OTTAWA – Saying he is "sufficiently assured" that change is in the works with the Canadian Television Fund, Jim Shaw told the Standing Committee of Canadian Heritage this morning "we will restore our payments," to the CTF.
As reported by Cartt.ca, Shaw began withholding its $5 million a month in monthly payments to the $250 million annual fund, saying the fund is not accountable, pays for too few shows that are success stories and that too much money goes towards programs that appear on the CBC.
Shaw’s regulatory head Ken Stein said that the CTF funding, when established over…
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WASHINGTON and NEW YORK – With both companies still awash in a sea of red ink, XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio today announced they will merge in an all-stock merger with a combined value of approximately US$13 billion, which includes net debt of approximately US$1.6 billion.
Under the terms of the agreement, XM shareholders will receive 4.6 shares of Sirius common stock for each share of XM they own. XM and Sirius shareholders will each own approximately 50% of the combined company.
There are no details as yet for what will happen with Sirius Canada and XM Canada….
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MONTREAL – Quebecor Media has decided to pull in its horns over the funding of Canadian television productions and will resume monthly payments to the CTF, at least for now.
Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau said late Tuesday he was encouraged by the commitment made earlier in the day by the new CRTC Chair, Konrad Von Finckenstein, to become involved in finding solutions to the issues raised by Quebecor and Shaw Communications.
Von Finckenstein said the two companies had highlighted “serious issues that need to be resolved”, and that Quebecor, with its funding proposal outlined Monday, had…
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BY THE MIDDLE OF this year, Canada’s largest satellite operator, Telesat, will be a much bigger company.
When Loral Space Communications and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board said in December it would pay about $3.4 billion for Bell Canada Enterprises-owned Telesat, it moved the Ottawa-based company into a larger playing field. Its seven satellites plus four from Loral and the four the companies currently have in the pipeline under construction or awaiting launch, will more than double Telesat’s size by the end of 2009, when the last bird on the drawing board right now is built.
However,…
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Karen Wirsig of the Canadian Media Guild (Letter to the Editor, January 30, 2007) makes several arguments that are self-serving and wrong.
1. It is untrue that the CTF was funded with money taken away from CBC/Radio-Canada. When the CTF was created, Telefilm Canada’s broadcast equity-investment fund was rolled into the new joint public-private entity. No new public money was allocated to independent production.
2. Wirsig complains that broadcasters do not qualify for CTF money to produce their own shows. It’s true, they don’t. But this does not leave broadcasters "in a serious bind," as she says. In fact,…
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VANCOUVER – CBC Television and Thunderbird Films today announced that production is underway in Vancouver on The Quality of Life – A Dominic Da Vinci Movie.
The special two-hour television movie follows the popular Dominic Da Vinci franchise (Da Vinci’s Inquest, Da Vinci City Hall) and picks up where City Hall left off. The Quality of Life will air during the fall 2007 season on CBC Television and in 2008 on Showcase.
"Dominic Da Vinci has become a true Canadian icon, and we jumped at the chance to bring him back to television audiences,” said Kirstine Layfield, executive director…
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OTTAWA – The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union has asked the new CRTC chairman, Konrad von Finckentstein, to launch hearings into the Canadian media landscape.
CEP says it represents approximately 25,000 members in the media, and that ownership concentration has reached exceptionally high levels requiring a public analysis.
"Thirty years ago the Commission was going to look into the issue, but that hearing was cancelled. Nothing has been done since," said Peter Murdoch, vice-president media, in the press release. "As a result, today we have significantly higher concentration of ownership. And given approximately $4 billion worth of transactions waiting…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications has again rejected the arguments made by those who support the Canadian Television Fund and its aims.
Today the company "categorically rejected" a suggestion made by former Shaw executive Richard Stursberg, who is now CBC TV’s executive vice-president, that withholding payments to the fund will "unravel" the Canadian broadcasting system.
"It is unconstructive and misleading. The CBC is the biggest recipient of CTF monies. Canadians deserve a fair and independent accounting of how billions of dollars that they paid out in taxes and fees were spent by the CTF and the CBC," said Jim Shaw,…
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GATINEAU – Quebecor Media’s Sun TV has asked the Commission for permission to build transmitters in both London and Ottawa.
The move would dramatically expand the channel’s coverage area, making it a basic cable must carry across most of the province- and Sun TV would then be far more competitive in the lucrative Southern Ontario TV market.
Expect the existing broadcasters in the region, from CTV to Global to the CBC to Rogers to CTS to whomever ends up owning the A-Channels (London, Wingham, Barrie and Ottawa) after the CTV-CHUM purchase, to vehemently oppose any further market additions, just…
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IN THE DR SEUSS CLASSIC How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the Grinch is robbed of his revenge when the good burghers of Whoville preserve their Christmas spirit and retain their celebrations despite having been robbed of their gifts and sustenance.
In the modern Canadian retelling, the Grinch is not Jim Carrey but Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw, who started sledding off with the Canadian content money our regs say he’s obliged to pay, just before Christmas – and has since encountered fewer effective voices preserving its spirit than there are moguls on a ski run.
Instead, while Mr. Shaw…
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