By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – The Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review (BTLR) panel report, released last week, has much to say on the creation, production and discoverability of Canadian content amid the realities of an-ever expanding global market where viewers have equally growing choices of accessing content online.
However, the report only referred to “intellectual property” twice in its massive report, and did not address how Canadian creators can better protect that precious commodity while competing internationally. So, it was left to the industry to discuss IP as the “currency of the future” in the final panel on the closing…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – While a determination on an application to amend conditions of licence relating to the set-top box audience measurement system has not yet been announced, Cartt.ca has confirmed Videotron has rejoined the working group trying to turn the viewer data from pay-TV in-home decoders (there aren’t a lot of these things still resting atop TV sets) into ratings currency.
The company rejoined the working group last week without providing an explanation or making comments. When asked, the CRTC referred question to the Working Group itself, led by Shaw, which did not respond to our inquiry.
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OTTAWA — Responding to a procedural request for information from the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, the CRTC is now asking CBC/Radio-Canada to submit its total aggregate revenues for all of its online services, as part of the proceeding related to the public broadcaster’s licence renewal.
In a letter sent to the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting on January 28, the Commission notes it has sent CBC/Radio-Canada a letter requesting the information about aggregate revenues (subscriber and advertising) asked for by FCB for all CBC/Radio-Canada owned and operated audio and audiovisual online services. CBC/Radio-Canada has until February 4, 2020 to provide…
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GATINEAU – On Friday, the CRTC’s Internet Code of conduct officially came into force, which is aimed at giving Canadians additional safeguards when dealing with their internet service providers.
The code sets out that ISPs must provide:
easier-to-understand contracts, documentation and policies surrounding service calls, outages, security deposits and disconnections
clearer information about prices, including for bundles, promotions and time-limited discounts
bill shock protection, through notifications when customers approach and reach their data-usage limits
information on the new rules permitting customers to cancel a contract within 45 days, without paying early cancellation fees, if the contract differs from the…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – After barely a day to digest, the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review panel report claimed centre stage during day one of the Canadian Media Producers Association’s 25th Prime Time conference in Ottawa on Thursday.
One day after releasing their report – 19 months in the making and which resulted in 97 recommendations – chair Janet Yale and fellow panelist Monique Simard provided some insight during a lunchtime appearance.
“Our job was to deliver recommendations on how to modernize the legislative and regulatory framework governing the communication sector in broadcasting and telecommunications,” said Yale. “We really thought about…
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By Etan Vlessing
OTTAWA – As Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and other U.S. streamers compete in Canada alongside local digital rivals Crave and CBC Gem, Bell Media president Randy Lennox and CBC president and CEO Catherine Tait on Thursday offered competing visions on how best to potentially structure TV deals with American streamers promising bigger budgets and global reach, while still protecting and fully exploiting their Canadian-nurtured IP.
During a Prime Time panel entitled “Canadian Broadcasting Beyond 2020,” Lennox and Tait talked of grappling with production financing tools and strategies dramatically morphing in the streaming era as American digital partners…
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OTTAWA – “Private broadcasters are encouraged to see that the government maintained the general exception for Canada’s cultural industries in the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA)”, said Canadian Association of Broadcaster chair Lenore Gibson in a press release Monday evening responding to the expected ratification of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
As the government has indicated, the cultural exception “protects Canada’s broadcasting system, ensuring sustained investment in content created and produced by fellow Canadians,” reads the release. That section of the new trade deal can be found here.
“Ratification of CUSMA can now go hand in hand with updating Canada’s broadcasting…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – The much-anticipated report by the federal Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review panel has so far drawn praise from some of the industries it affects, but mainly criticism from the official opposition Conservatives.
At a National Press Theatre news conference following the release of the report on Wednesday, Michelle Rempel Garner, the Conservative shadow minister for industry and economic development (pictured in a cpac.ca screen cap), said that while the 235-page document, entitled Canada’s Communications Future: A Time to Act, is “well-intentioned, was written in one of the most heavily lobbied and regulated spaces in Canadian industry…
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OTTAWA — Somebody owes Telus some money. Maybe it’s Rogers and Bell. Or it could be the consumer groups l’Union des consommateurs and (to a lesser extent) the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC). Either way, Telus should be getting back about $1,700 as a result of a decision rendered Wednesday by the CRTC.
Back in May 2019, after the Commission denied PIAC’s request for clarification on the device unlocking rules set out in the Wireless Code, the CRTC did approve an application by l’Union and a separate application by PIAC for the awarding of costs related…
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GATINEAU – With a number of proposed substantive changes to the role and responsibilities of the CRTC recommended in the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review (BTLR) panel report released today, it’s not surprising one of the first people to issue a statement regarding the report was the Commission’s chair and CEO, Ian Scott.
The first of the panel’s 97 recommendations is that the name of the CRTC be changed to the Canadian Communications Commission, the title of the Broadcasting Act be changed to the Media Communications Act, and the title of the Telecommunications Act be changed to the Electronic…
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