Contribution of foreign streamers updated to $1B
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez took an aggressive stance in responding to Conservative members’ questions today at a meeting of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, on whether platform users would be regulated under Bill C-11.
He started by saying that “platforms are in, but users are out.” This triggered arguments from Conservative Rachael Thomas who, amongst others, said platforms are fed by users and therefore by regulating the platforms, you are regulating the users.
The minister answered saying the platforms can only be captured if they stream commercial…
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By Howard Law
ON MAY 27 CARTT.CA published my suggested compromise on provisions in Bill C-11 impacting Canadian user-generated programming hosted by Facebook, TikTok and Google’s YouTube.
I argued a ministerial policy directive ought to direct the CRTC to regulate user-generated programming that is analogous to conventional broadcasting but exempt the remaining digital first content from regulation.
Last week Leonard St-Aubin wrote a rebuttal. Here is a summary of my take-aways from his critique:
Financing and creating CanCon should not be seen as a burden to broadcasters, but incumbent Canadian media companies treat it this way by electing to spend…
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By Konrad von Finckenstein
THE ONLINE NEWS ACT, recently introduced by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez is explained on Canadian Heritage’s website as follows: “Digital platforms have come to play an integral role in Canada’s news ecosystem, shifting the way Canadians access news content that is vital to democracy. They can play an important role in supporting the production of trusted news and information.”
The basic underlying rationale is clear. Canadian news businesses, primarily newspapers, have been severely disrupted by the Internet. Their advertising market and classified ad market has gone online and newspapers’ financial viability is in great danger.
Online platforms do…
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By Len St-Aubin
ON MAY 27, Cartt.ca published Howard Law’s “wish list” for a policy direction to the CRTC on regulating user generated content (UGC) under Bill C-11. The article demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of online social media. As well, it contains an unintended insult to Canadian content (CanCon) that highlights why broadcasting regulation is the wrong way to support CanCon online. My reply starts with the latter.
Law writes that the bill’s critics are now “grudgingly” conceding that large American streamers like Netflix should be covered by the bill “so they can begin carrying their fair share of the…
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OTTAWA – Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez has always emphatically said no, Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, does not capture individual creators or user-generated content (UGC).
He said this when he first introduced the bill, and he did so again earlier this week during question period. “Platforms are in, and users are out,” he said.
Section 2.1 does specify that a person using a social media service to upload content online to be viewed by other users of the service does not carry on a broadcasting undertaking for the purpose of the act, unless they are “the provider…
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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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Conservatives vying to stall government’s efforts to get quick passage of C-11 in committee
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – When committee members from all parties agreed last week to hold a minimum of 20 hours of meetings to hear witnesses, including the first five hours on autopilot (no motion would be entertained), it led us to believe everything would go smoothly, relatively speaking, in the Heritage Committee’s study of Bill C-11.
The government’s efforts, however, seem to have been thwarted by delaying tactics and outside events, such as votes in the House of Commons and main estimates studies by the committee.
The…
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OTTAWA – The House of Commons today passed a motion for Bill C-18, the Online News Act, to be read a second time and for it to be sent to the Heritage Committee.
The Conservatives previously asked for an amendment to the motion for second reading, which was voted on today and would have (if it had passed, which it did not) seen the bill withdrawn and its subject matter referred to the Heritage Committee.
Today’s news comes a day after the House of Commons passed a motion to set a time limit on the debate of the bill.
The…
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OTTAWA – Last week, the CRTC posted a part one application from several service providers who came together to ask the Commission to review the wholesale roaming tariff rates of the country’s national wireless carriers (Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications and Telus Communications), calling them “manifestly unjust and unreasonable”.
“This application deals with the flagrant overcharging for wholesale roaming – an essential service that stands as one of the central pillars of the Commission’s policy framework for ensuring sustainable competition in the provision of mobile wireless services in Canada,” reads the application, which was filed by regional competitors Bragg Communications Inc….
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The CRTC today closed two separate complaints made by BCE against Quebecor subsidiary Videotron, deciding in favour of Québecor in one matter and choosing not to get involved at this time in the second matter.
VRAI HVOD service
In the first matter, the Commission issued a decision dealing with a BCE complaint (see also here and here) about Quebecor’s Vrai service which, it argues, was offered in violation of the CRTC hybrid video-on-demand (HVOD) exemption order because it was not being offered to other broadcasting distribution undertakings for television and was being offered as…
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