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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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
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
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
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
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
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
