OTTAWA — Canada’s broadcasters are committing themselves to achieving gender parity in TV and film production, where 50% of key creative roles will be held by women by 2025.
On Tuesday, the CRTC posted the results so far from its Women in Production initiative to promote gender parity, which included the formation of a steering committee and the convening of a summit in December 2018 that brought together executives from Canada’s largest public and private broadcasters. Those broadcasters have now published their respective action plans for achieving gender parity in key creative positions, such as producer, director, writer, showrunner,…
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OTTAWA – Reactions were quick after the Federal Court’s Friday announcement to grant a temporary stay of the CRTC’s third party internet access rates decision.
On September 13, the cable companies (Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco, Vidéotron and Eastlink) filed a leave to appeal CRTC Telecom Order 2019-288, which lowered the rates independent ISPs must pay to access incumbent networks and forced those incumbents to reimburse the independents hundreds of millions of retroactive fees. They also requested an interim stay of the CRTC Order, request that was granted on September 27.
“We’re disappointed that the…
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TORONTO – After 14 years leading provincial public broadcaster TV Ontario, Lisa De Wilde (right) announced today she will depart at the end of October, the end of her current contract term.
De Wilde is the second senior Ontario public broadcast executive to depart, following TFO’s Glenn O’Farrell, who left his job as CEO in August. Both are long-time Liberal supporters, so it’s perhaps no surprise they decided to leave at this point in time. De Wilde was also rumoured earlier this year to be in the running to take over as head of the National…
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OTTAWA – On Friday, the Federal Court of Appeal granted a temporary stay of CRTC Telecom Order 2019-288, the decision which set new, lower, wholesale rates for third party internet access providers and also forced the incumbent network operators to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in retroactive fees to the independent resellers.
Cable companies Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco, Videoton and Eastlink were the first to file for a stay as well as for leave to appeal the CRTC decision, as we reported here. Bell Canada has also filed its own appeal application…
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OTTAWA – Since we’ve reported on the broadcasting and telecommunications proposals of the Liberals, NDP and the Greens, we’re taking a look at the Bloc Quebecois platform. The Conservatives have yet to release their platform.
While the last three we mention will not form the government, they could, however, be asked to support a minority government. The price of that support could be found here. The separatist Bloc, according to news reports, is gaining ground in pre-election polls in Quebec.
QRTC
The…
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MONTREAL – Stingray Radio has agreed to purchase CIXL-FM Welland, Ont. (Giant FM) and CKYY-FM Welland (Country 89) from R.B. Communications in a transaction valued at $6,868,940.
The acquisition must first be approved by the CRTC, which will hear the application in December. Stingray proposes a tangible benefits package of $412,136 to go with the transaction.
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Vidéotron says Bell is undercutting BDUs by making it available on Alt TV
GATINEAU – Back in April 2019, Bell Media complained to the CRTC saying Vidéotron had relegated Bell’s premium French language service Super Écran deeper into its line-up in a way that Bell says disadvantages Super Écran to the benefit of Québecor’s Club illico, which means undue preference.
In its response, on June 3rd, Vidéotron explained rates Bell would be charging in the future for the channel would make its tiers unaffordable and, in any case, Super Écran and Club illico are totally different…
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MONTREAL — A trio of Montreal-based businessmen who promised to revolutionize talk radio in the city are looking for foreign financing to help get their AM radio stations off the ground, almost eight years after their first licence was awarded by the CRTC.
In a video posted to LinkedIn this month, partner Nicolas Tétrault (pictured in a screen cap from that video), a real estate agent who recently went through a personal bankruptcy, complained that there is "no financing available for radio stations" in Quebec. “The banks, they don’t lend to media, private funds don’t lend,…
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OTTAWA – If, like Cartt.ca, you believed that the OMNI file was closed, sealed, over and done with, think again.
On September 16, Joe Volpe, publisher of the Corriere Canadese and one of the applicants for a national, multilingual multi-ethnic discretionary service, CorrCan Media Group, filed a motion in the Federal Court for a judicial review of the pronouncement by the Governor General in Council (Cabinet), issued on August 17, where the government declined to void or return CRTC Decisions 2019-172 and 2019-173 granting Rogers Media a must-carry license for its OMNI branded multicultural channels.
The relief…
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OTTAWA – As part of its campaign pledge to “make life affordable for Canadian families,” the federal Liberal Party says that if it remains in power following next month’s election, it will “take strong action” to have cellphone bills reduced by 25% within four years and save a family of four nearly $1,000 a year.
To reach that target, the Liberals say they will “work with telecom companies to offer plans comparable to global prices,” along with an unlimited family plan, according to their party’s platform on cellphone bills released Sunday.
The governing party also targets…
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