Search Results for: Canadian Heritage

Radio / Television News

GROUP LICENSING: More CPE, more PNI, but will it be enough? (UPDATE)

Feds told CRTC to take another look GATINEAU – In decisions issued today, the CRTC determined that increases in Canadian production spending are required to preserve a Canadian presence in a changing viewing environment, but did not mandate an increase in local content, as the CRTC limited its examinations to issues listed in the Government order. That is, for PNI: short films and short-form documentaries in English – and levels of original programming in French – and music programming for both languages. For the French-language market, the CRTC now requires each broadcsting group to make adequate investments in the creation of French-language programs, representing… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Group license reconsideration decision coming this week

Feds demanded CRTC take another look GATINEAU – Back on May 15, 2017, the CRTC issued a series of decisions to renew licences for the television services of large English- and French-language private ownership groups (Bell Media, Corus Entertainment, Rogers Media, Groupe V and Quebecor Media). These outlined new conditions of license which allowed, among other things, broadcasters to spread their Cancon spending collectively over all of their channels, rather than counting it brand by brand. It also standardized a Canadian programming expenditure (CPE) rate of 30% of revenues for each large broadcaster. The Commission also set… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

OPINION: Writers Guild of Canada, provoked, responds to “End the bill tax for Cancon”

LAST WEEK, CARTT.CA's Greg O’Brien published an edited version of a presentation he gave as a “provocateur” at a roundtable session about the future of Canadian television production at Ryerson University. The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) was, in the best spirit of intellectual engagement and discussion, indeed provoked! To begin with, the WGC wholeheartedly agrees with O’Brien’s acknowledgement that Canadian film and television production is an important driver of economic activity in Canada. We also agree that the Canadian creative industries need and deserve government support in order to survive and thrive. And we particularly… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

OPINION: End the bill tax for Cancon

I WOULD IMAGINE a large percentage of Cartt.ca readers own a car of some sort. So, why did you buy yours? Transportation, right? Gotta get from A to B, and C, D, F… What, though, did you need it to have? My own car needed to be the family truckster, except far less ugly than Clark Griswold’s. I needed space, decent mileage, reasonable price and it had to not be a minivan or SUV. I bought my Toyota Venza new. It’s nearly nine years old now and I have been very happy with it. This is not a Toyota advertisement, however. What… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Christa Dickenson tapped as new Telefilm Canada executive director

GATINEAU – Christa Dickenson is the new executive director of Telefilm Canada for a five year term effective July 30, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly announced Tuesday. Dickenson (pictured) is the president and CEO of Interactive Ontario, and has also worked at Rogers Communications, CPAC and CTV.  She has more than two decades of experience leveraging strategic partnerships and helping generate revenue, sponsorship and fundraising opportunities in her industry, reads the announcement. She succeeds Carolle Brabant who retired from the role in March after eight years. Telefilm Canada acts as one of the Canadian government's principal instruments for providing strategic leverage to the private… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

ANALYSIS: The five questions needing answers before we set new policy for a digital Canada (Question #3, the DMEO)

SO, WE’VE NOW HEARD a bit of what Heritage Minster Mélanie Joly thinks about the review of the Broadcasting, Telecom and Radiocommunication Acts, thanks to her Sunday Banff keynote, ably reported on by Cartt.ca’s Bill Roberts. With another year of discussion and debate on the horizon, however, the best course of action to solve the tricky and complex policy challenges ahead is to ask (and answer) the right questions in the right order – and right now. I’ve thought of five extremely important questions which should be answered first, ahead of anything else. I would argue much… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

BANFF 2018: Minister Joly does more show, less tell

BANFF – Federal Heritage Minister Melanie Joly, as she has done for each of the last three years, delivered the opening keynote address at this year’s Banff World Media Festival and while in large part it was political self-congratulation for having reversed 10 years of cuts by the previous Conservative government, it was also an ample response to those in the industry who persist with the query, “what exactly has Joly done?” Turns out she’s done a fair bit… not so much on substantive policy but quite a bit on the expenditure side. Joly reminded delegates that last year at Banff… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Review of Telecom, Broadcasting and Radiocommunication Acts launched today (UPDATED)

OTTAWA – The federal government today officially launched its promised review of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Acts with a seven member panel of thinkers and experts who will also look at updating the Radiocommunications Act. (So, it's not just Joly's panel, as we had surmised earlier...) “New technology, like streaming services, has changed the way that Canadians connect with each other, do business and discover, access and consume content. Now more than ever, Canadians go online. To keep up with these changes we must modernize our legislative framework so that Canadian artists, artisans, businesses, consumers and broadcasters… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

ANALYSIS: Five questions need answers before we set new policy for a digital Canada

OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT promised a review of the Broadcasting and Telecommunication Acts in its 2017 budget and last week the CRTC took the first step down this path when it issued: Harnessing Change: The Future of Programming Distribution in Canada. While it floated a number of interesting, innovative and controversial ideas, we’re all anxious to hear what Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly will have to say about it this weekend when she addresses the Banff International Media Fest. There, we hear she is likely to announce the appointment of a worthy and carefully chosen panel of experts to undertake a year-long… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

ANALYSIS: Why Canada’s response to the Facebook scandal has been so weak

By Sara Bannerman and Charnjot Shokar FACEBOOK'S APOLOGY TOUR made a stop in Europe last week, but did little to soothe concerns about the threats that social media platforms pose to privacy and election integrity. Compared to other regions like Europe that have proposed relatively robust measures, the Canadian response has been, so far, lacklustre. The European Union’s tough new privacy laws came into effect last week. The United States government has introduced the Honest Ads Act to address social media election manipulation. Australia is investigating Google for tracking Android users’ location and web histories. Meanwhile in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is reaching out to tech… Continue Reading