The TV tax battle
By Phil Lind with Robert Brehl
FEW THINGS GET ME SEETHING like the Canadian television networks’ attempted fee-for-carriage cash grab, the so-called “TV tax.” After everything cable did to increase their TV licences’ value over the years, in 2006 the broadcasters ignited a six-year battle to get us to pay them for carrying their signals. It went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and they came very close to winning.
Just writing this raises my hackles. Ken Engelhart and Jan Innes would joke that fee-for-carriage was my “Wullerton.” I had no idea what they meant…
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TORONTO – CBC is serving up a new podcast that promises listeners a deeper understanding of the news of the day, from a distinctly Canadian perspective.
Hosted by award-winning investigative journalist Jayme Poisson, CBC News: Front Burner is available to download daily from Monday to Friday at 6:00 AM ET. The first episode is available now on the CBC Radio app, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
“Jayme and Front Burner will build on CBC’s success as Canada’s leading podcaster to provide focus and depth to the stories shaping our country and the world each day, asking questions from a Canadian…
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TORONTO – CBC is digging into its archives for its new music series which promises historic performances and candid interviews with the biggest names in music over the past 60 years.
Hosted by by Amanda Parris and Tom Power, the six-part series From The Vaults spans 60 years of Canada’s music history, with highlights including Sammy Davis Jr. in his first ever solo television special Parade on CBC, Shania Twain performing on CBC’s The Tommy Hunter Show at the age of 14, and Leonard Cohen’s television debut on CBC’s Take 30 in 1966.
Producer Banger Films sorted through 600 hours of content…
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OTTAWA – Canadian listeners are increasingly turning to music streaming services to satisfy their appetite for curated, on-demand content, says a new report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM).
Music Streaming Services: Analysis of the English-Language Market focuses in particular on Anglophones' use of music streaming services. Highlights include their demographics, use of different services available, and devices used to access this type of content.
According to the report:
– One-third of Anglophones now listen to a music streaming service. As with other forms of online audio, Gen Zs (aged 18-28), Gen Ys (29-37) and students are the most likely to use…
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GATINEAU – If we may paraphrase some of the reaction by TekSavvy, Tbaytel and Eastlink representatives Wednesday morning in front of the CRTC it would be: "It seems strange to mandate us to continue being nice to our customers."
These three smaller independents (respectively, a wholesaler, a municipally owned telco and a regional wired and wireless carrier) also all had the same story to tell when it came to the dubious sales practices which have been so far outlined by consumers during the CRTC’s Telecom Sales Practices hearing this week in Gatineau:…
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Consumer groups tell Commission most problems likely go unreported
GATINEAU – No one is disagreeing telecom sales practices can and should be improved. The companies know this and so do the consumers and consumer groups.
But, how deeply do the problems run? The telecom companies have said, for the most part, the bare number of complaints made to the CCTS annually and to the CRTC in this proceeding collectively point to sporadic, small problems which are inevitable given the tens of millions of customer interactions they log every month. Even counting all of the complaints from all sources, the total is…
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OTTAWA – While most witnesses have insisted the Broadcasting Act is woefully out of date and the sky is falling on the industry, the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications reviewing that piece of legislation as well as the Telecommunications Act heard last week the Broadcasting Act actually works just fine, and the broadcasting system is relatively healthy.
On Wednesday, October 17, Marc Raboy, Beaverbrook professor emeritus in ethics, media and communications at McGill University and Gregory Taylor, assistant professor at the department of communication, media and film, University of Calgary, told a far different story than the appointed politicians…
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YOU HAVE TO SYMPATHIZE with the folks who took the time to register their frustration with Canadian telcos and cellcos by filing an intervention to the CRTC’s latest hearing which begins Monday.
They feel lied to. They believe they were told one thing and sold another. That they were never informed how the price they agreed to was just a promotion which ends in six months. That they told sales reps the products and services they wanted and then had other things added onto their bills. That they ended up on a contract they didn’t want.
Having read through quite a…
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TORONTO – A number of Canada’s commercial television broadcasters are banding together to end a practice known as gross-net invoicing by the end of next year.
Instead, they will implement net billing in an effort to improve TV trading, says an announcement by marketing and research association thinktv.
thinktv president and CEO Catherine MacLeod said that its member companies, which include Bell Media, CBC/Radio-Canada, IndieNet, Corus Entertainment, Quebecor Media Group, and Rogers Media, were fully aligned on the initiative, adding that “thinktv works to help advertisers and agencies get the best out of television on all its platforms – and…
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CANNES – How small media players can survive and thrive against Netflix or Amazon has occupied minds this week at MIPCOM, the annual TV market in the south of France.
So when veteran TV showrunner Tassie Cameron was asked Tuesday during a panel of Canadian content creators in Cannes how she competed against U.S. streaming giant, she recalled a postcard she received a few years ago.
On the card was a cartoon featuring a big fish, a small fish and a giant net surrounding them. Cameron then recalled the caption: "Either get so big you bust through the motherf*cker, or stay…
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