Our information ecosystem is in trouble. Here’s how we can fix it. Part four of four
By Tessa Sproule
WE AS HUMANS have to learn how to communicate with AI. We have to learn what it’s good at helping us with, and what it might mess up if we’re not watching it.
The role of the modern digital citizen of a democracy has become similar to the old-school editor — knowing where a piece of information came from, assessing its credibility and potential biases,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA — The CRTC says it will not proceed with an application submitted in September requesting must-carry status under a barker licence type, on SiriusXM, for an audio-based radio guide for the visually impaired.
Evan Kosiner of Kosiner Venture Capital submitted the application on September 17, 2019, requesting 9 (1)(h) designation for the service that would allow visually impaired Canadians to have access to the alphanumeric information displayed on the screen in a car or on a portable receiver, where it would be turned into machine-read audio. The information would pertain to the song or the show being played.
In…
Continue Reading
Much depends on France-U.S. talks
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Last month the Federal Liberals offered up some confusion on taxing the digital giants like Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (FAANGs), something promised by the Liberal’s 2019 election platform.
On December 12th, Heritage Minister Stephen Guilbault seemed to allude to a quick move and since the platform speaks of potential revenue of $540 million in 2020–2021, his comments reported in Le Devoir said he might not wait for an international agreement.
The next day Prime Minister Trudeau, in his first TV interview on Radio-Canada, said he wanted to work in tandem with…
Continue Reading
LOS GATOS, Calif. — Netflix generated almost C$1.1 billion (US$828 million) in annual revenue for the 2018 fiscal year in Canada, with average paid subscriptions coming in at 6.2 million.
In its most recent filing of financial results to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Netflix shed light on the revenues generated by the streaming service in different regions of the world, including Canada. Although its financial numbers for revenue and subscriptions for the Canadian and U.S. markets are lumped together in the SEC filing, Netflix has said previously in a letter to shareholders in October 2019 that…
Continue Reading
By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA-The federal Liberals campaigned on reducing cellphone and wireless service bills by 25% and reiterated that commitment in the government’s throne speech.
The man to ensure that happens is Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Navdeep Bains, whose ministerial mandate letter, publicly released last Friday, instructs him to “use all available instruments, including the advancement of the 2019 Telecom Policy Directive” issued to the CRTC to advance that price-reduction objective, working with telcos and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in the marketplace.
If the cost target is not achieved within two years, the minister “can expand…
Continue Reading
TORONTO — SiriusXM is adding new team members in Western Canada, including two district managers, and has restructured its entire field team to include regional managers across Canada to better connect with dealers, the company announced Wednesday.
“We are pleased to welcome two new District Managers, Amanda Booth and Melissa Sousa, to our team in Western Canada,” said Michael Mazgay, vice-president, Automotive Remarketing, Dealer Operations, SiriusXM Canada, in the news release. “By strengthening our team in the Northern and Southern prairies, and by establishing Regional Managers across Canada, we have all the right people in place to fully support our dealers with a more hands-on approach.”
The company’s…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The NDP’s industry critic says the federal government should have provided more detail about the promised rollout of a Digital Charter ) in Thursday’s Speech from the Throne.
Instead, it only referenced a plan to “review the rules currently in place…to ensure fairness for all in the new digital space.”
Windsor West Member of Parliament Brian Masse, the New Democratic critic for digital government; innovation, science and industry; and telecommunications, said the charter deserved a mention since it provides a “broad framework” of expectations and rules for industry, consumers and government regarding online rights that address such…
Continue Reading
CEO hopes Ottawa is watching, listening, and will act
CORUS ENTERTAINMENT PRESIDENT and CEO Doug Murphy may have the toughest job in Canadian media. Or maybe just the least-appreciated.
Go ahead and ask anyone in the TV business (and we’ve asked a lot of them recently). They all say variations of the same thing: “I think he’s doing all he can… but I’d never want his job…”
Not only does Murphy run the biggest independent media company and broadcaster in the country (yes, it’s controlled by the Shaw family – who unloaded their equity interest in May after…
Continue Reading
"We need new tools to deal with the new environment"
IAN SCOTT IS already two years through his five-year mandate as chair of the CRTC. He hasn’t been as active calling hearings as his predecessor, who kept thinking up ways of making sure regulatory departments and the journalists who cover them were always hopping, but the CRTC under Scott has still been very busy.
While the Commission is an arm’s length agency, the federal government has been quite keen on pushing a few big issues which, despite what many critics might have to say, are awfully complex…
Continue Reading
Would let the province veto future Netflix-type deals
OTTAWA – In the most detailed plan yet on broadcasting from any of any of the major political parties during the federal election campaign, the Green Party has broadened its protectionist policy to provide Quebec with a veto on agreements with foreign production companies, such as Netflix, which affect the province’s cultural sector.
“The culture of Quebec needs to be protected from content that streams into our homes online that has nothing to do with Canada,” Green Party leader Elizabeth May said at Place des Arts in Montreal on Wednesday.
She was joined by…
Continue Reading
