By Bill Roberts
THE LAST TIME I REALLY thought hard about Netflix was back in 2017, when then-Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly drew back the curtain on a commitment by Netflix to spend $500 million over five years to make original Canadian screen content.
I think it was part of a Chateau Laurier “Creative Canada” roadmap reveal by Joly, and I don’t think the fawning has stopped since. But, since 2017 there sure has been some incredible programming on this streamer, and during our extended pandemic it remains a more pleasant alternative to divorce.
Ted Sarandos, co-CEO and chief content officer of Netflix…
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OTTAWA – The federal government today announced an $49 million increase to the short-term compensation fund (STCF) for Canadian audiovisual productions which it set up in 2020 to help producers, actors, musicians and the like to get through the Covid crisis.
The additional funds will bring the STCF’s coverage capacity to $149 million until March 31, 2022. Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault and Telefilm executive director Christa Dickenson made the announcement during the virtual Canadian Screen Awards yesterday.
The new money will “allow more productions to make use of the program to meet their shooting schedules, particularly in the sector’s busiest seasons…
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TORONTO — The fourth season of the award-winning series Employable Me, which features job seekers determined to show that having a physical disability or neurological condition shouldn’t make them unemployable, will premiere June 9 on AMI-tv, the broadcaster announced today.
Seasons one, two and three of the series previously captured Rockie Awards for best lifestyle program at the Banff World Media Festival. In addition, season three won a Diversify TV Excellence Award at MIPCOM in the representation of disability, non-scripted category in 2020.
Produced by Thomas Howe Associates, season four of Employable Me (six episodes x 60 minutes) provides “an honest…
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Siphoning hundreds of millions from them for Cancon will give streamers leverage over government and regulators
By Len St-Aubin
THE GOVERNMENT SAYS Bill C-10 is part of a plan to rein in web giants by making them pay their “fair share” when it comes to Canadian culture. That’s their story, and Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault is sticking to it.
But you have to wonder, at what cost? Extracting up to 30% of revenues generated in Canada from the likes of YouTube (Google), Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Disney, Spotify et al, and subjecting them to outdated, unnecessarily intrusive CRTC regulation, what’s the “quid-pro-quo”?
There’s…
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TORONTO — Ontario’s French-language public broadcaster Groupe Média TFO announced today Sébastien Pierroz (above) has been appointed as producer of Francophone community content for ONFR+, the broadcaster’s digital platform.
“Having joined the TFO team in Ottawa at the inception of #ONfr in 2015, Sébastien is one of the pioneers of the franchise, whose future activities he will now lead with a vision of continuity, sustainability and openness to new audiences and content,” reads the press release announcing his appointment.
Focused on the development of the platform, Pierroz and the ONFR+ team, based in Toronto, Ottawa and Sudbury, will produce new content…
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By Steve Faguy
IT WAS SUPPOSED to be to FM radio what FM was to AM: Better audio quality, a way to expand to more channels, and a future replacement with some cool bells and whistles.
In the 1990s, Canada’s radio broadcasters spent millions of dollars on new transmitters and devoted a lot of airtime to marketing the new technology: DAB, or digital audio broadcasting.
“The radio industry is primed to reinvent itself for the digital age and 1997 will be the first year of the revolution,” read a 1996 article from the Vancouver Sun. “Within a generation, AM and FM radio…
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“French to follow”
By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – This what you could read in an indignant tweet from the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française (FCCF) when the group saw the CBC had filed its final reply to the CRTC in English only. And they added facetiously that they will stop “following” the public broadcaster.
This is the culmination of CBC’s licences renewal process that lasted way too long, but we should have a decision before the end of the licence extension, on August 31, 2021. The initial renewal application by the CBC was filed with the CRTC on August 23, 2019.
That tweet…
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By Steve Faguy
Kiss. Boom. Jack. Fresh. Jewel. Virgin. Country. Real Country. Pure Country. Hit Country. K-Rock. B. Q. O. X. Mix. Moose. Drive. Énergie. Rythme. Rouge. Plaisir.
They’re all brands used by Canada’s largest broadcasting companies for multiple radio stations in their groups. Some are generic enough they’re even used by multiple stations of different companies.
But these days, rather than some common brands being coincidental, they’re being planned. Bit by bit, national brands are replacing what had been individual stations’ identities. In January, Bell Media turned 10 of its adult contemporary stations, including heritage brands like Majic 100 in Ottawa…
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53% of funds went to companies owned by diverse groups
MONTREAL — Telefilm Canada revealed today almost $30 million was disbursed through the Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund – Telefilm Allocation, with more than half of funding going to companies that are majority-owned by an underrepresented group.
Telefilm’s relief funding for the audiovisual industry was included as part of the federal government’s Covid-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural, Heritage and Sport Organizations.
Overall, Telefilm disbursed $29,654,492 in emergency funding to 549 companies in total, with 471 organizations allocated funding in Phase 1 of the program and an additional 81 in Phase 2.
Companies that…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Last week, Conservative Senator Claude Carignan introduced Bill S-225, an Act to amend the Copyright Act (remuneration for journalistic works) to deal with the issue of the web giants like Facebook and Google sharing news stories without compensation for the journalists.
This would be done by amending the Act to include journalistic works under the realm of works covered by the Act – meaning compensation would have to be paid to a collective to be created, like the music business has with SOCAN.
This comes on the heels of Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault saying the federal…
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