By Etan Vlessing
TORONTO – For the CBC, original Canadian scripted and unscripted series are not new revenue streams – they are a core business.
That is what emerged earlier today as the pubcaster held its virtual 2022-23 upfront presentation and looked, as in past years, to stand out in a hyper-competitive TV landscape where foot-loose viewers and marketers are pivoting to the streaming space.
The CBC is betting two words stood out from its pitch to domestic advertisers and will be heard far less often from its market competitors during this year’s upfront presentations: Canadian and diverse.
Barb Williams, executive vice-president of…
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TORONTO — SiriusXM Canada announced today the appointment of Michelle Mearns (above) as vice-president of programming and operations.
In this role, she reports to CEO Mark Redmond and “will be responsible for the development and production of all Canadian programming as well as technical operations,” reads a press release announcing her hiring.
“Michelle is a respected leader in the industry and is going to bring an experienced and fresh perspective to our business,” Redmond said in the release. “We’re very excited to welcome her to the team to lead the charge as our content offering continues to grow and evolve.”
Mearns…
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By Howard Law
HERITAGE MINISTER PABLO RODRIGUEZ has promised a policy directive to the CRTC with cabinet instructions on implementing Bill C-11.
Point number one in the new directive should be making the certification of Canadian content more relevant to the Canadian experience by including qualitative judgments of national subject matter in the video content. I posted about this recently, as have others. The signal from the minister is that he has an open mind to it.
Point number two is to direct the CRTC to reappraise the existing regulatory supports for the money-losing local news industry.
Point number three is what to do…
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OTTAWA – Conservative critic John Nater (above) called into question the CRTC’s ability to effectively fulfill the responsibilities that would be handed to it by Bill C-18, the Online News Act, during second reading of the bill, which began today in the House of Commons.
Nater more specifically asked why the Commission was selected “to enforce and oversee the act when the CRTC does not have a history or experience in regulating online platforms.”
The Conservative critic further questioned the Commission’s suitability for the role by pointing to its chair Ian Scott’s “clear lack of judgement” when meeting Bell…
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By Howard Law
HERITAGE MINISTER PABLO RODRIGUEZ has promised a CRTC policy directive to implement Bill C-11’s broad mandate to sweep foreign streaming platforms into our national program to create, fund and promote Canadian content.
C-11 has now passed second reading in the House of Commons and is on its way to the Heritage Committee for amendments and further debate. It’s time for the minister to table a draft directive.
What should be in it?
The minister has said he’s receptive to strengthening the definition of Canadian content, currently codified by the CRTC, the Canada Media Fund, and the Heritage tax credit…
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CANADA AND BRITAIN’s national public broadcasters, CBC/Radio-Canada and BBC, announced today they have jointly commissioned three new original podcasts by BBC World Service and CBC Podcasts.
The podcasts are an extension of a commitment to collaboration the BBC and CBC/Radio-Canada announced in 2019, a press release explains. They are scheduled to be released in late 2022 and 2023 on BBC Sounds, CBC Listen and on other podcast and audio platforms.
The working titles for the podcasts, which are currently in production, are The Billion Dollar Goldmine Scam, The Bait and Hollywood Outcasts.
The…
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TORONTO – Leading Ontario broadcasters including CBC, CHCH, City TV, CPAC, CTV, Global and TVO are coming together to produce and televise live the Ontario Leaders Debate on May 16 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
The debate, which will also be simulcast on radio stations and will be available online, is taking place at the TVO Broadcast Centre in midtown Toronto. Journalists Steve Paikin (host of TVO’s The Agenda) and Althia Raj (Toronto Star columnist, CBC At Issue panel member) will be the moderators.
Leaders from major parties running candidates in all Ontario ridings and that currently have an elected…
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IQALUIT – Last week, after 16 years of preparation and planning, Inuit TV finally launched on Shaw Direct on channel 268.
“This is history in the making,” said Lucy Qavavauq (pictured above with her son, Inuuki Burke), co-CEO of Inuit TV, in an interview with Cartt.ca.
“This is very celebratory – not only for Inuit but for the rest of Canada… to be able to see what our beautiful culture is.”
The idea for the channel emerged because there was not much “unique content – not as much as Inuit wanted,” Qavavauq said, explaining “things started moving from there.”
Dedicated volunteers brought the…
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OTTAWA — CBC/Radio-Canada’s Media Technology Monitor (MTM) today released a new report that shows the number of Canadians, both English and French-speaking, who subscribe to paid TV services is still relatively high.
“Although paid TV subscriptions have been in decline for over a decade, they still remain fairly high with 69% of anglophone households having a paid TV service,” reads a press release highlighting MTM’s findings for the English Canadian paid TV market.
For French-speaking Canada, the percentage of households that subscribe to paid TV services is approximately 75% (three out of four), according to MTM’s research on the French market.
In…
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By Monica Auer
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is asking Canadians to trust the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to implement new legislation about electronic communications.
The CRTC is now responsible for implementing Canada’s Broadcasting and Telecommunications Acts, Canada’s ‘Anti-Spam’ law as well as parts of the Canada Elections Act and the 2019 Accessible Canada Act: the government is proposing through Bills C-11 and C-18 to give the Commission more powers over Canadian and foreign Internet broadcasters as well as Canada’s news media, along with new authority to levy administrative monetary penalties for non-compliance with the CRTC’s requirements.
In February the government assured…
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