BANFF – Federal Heritage Minister Melanie Joly, as she has done for each of the last three years, delivered the opening keynote address at this year’s Banff World Media Festival and while in large part it was political self-congratulation for having reversed 10 years of cuts by the previous Conservative government, it was also an ample response to those in the industry who persist with the query, “what exactly has Joly done?”
Turns out she’s done a fair bit… not so much on substantive policy but quite a bit on the expenditure side.
Joly reminded delegates that last year at Banff…
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TORONTO – The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) has promoted Dave Forget to its national executive director effective July 1st, replacing Brian Baker who will take on the role of senior advisor at the Guild’s Montreal office.
Forget (pictured) first joined the Guild in 2015, following a 14-year career with Telefilm. Prior to that, he held various management positions in film distribution, including at Red Sky Entertainment, 20th Century Fox and Alliance Atlantis Releasing.
“We are thrilled that Dave Forget has agreed to lead our staff at the Guild,” said DGC president Tim Southam, in the announcement. “In his three years…
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WITH THE REVIEW OF the Broadcasting Act (Telecom and Radiocom, too) now under way, as was announced Tuesday, we’re all very anxious to hear what Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly will have to say about it this weekend when she addresses the Banff International Media Fest (Cartt.ca will have a reporter in the room, of course).
Now, since we’re looking at at least another year of discussion and debate, the best course of action to solve such tricky and complex policy challenges is to ask (and answer) the right questions in the right order – and right now….
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TORONTO – Rather than looking at next generation 9-1-1 like a plumbing project that is necessary and uninspiring, “we should be inspired by disruptors and ought to consider how to use the 9-1-1 brand to propagate safety and security,” Don Ferguson told the Canadian Telecom Summit audience on Tuesday.
Ferguson, the chief executive officer of tech provider NGA911, was part of panel convened to discuss the evolution of emergency communications. Moderated by telecommunications consultant Ed Antecol, the panel also included Paul Temple, senior vice-president of regulatory and strategic affairs at Pelmorex (which runs Canada’s emergency alerting service), and Peter White,…
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TORONTO—As might be expected, Canadian telecom executives are already choosing up sides for the forthcoming battle over the CTRC's proposals for reshaping how the feds regulate and tax traditional and new media across the country.
That much was evident at the Canadian Telecom Summit here late Tuesday. Speaking during the annual "Regulatory Blockbuster" panel moderated by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O'Brien, execs representing industry incumbents and upstarts battled it out over the Commission's new recommendations to "develop better regulatory approaches that engage all audio and video services and for each to participate," producing plenty of verbal fireworks.
Generally backing the…
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OTTAWA – The federal government today officially launched its promised review of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Acts with a seven member panel of thinkers and experts who will also look at updating the Radiocommunications Act.
(So, it's not just Joly's panel, as we had surmised earlier...)
“New technology, like streaming services, has changed the way that Canadians connect with each other, do business and discover, access and consume content. Now more than ever, Canadians go online. To keep up with these changes we must modernize our legislative framework so that Canadian artists, artisans, businesses, consumers and broadcasters…
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OTTAWA – With the CRTC’s report on the future of programming distribution in Canada now in hand, it is expected that Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly will unveil a panel of industry experts which she has appointed to come up with key recommendations to overhaul the Broadcasting Act.
We don’t know what it’s going to be called or who is going to be on it as of this writing (really early June 5th), but the announcement could come as early as today and not wait until the Minster’s keynote speech at the Banff World Media Festival this…
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OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT promised a review of the Broadcasting and Telecommunication Acts in its 2017 budget and last week the CRTC took the first step down this path when it issued: Harnessing Change: The Future of Programming Distribution in Canada.
While it floated a number of interesting, innovative and controversial ideas, we’re all anxious to hear what Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly will have to say about it this weekend when she addresses the Banff International Media Fest. There, we hear she is likely to announce the appointment of a worthy and carefully chosen panel of experts to undertake a year-long…
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GATINEAU – On the empirical side, unsurprisingly, data compiled and released today by the CRTC in response to a government request, show the slow decline of the popularity and revenues of traditional media.
But for the future, the report called Harnessing Change: The Future of Programming Distribution in Canada identifies four options available to the federal government as it mulls its promised overhauls of the Broadcasting Act and Telecommunications Act:
Status quo
Deregulate traditional players
Apply the existing regulatory approach to new players
Develop new, adaptable and innovative approaches which engage new players. This is the one the Report recommends.
“To ensure a vibrant domestic…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC proposed some new tools and regulatory approaches Thursday designed to support the production and promotion of Canadian audio and video content.
The report, Harnessing Change: The Future of Programming Distribution in Canada, is meant to aid the Feds’ pending overhaul of the Broadcasting and Telecom Acts by offering “important context and policy options”.
“This report does not set out specific timelines or predictions, nor does it attempt to prescribe policy”, reads the introduction. “Rather, it comes to conclusions on the types of change needed to the legislative and regulatory frameworks given the likely market…
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