COMMUNITY MEDIA’S LOW-COST participatory model has the potential to address both the crisis in local news and information, and the proliferation of fake news. Yet this sector has been relegated to a sidebar in discussions to reform Canada’s broadcasting system.
When Paul Manly of the Green Party and others recently put forward an amendment to clarify that community media Is not-for-profit, it was rejected by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.
The concern raised was that giving recognition to “not-for-profit” community broadcasting might somehow imperil giant for-profit cable and satellite corporations.
The 1991 Broadcast Act recognizes three distinct elements: private, public…
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By Steve Faguy
RIVIÈRE-DU-LOUP – Canada’s public broadcaster has cut ties with its last privately-owned affiliate TV station.
CKRT-DT, based in Rivière-du-Loup, Que., learned last year that Radio-Canada was not renewing its affiliation agreement past Aug. 31, 2021. Owner Télé Inter-Rives, which also owns affiliate stations for both TVA and Noovo in eastern Quebec, says it has no other source of programming for the station and will therefore shut it down — along with its six rebroadcasting transmitters — and return its licence to the CRTC.
“Over the last year, we have been able to discuss with Radio-Canada about this unilateral decision,”…
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MONTREAL — Quebec’s public educational broadcaster, Télé-Québec, announced today it is entrusting its advertising representation outside the province to CBC & Radio-Canada Media Solutions and its sales team, effective in June.
“Like all Canadian broadcasters, Télé-Québec is operating in a television landscape that is constantly shifting locally, nationally and internationally. Not only is competition between media intense and pervasive, but the rapid technological progress of local and foreign broadcasting platforms is forcing broadcasters to maximize their business strategies to protect their independent revenues,” reads Télé-Québec’s English press release.
“Consequently, Télé-Québec wanted to join a media group with complementary content and similar…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – After a week of complaints that Bill C-10, the bill to update the Broadcasting Act, would instead cause all Canadians’ YouTube videos and Instagram posts and so on to fall under CRTC jurisdiction, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said late Monday a new amendment is coming to try and fix the fuss.
On April 23, when Julie Dabrusin, Parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, proposed to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that Section 4.1 of Bill C-10 should be removed because it “has created some confusion for people on whether or not social media…
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“The anger and hostility towards journalists has gotten worse, and the nature of that anger is far more personal than it ever was.”
By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – In the past, CBC’s foreign correspondents covering wars first underwent “hostile environment” safety training before being deployed into a danger zone. The syllabus includes such topics as risk evaluation, stress management and resilience, and civil disorder.
However, over the past two years, as accusations of “fake news,” first fueled with a fury by the truly awful former U.S. president Donald Trump during his regular rallies and tweets, gained momentum during the Covid-19 pandemic by…
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TORONTO — News industry association RTDNA Canada today launched a new website featuring its new-look logo (above), an easy-to-navigate menu and a new career section with job listings from its network partners (there are currently two jobs at CTV National News and one at CBC News listed).
In a message today from RTDNA Canada president Fiona Conway, she writes that the association’s conference co-chairs have been busy developing an engaging lineup for its annual conference, scheduled for June 3. The event “will be virtual, live and interactive, focusing on topics relevant to the dramatic shifts our industry has…
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MONTREAL — On National Canadian Film Day, Telefilm Canada Wednesday released a new study on Canadian audiences and audiovisual content consumption habits, which reveals an overwhelming majority (73%) of Canadians would like to see more promotion of Canadian content.
The study was commissioned by Telefilm and conducted by Leger as a web-based survey between October 23 and November 6, 2020, among English- and French-speaking Canadians 18 years of age and older. A sample of almost 100 Canadians aged 13 to 17 were also surveyed. In total, 1,875 respondents completed the full questionnaire.
Here are some highlights of the study:
On…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – Monday’s federal budget, the first in two years, but the first ever delivered by a female Finance Minister in Chrystia Freeland, promises to deliver more money for rural broadband, but will find the government collecting less tax from foreign digital services as compared to their domestic counterparts.
Jay Thomson, CEO of the Canadian Communication Systems Alliance, which represents more than 100 independent TV, phone and internet providers serving mainly rural communities, was “pleasantly surprised” that the budget allocated an additional $1 billion over six years toward the $1.75-billion (now $2.75 billion) Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) unveiled…
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Digital services tax on company revenue pegged at 3%
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The federal government is proposing a $1-billion top-up to the $1.75-billion Universal Broadband Fund as part of its mission to get high-speed internet access to all Canadians by 2030.
The additional money, outlined in Monday’s federal budget, will be allocated over six years, with $272 million in planned spending starting in 2021-2022, $344 million for the next fiscal year, $129 million afterward, and $126 million for each of the two years that follow. With the top-up, the government says it has now allocated a little more than $7…
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TORONTO — CBC and Radio-Canada Distribution, the public broadcaster’s international content licensing arm, announced today several European production companies have acquired the format rights to the CBC original series Fridge Wars.
The unscripted series’ format sees world-renowned chefs competing against each other “to create top-notch meals that have to please the discerning taste buds of the average family, using only the ingredients found in their fridges,” reads the CBC distributor’s press release.
Fridge Wars is co-produced and co-created by CBC and The Gurin Company Inc. Hosted by Canadian comedian and actress Emma Hunter, the series first premiered on CBC in winter…
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