OTTAWA – The federal government announced Friday it will make up to $50 million available to help film and TV productions get re-started in a Covid-19 world.
As we first reported in June, insurers have not extended coverage for potential coronavirus outbreaks on sets and the Canadian Media Producers Association has been working for months to try and get coverage and so the film and TV industry can back to work. It was originally seeking $100 million from the federal government.
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault made the funding announcement Friday morning.
Administered by Telefilm Canada along with the Canada Media Fund,…
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TORONTO — The Canada Media Fund (CMF) today announced it is taking two key actions to support creators from Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) communities.
The first step is a top-up in Covid-19 emergency relief funds for companies owned by Black people and people of colour. The CMF also announced it has engaged three new team members to support and connect with BIPOC communities.
The top-up is part of phase one of the federal government’s Covid-19 Emergency Support Fund for cultural, heritage and sport organizations and is available to companies that are majority-owned by Black people and people of…
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By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Quebecor has cut funding for MAtv, Videotron’s community channel in Montreal, by 45%, prompting an anglophone member of its advisory committee to resign in protest.
Fortner Anderson, a local artist, said he can “no longer in good conscience” remain on the committee because the latest cuts “will substantially alter and reduce the benefits MAtv provides to the English language community of Montreal, and because they will diminish the vitality of that community.”
The 45% cut is the result of Quebecor’s decision to take advantage of an allowance the CRTC gave large vertically-integrated companies in 2016. As part…
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CAB says up to 50 radio stations may close
By Denis Carmel
TO NO ONE’S SURPRISE, Covid-19 has taken a grim toll on Canadian broadcasters. In that context, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, acting on behalf of its members, sent an emergency application to the CRTC on July 13th seeking temporary relief from several regulatory obligations.
The Commission has not yet responded, despite the letter’s expressed desire to see action taken prior to the first week of August. The letter was sent to Cartt.ca on Friday (August 21) morning. The CAB’s membership includes all big broadcasters and a large number of smaller…
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THE BROADCAST AND Telecommunications Review panel report (a.k.a. the Yale Report) has been lauded as needed, overdue and visionary, as well as decried as a dangerous, unnecessary overreach.
There have been many who find middle ground, too, but you get the picture. Some people love it (or parts of it) while some hate it (or parts of it).
The chair of the panel, Janet Yale (pictured), believes a number of the report’s 97 recommendations are simply misunderstood, which has resulted in some unfortunate assumptions which then also turned into headlines.
Examples? The report does not want to regulate…
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Xenophile may leave Ontario for B.C.
By Ahmad Hathout
PATRICK CROWE HAS sent a series of panicked letters to the digital media industry, colleagues and to Ontario’s Finance Minister Rod Phillips.
The president of Xenophile Media, an award-winning digital media and game studio in Toronto, has a serious problem: His company’s operations have stalled since 2016, he’s over half a million dollars in debt, he owes about $100,000 to his company’s contractors, and his home is about to be liquidated.
Crowe (pictured above) and Xenophile are preparing to move to British Columbia if Ontario does not apply tax credits under the Ontario Interactive…
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By Doug Barrett
HERITAGE MINISTER STEVEN Guilbeault’s appearance at the virtual Banff World Media Festival Tuesday morning was a bit of a revelation to me, and in a surprisingly good way.
We usually show up to these things expecting the three Ps: politics, platitudes and postponement – and certainly the various industry and media appearances of one of Mr. Guilbeault’s Liberal predecessors met all three of those tests, sometimes in the case of her appearance on Toute le Monde en Parle in 2017, famously so.
However, Guilbeault’s time Tuesday was, I almost hate to say it, refreshingly different.
Why?
First, he was well…
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TORONTO – The PGA Tour is back and Bell Media’s TSN and CTV2 will be showing a dozen tournaments this summer, beginning this weekend with the final rounds of the Charles Schwab Challenge, airing Saturday, June 13 and Sunday, June 14 on TSN and CTV2, from the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
As a part of this expanded coverage, RBC has partnered with TSN and CTV to sponsor the full season of PGA Tour coverage on both broadcast and digital platforms. French-language coverage is available on RDS.
With the Covid-19 pandemic altering golf’s schedule this summer, the sport’s major…
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$100 million backstop needed
By Greg O’Brien
OTTAWA – No matter what Canadian provinces and territories do to re-open the economy and get back to work, Canada’s independent film and TV producers won’t be mobilizing for one expensive reason.
“I have one word for you,” said Canadian Media Producers Association president and CEO Reynolds Mastin (above) in an interview, “insurance, insurance, insurance.”
Simply put, production companies can’t return to action without new agreements with their insurance companies over potential coronavirus impacts and so far, those companies “are not planning on extending Covid-19 insurance coverage in their new policies,” he said. “So, while we’ve…
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“We don’t fit their business model”
By Lynn Greiner
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES FACE UNIQUE challenges when it comes to establishing broadband connectivity. At Canada’s Rural and Remote Broadband virtual conference (CRRBC) on Monday, a panel of experts who are addressing those challenges talked about what they’re doing, the roadblocks they’re facing, and why they’re persevering.
Moderated by Kim Barrington, Rogers Communications’ director of operations, enterprise division and chairperson for the Rogers’ Indigenous Peoples’ Network, the panel included Sally Braun, general manager, Western James Bay Telecom Network, Lyle Fabian, president/owner, KatloTech Communications, Rob McMahon, associate professor of communication and technology, Continue Reading
