Creative group highlights Guilbeault’s impact on culture
By Ahmad Hathout
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault announced Thursday night that he resigned from cabinet over his government’s deal with Alberta to build a pipeline project that he says will fall short of climate change goals and that disturb initiatives he put forward as environment and climate change minister.
The memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the federal government and Alberta, announced earlier that day, stipulates that the province will build one or more private sector-constructed and financed pipelines “with at least one million barrels a day of low emission Alberta bitumen with a route that…
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By Howard Law, author of MediaPolicy.ca and Canada vs. California: How Ottawa took on Netflix and the streaming giants (Lorimer, 2024)
In October 2022, Netflix appeared at the Senate committee reviewing the proposed Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, when the Conservative senator Fabian Manning pitched a softball question: What was the Hollywood giant’s “main priority” in amending a bill it didn’t welcome?
The Canadian spokesperson for the streamer was succinct in his answer: “If I had to choose just one, it would be the issue of copyright ownership.”
Last week, Netflix got what it wanted.
The CRTC’s Continue Reading
Vancouver-based production companies Omnifilm Entertainment and Reality Distortion Field this week announced they have formalized their agreement to jointly develop and produce original scripted television projects for global markets.
“Across their shared slate, Reality Distortion Field (RDF) will provide creative oversight while Omnifilm will provide physical production, post-production, production administration and financing, resulting in a fully integrated content pipeline,” an RDF press release says.
RDF is the production company behind Netflix’s 2020-2022 series Warrior Nun as well as Fakes (Netflix, CBC Gem), the latter being a coproduction with Omnifilm. Omnifilm has previously produced content for Netflix, Disney+, Discovery, BBC,…
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Global media intelligence provider TVEyes last week announced the launch of TVEyes Canada Inc., expanding its presence in North America with comprehensive broadcast and podcast monitoring across major audio and video media formats in Canada.
Based in Toronto, TVEyes Canada will deliver real-time media intelligence in both English and French, spanning all 10 provinces and three territories, according to a TVEyes press release.
“The new entity offers licensed and compliant access to Canada’s leading media sources, including CBC, CTV, Global, ICI Radio-Canada Télé, and additional major outlets, alongside more than 2,000 podcast sources…
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Quebecor’s TVA Group announced Wednesday it is eliminating 87 positions in its broadcasting segment as its financial situation continues to deteriorate.
The cuts affect primarily unionized jobs and include permanent and temporary positions in Montreal and at local stations in Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke, Saguenay and Rimouski, TVA Group said in a press release.
Despite its restructuring and workforce rationalization strategies in recent years, TVA Group has posted cumulative net losses of more than $93 million since January 2022, including a $17 million loss for the first nine months of 2025, due primarily to a…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The head of Quebecor on Thursday excoriated the federal government’s decision to up CBC/Radio-Canada’s annual funding while not forcing it out of commercial advertising sales.
The Liberals allocated an additional $150 million to the public broadcaster’s annual appropriation, which was a pre-election commitment from Prime Minister Mark Carney, but did not push it out of those ad sales for which private television broadcasters compete.
“Regrettably, this new government has missed an opportunity to support an industry facing ever-growing challenges and job losses at an alarming rate,” Pierre Karl Peladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor, said during…
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Liberals fulfill pledge to up CBC funding by $150M
By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – While the federal government announced some $51 billion in cuts and savings and projected a deficit of about $78 billion in its budget delivered on Tuesday by Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne to address what he characterized as a “level of uncertainty higher than what we have seen and felt for generations,” Canada’s film and television industry welcomed a significant funding allotment as part of the government’s plans for $141 billion in new spending.
The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) “applaud groundbreaking cultural sector investments” in the budget.
“Today’s budget…
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CBC on Monday announced a new 24/7 commercial-free CBC Kids streaming channel, available now to stream on CBC Gem and the CBC Kids YouTube channel.
The channel features CBC Kids animated and live-action series for kids aged two to 10, including: preschool favourite Dino Ranch, following the adventures of the Cassidy family’s ranch for dinosaurs; live-action, stop-motion series Go Togo, about the vehicles of Transitville; Hey Duggee, about a big dog and his friends; and Molly of Denali, following an Indigenous girl and her friends.
Radio-Canada on Monday also launched two French-language…
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CBC on Monday announced it has expanded its free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel portfolio with the launch of a new Schitt’s Creek channel on CBC Gem.
Set to launch additionally this fall on LG Channels and The Roku Channel, the Schitt’s Creek FAST channel features all six seasons of the Emmy Award-winning CBC original comedy series as well as the one-hour finale special Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: A Schitt’s Creek Farewell.
The channel joins CBC Comedy and dedicated Heartland and Murdoch Mysteries channels (launched…
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Proposing one-year trial for spoken word on FM
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday abolished radio licence renewal periods, thereby making licenses indefinite with regular compliance audits that it says will streamline the process and reduce the burden on both the industry and the commission itself.
The regulator said it was often processing over 300 licence renewal applications every year, with multiple rounds of information requested from each station. But it found that the vast majority of stations were in “full compliance at all times, and most of the non-compliance was minor and could be addressed easily.”
The new Broadcasting Act allows…
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