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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OTTAWA – Canadian children’s series Dino Dan has been named the winner of the 2010 Shaw Rocket Prize.
Produced by Toronto-based Sinking Ship Entertainment, the show stars Jason Spevack as Dan Henderson, a 10-year-old boy with an obsession for dinosaurs. It airs in Canada on TVO, Knowledge Network and Access, plus recently debuted in the U.S. on MTV Networks-owned Nick Jr.
Producers J.J. Johnson, Blair Powers and Matt Bishop received their $50,000 prize by from Heritage Minister James Moore at a ceremony in Ottawa earlier this week which celebrated the top five Canadian programs for kids aged 6-12. An international jury of…
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OTTAWA – Does bigger necessarily mean better? Corus Entertainment appears to think so, and asked the government to support vertical integration in the broadcast industry so that Canadian players can better compete globally.
Speaking Tuesday before the House of Commons Standing Committee of Canadian Heritage, EVP and General Counsel Gary Maavara said that the arrival of non-Canadian new media players like Apple and Google mean that companies like Corus compete in the world market, even at the local level.
“The notion of a ‘domestic market’ is rapidly changing. It is complex and the most powerful players are not Canadian”, Maavara said….
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) is urging the government to protect independent producers from what it calls “the negative impact (of) consolidation” in the broadcasting industry.
Appearing Tuesday before the House of Commons Standing Committee of Canadian Heritage, the CMPA claimed that the three integrated private broadcast corporate groups in English Canada are “using their dominant position to secure unreasonable terms that undermine independent producers’ businesses and put at risk the thousands of high-skilled jobs”.
“I would like to think that independent producers are well positioned to make a significant contribution to Canada’s burgeoning digital economy”, said CMPA…
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JAY SWITZER IS ABOUT to find out if Canadians want to accept an invite into his new Hollywood Suite.
That’s the name Switzer, the former CHUM Ltd. CEO, and David Kines, another former CHUM executive (who was EP of the just-wrapped Gemini Awards) have given their new company, which is about to launch four new high definition movie channels: dubbed at their license approvals: Velocity, The Love Channel, Kiss, and Adventure.
The independent broadcaster will officially launch in the coming days, announcing key people, branding and programming, aiming at an April 2011 launch with Canadian carriers.
Switzer and…
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