MONTREAL – A tax promoting the production of Canadian content for the Internet “is not needed”, and taxing Internet service providers for this purpose “amounts to taxing Canadian consumers under a false pretext”, said Quebecor Media.
“Canadians are paying enough taxes and it would be unconscionable to further increase the tax burden in the midst of an economic crisis,” said Pierre Karl Peladeau, Quebecor’s president and CEO, in a company statement. “This would be unproductive and, in any event, illegal. If we truly wish to promote the production of original Canadian content, the industry must be freed of the…
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TORONTO and OTTAWA – CTV has laid off at least 24 employees at its ‘Canada AM’ morning show, and cut its last early morning local newscast in the country.
Sources say that the broadcaster was laying off Canada AM staff members who produce local news segments exclusively for single-markets, rather than on the show’s national broadcast. The job cuts will impact operations across the country, with the exception of the Toronto and Halifax studios.
Responding to the move, Canada’s largest media union, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP), called on Heritage Minister James Moore to step in and “demand that…
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OTTAWA – CNN International has been added to the list of eligible satellite services for distribution in Canada.
The CRTC received a request from Shaw Communications in May 2008 to make the U.S.-based news service available on a digital basis, and the Commission agreed on Tuesday.
Shaw describes the service as a 24 hour-per-day, professionally produced, satellite-delivered, advertiser-supported video programming service in the English language predominantly consisting of news, information and special features. Also, according to Shaw, CNNI focuses on international news, current affairs and business programming reported by staff of various international backgrounds.
www.crtc.gc.ca www.shaw.ca…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will hold a public hearing to determine whether the way that CBC re-branded specialty channel ‘Country Canada’ to ‘bold’ has negatively impacted “the integrity of the licensing process”.
CBC re-launched its category 1 specialty Country Canada as bold on March 27 2008, after telling the Commission that the change could be done without amending the nature of service of Country Canada.
That channel’s description at launch was as follows:
The licensee shall provide a national English-language Category 1 specialty television service for rural Canadian families, with a focus on adults 25-54. The service will provide information,…
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GATINEAU – The broadband video portal Rogers Communications will launch later this year will not only be a boon to Canadians looking for high quality broadband video, it will dramatically reduce the heavy transport and promotional costs for Canadian broadcasters which are making their content available online, company officials said today.
Cartt.ca has previously reported on Rogers’ planned portal but Rogers Cable’s vice-president and general manager, television, David Purdy, put some more meat on the bones in front of the CRTC’s broadcasting in new media panel this morning in Gatineau.
“Today, over-the-air broadcasters distribute much of their content…
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TORONTO – The key to saving local news is the new fund earmarked to improve local TV programming in small markets, said the Canadian Media Guild (CMG).
The Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), announced by the CRTC last year and still under development, could be devoted to supporting initiatives to save local TV stations that CMG says “are being abandoned by the big media conglomerates”.
“What we’ve found over the last decade or so is that the structure of the big media companies has not been friendly to local programming,” said CMG national president Lise Lareau, in a statement. “There…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given the green light to three new category two channels: one devoted to music, one to travel and world cultures, and one to adult programming.
Glassbox Television Inc., owner of Bite TV, received approval for Aux TV, a national, English-language channel focusing on emerging music and its creation, including programming featuring emerging music and aimed at helping emerging musicians.
The Commission also approved the Glassbox application for Trek TV, a national, English-language service targeted at Canadians between the ages of 17 and 27 devoted to world cultures, travel, geography, exploration and anthropology.
Sex-Shop Television…
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WINDSOR – Windsor City Council is calling on the CRTC and the federal government to “guarantee” local programming, and “protect” markets that are at risk of not having their broadcast licenses renewed by the current license holders.
The resolution, adopted earlier this week, comes in response to CTV’s announcement that it will not seek renewal the broadcast license of the CKNX-TV Wingham and CHWI-TV Wheatley (also known as the Windsor/Essex County station), when its licenses expires in August, 2009.
The station currently operates under CTV’s ‘A’ brand of channels, and will no longer receive local programming. CTV said…
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TORONTO – After combining what Canadian private conventional broadcasters had asked for in their license renewal applications in January with the number of layoffs in the sector and at least $3 billion in collective asset writedowns by the OTA companies, the CRTC slammed the brakes on full license renewal hearings in May for a smaller proceeding meant to more directly address the most pressing concerns of CTV, Canwest, Citytv, and TVA.
The current global economic crisis is making an already bad situation worse for conventional broadcasters. A fragmented ad market could be managed if General Motors, for example, was spending…
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OTTAWA – We’d almost forgotten about it, but the federal government just might release its decision on the Canadian Television Fund next week.
A source with knowledge of the decision’s timing told Cartt.ca this week that Heritage Minister James Moore may have an announcement as early as Monday.
The fund has spent a lot of the past 24 months defending itself and making a few changes in the way it does things. This impending release and any potential changes in how the $250 million in annual TV production money is collected and doled out was spurred on by the…
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