IT MAY NOT BE UNTIL 2010 when the CRTC holds licence renewal proceedings for the big Canadian TV companies, but the new chief executive of Canada’s national producers association has been working hard on that file for weeks already.
“We believe that the corporate group licence renewal hearings that are coming up in 2010 are probably the most important regulatory event of our generation and will have wide-ranging impact for the next 25 or 30 years,” said Norm Bolen, president and CEO of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA), in a recent interview with Cartt.ca. “It’s very…
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OTTAWA – After dominating the three months worth of hearings earlier this Spring, the House of Commons committee on Canadian Heritage left out any recommendation on the controversial issue of fee for carriage in its report on the state of local television released Friday.
The committee heard testimony from 45 different groups in March, April and May about the issues and challenges facing Canada’s TV industry, from the importance of local television, to the fragmentation of TV audiences, through to declining advertising revenues.
Made up of MPs from all of the federal parties, the standing committee’s report made 18…
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BANFF, AB – The Canadian Television Fund (CTF) helped to create 2,210 hours of new Canadian programming last year, through 475 productions and 325 development projects.
The organization released funding highlights from its 2008-2009 fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2009, from the Banff Television Festival.
Its $2 million digital media pilot program launched to “extraordinary demand”, with all funds allocated within the first six weeks, supporting 20 English and 10 French productions. The $5 million production incentive pilot program, designed to support English production in Quebec and Atlantic Canada where volumes had dropped "significantly", was also entirely allocated, benefiting…
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BANFF – An optimistic Canadian Heritage minister said he was “not worried” about Canada’s culture, including its film and TV industries.
Opening the Banff World Television Festival Sunday night, James Moore predicted “there will be better days ahead,” although today was also not a bad time for the industry.
“There have never been more choices for consumers. There have never been more opportunities for producers. We’ve never had the vastness of the audiences we have right now,” he stated.
While Canadians are consuming more media than ever, they are doing it in a different manner than the 32-year-old minister…
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WE’VE READ ALL SORTS of dissenting opinions on CRTC from individual commissioners who don’t agree with their co-panellists. But a “concurring opinion”? That’s a new one for us.
Yesterday’s release of the Commission’s broadcasting in new media review was not exactly an earth-shattering moment. Response was a tepid “yea” for the most part because faced with the Act that binds its actions as well as what’s going on in reality and using common sense, the Regulator did all it could by saying no to changes in its exemption orders, going to the Federal Court, and calling for a…
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TWO SOURCES HAVE confirmed to Cartt.ca that former Heritage Minister Sheila Copps is one of the finalists for the position of president and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasters Association.
Final interviews are apparently being done this week, say the sources with intimate knowledge of the situation, but Copps is apparently the leader in the clubhouse right now.
Copps, a very high profile MP through the 80s and 90s, held the Hamilton East riding for 20 years for the federal Liberals, beginning in 1984 and was Deputy Prime Minister under PM Jean Chretien from 1993 to 1997.
A journalist by…
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TORONTO – CTV and its ‘A’ stations thanked viewers who they say helped to make its ‘save local television’ campaign a “tremendous success”.
The initiative, which CTV describes as “designed to inform viewers of the critical issues facing their local television stations”, hosted over 30,000 Canadians at its 16 open houses held across the country on May 23. The network said that it also received over 50,000 on-line petition signatures, and that more than 25,000 letters were sent to James Moore, the Minister of Heritage, expressing support for fee for carriage.
But with all of the promotional weight that the network threw behind its…
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SO I SET MY PVR to record about two and a half Saturday afternoon hours of CTV Newsnet (CTV News Channel, as of this morning) this past weekend in order to watch the charade I expected to see.
Heading into the weekend, viewers of CTVglobemedia properties were fed a steady dose of some very one-sided ads promoting the company’s cross-country open houses meant to help “save local TV”, along with a web site of which the best one can say tells a very incomplete story.
While it wasn’t the travesty I had assumed was coming (far from it, actually),…
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TORONTO – In what could be its last actions, the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) has announced the renewal of its digital media program and production incentive program for the 2009-2010 season.
The digital media program, which supports the digital extensions of traditional television programming, has been increased from $2 million to $10 million.
The production incentive program, launched as a pilot program last year, was designed to balance the distribution of financial support to productions across Canada by encouraging production where volumes have declined significantly. It has been increased from $5 million to $10 million.
The CTF supports the development of Canadian…
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OTTAWA – After Canada’s major English-language performers’ union and a community TV association testified before the Heritage Standing Committee about Canadian TV content rules, a specialty broadcaster raised concerns about getting carriage for the content once it’s made.
Wednesday’s testimony will help form part of the committee’s study on the evolution of the television industry in Canada and its impact on local communities, which launched March 25 and will conclude next week with a return visit by CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein.
Actors union ACTRA led off by reiterating many of the points it raised during its appearance on…
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