OTTAWA – The government must take different steps to inform and support disabled Canadians in advance of this summer’s transition to digital television, says Media Access Canada (MAC).
In an appearance before the Canadian Heritage Parliamentary Committee, the group said that with the Canadian broadcasting system still not fully accessible, efforts to educate Canadians with disabilities must extend beyond mere public service announcements.
“Imagine a deaf senior-citizen, living alone and on a fixed income who turns on her television September 1st only to receive no signal”, said MAC executive director Beverley Milligan. “She may believe the television is broken and will…
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OTTAWA – While the massively confused usage-based billing issue gets all the attention these days, another media issue that will affect tens of thousands more Canadians than UBB is still receiving scant notice: the transition from analog over-the-air TV to digital.
Granted, most Canadians won’t notice a thing come September 1 of this year as most of us are plugged into a cable, satellite or telco TV subscription. When the analog TV transmitters are turned off in the mandatory markets, it will be a non-issue as our carriers will continue carrying and distributing as before.
But for the 900,000 estimated households…
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OTTAWA – With nothing happening in the marketplace to inform Canadians that they will no longer be able to get an off-air TV signal without some new digital gear come August 31, 2011, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has called CRTC officials to appear before it on Monday.
Executive director of broadcasting, Scott Hutton, ED policy development and research Namir Anani and senior general counsel John Keogh are scheduled to appear.
Canadian broadcasters have been told by the CRTC to get cracking on letting Canadians know that for most of them, their analog TVs with rabbit ears will receive nothing…
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OTTAWA – After studying the impact of emerging and digital media environment in Canada over the past two years, the federal government’s Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has recommended that yet another panel be created. This one to propose a new national policy on digital media – which is sort of already under way.
Sigh…
The committee noted that the vast majority of witnesses who appeared before it agreed that Canada needs a national digital strategy. Just what that strategy should and shouldn’t contain proved to be a highly divisive issue (and it’s something Industry Minister Tony Clement says he is…
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OTTAWA – Partisan politics were on full display during Minister of Canadian Heritage James Moore’s appearance before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage yesterday. While Moore was there to talk about the mandate and funding of the CBC/Radio-Canada, a good part of his time was spent responding to criticisms regarding the appointment of Tom Pentefountas as vice-chair broadcasting at the CRTC.
During Moore’s hour in front of the committee, the chair had to interject a number of times to ensure MPs remained on track with their questions. The committee also passed a motion requesting that Pentefountas appear to…
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OTTAWA – Appearing before a Parliamentary committee, Minister of Canadian Heritage James Moore applauded CBC/Radio-Canada for its new five-year strategic plan, but his testimony shed little light on whether the public broadcaster can expect to see any increases in funding from the federal government.
Moore said the government plans to continue its support of the CBC by either maintaining or increasing its budget as it committed to doing in previous election campaigns.
“The Minister of Finance has tabled five budgets in this parliament and in every single one of those budgets we have kept our word. The CBC currently…
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OTTAWA – The government is asking Canadians for feedback on its policy on Audiovisual Treaty Coproduction.
Coproduction treaties enable Canadian and foreign producers to pool their creative, technical, and financial resources to coproduce films and television projects. Treaty coproductions are granted domestic status in their respective countries, which makes them eligible for applicable domestic funding programs and fiscal incentives, plus they qualify for broadcast quotas. Telefilm Canada administers these treaties on behalf of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
"The implementation of Canada’s Policy on Audiovisual Treaty Coproduction is the next step in paving the way for future coproduction treaty negotiations between…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian film and television production industry showed only limited growth in the last year, according to a new report from the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA).
Profile 2010 is an annual economic report on the screen-based production industry in Canada providing a snapshot of Canada’s three main production segments: Canadian production (which includes Canadian television and theatrical production), foreign location and service production, and broadcaster in-house production.
The report noted a modest overall increase in production volume from $4.8 billion to $4.9 billion between 2008/09 and 2009/10. Total numbers for independent television production were down by 3.4%, despite an…
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TORONTO – A newly formed coalition of Canada’s largest accessibility organizations, called Access 2020, will be asking the CRTC to adopt a new approach to accessibility in its May 2011 policy hearing on vertical integration.
“While current regulatory trends mean that sight- and hearing-impaired Canadians will only obtain complete access to television in thirty years, Access 2020’s goal is to achieve fully captioned and described television content within the next decade,” said Beverley Milligan, on behalf of Media Access Canada which is leading the coalition. “We will be inviting the CRTC to empower Canada’s accessibility organizations to research, test, develop…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Government’s decision to oppose a new tax on MP3 players and smart phones as part of its copyright legislation received votes of confidence from the wireless industry and a business coalition, but faced claims of “political manipulation” from ACTRA.
After Wednesday’s announcement, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) issued its opinion in which it said that the government “definitely got this right."
"This is absolutely the right decision for consumers as the Government moves forward with its digital economy strategy”, said CWTA president and CEO, Bernard Lord, in the statement. “We don’t agree that law-abiding consumers should…
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