broadcaster noted that it has: – Announced new CBC radio stations in Kamloops, London and Waterloo, and weekend television news… Continue Reading