HAMILTON – While the vultures encircle a faltering Canwest Global Communications, most of whom are trying to pry the company’s valuable specialty channels away, the 100 or so people working for the company’s Hamilton TV station are working on their own bid to save their small piece of the lot.
Sources with knowledge of the discussions say that both Corus Entertainment and Astral Media are working their hardest to tempt Goldman Sachs (the U.S. investment bank which owns most of the equity – if not voting control – of the group of specialties which used to be the Alliance…
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OTTAWA – New media regulation that is “moderate and constructive, but resolute” is needed to promote and safeguard Quebec’s musical culture, the Association québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo (ADISQ) told the CRTC Thursday at its broadcasting in new media hearing.
Saying that the music industry’s structure and business model have been “more profoundly changed than those of any other cultural industry by the deployment of new media platforms”, the ADISQ said regulatory guidelines “will promote the harmonious development of our culture and the new media companies, for the greater benefit of the general public."…
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A GROWING SENTIMENT AMONG many industry folks is that the carefully (and sometimes not-so-carefully) constructed, heavily regulated, TV system we have built here in Canada can not withstand the global media environment of the 21st century.
So, is it time to completely de-regulate television in Canada? Do we need to re-write the Broadcasting Act and just blow it all up?
Yesterday I talked with two people with long histories in Canadian television with diametrically opposed points of view. I think they’re both right about a number of things and if they are, our regulatory system is in for some…
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GATINEAU – There are currently no viable business models for broadcasting in the digital world, both the CBC and Corus Entertainment, two broadcasters who have taken extensive forays into the new media environment, told the CRTC on Thursday.
“We have a long way to go to securing a broadcasting model for new media,” Steve Billinger, executive director of digital programming at the CBC, said during the CRTC’s ongoing new media hearings. “What we’ve lost on the traditional broadcasting side is not being made up on the digital side.”
Steve Guiton, CBC chief regulatory officer, noted that some revenue being…
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GATINEAU – Claiming there is no evidence that mobile broadcasting will ever be viable, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association told the CRTC that wireless operators should not be required to contribute to a fund for Canadian new media content.
Too little money is being made in mobile broadcasting, and there is already a significant amount of Canadian content out there for the few who have opted for the service, CWTA president and CEO Bernard Lord said Wednesday during the CRTC’s ongoing broadcasting in new media hearing.
“Imposing a contribution tax on WSPs would amount to penalizing success,” he noted….
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OTTAWA – As the CRTC considers how the scope of April’s OTA licence renewal hearings might be “significantly narrowed or reduced”, given the severe economic fallout on broadcasters’ balance sheets, panelists at the annual film and TV producers’ conference presented their own suggestions at a session during the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association Prime Time conference last week.
The panel took place after the regulator had issued a February 13 notice of consultation outlining economic and other issues to be resolved or better understood before it can issue long-term renewals, and requiring licensees to answer a series…
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TORONTO – Tony Burman, managing director of Al-Jazeera’s English language channel – and former head of CBC News – was in Toronto this week to say that Canadians should be allowed to choose whether or not to get his channel in their homes.
Al-Jazeera the news organization has been a hot potato of a media outlet in the past. It’s Arabic language channels have aired some incredibly objectionable content in the past where virulently anti-Semitic viewpoints have made it to broadcast.
Because of that history and the resultant lobbying in Canada earlier this decade, the Arabic channel can’t really…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC’s Atlantic region commissioner, Elizabeth Duncan, has been re-appointed to her post for a new five-year term.
The former SVP and CFO of Dartmouth’s Access Cable, Duncan has been the Commission’s Atlantic rep since 2005. Her term was due to expire in May.
“She has made a valuable contribution since her appointment to the CRTC in 2005, and I look forward to working with her in the coming years. Please join me in wishing her well in her new mandate,” said chairman Konrad von Finckenstein in a note to staff on Friday.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – Gordon Ritchie had a lot more success negotiating the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement than he has had trying to inch Canada’s broadcasters toward a Terms of Trade agreement with producers.
Ritchie, the Canadian Film and Television Production Association’s (CFTPA) principal advisor as it seeks an agreement on the terms under which producers sell content to broadcasters, was a panelist discussing the state of the negotiations at the CFTPA’s annual conference this week in the nation’s capital. He says he’s been “surprised and disappointed” by the months of stagnant talks. “Absolutely nothing has been agreed at the bargaining…
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TORONTO – Middle East-based news and current affairs channel Al Jazeera English (AJE) is asking the CRTC to add it to the list of eligible satellite services in Canada.
The channel, which is already seen in more than 100 countries and 130 million households worldwide, said it is committed to opening a Canadian news bureau if it is authorized for distribution here.
Ethnic Channels Group (ECG) will present the application to the CRTC, acting in their capacity as "the channel’s sponsor", the press release said. ECG is a Canadian multi-ethnic broadcaster which currently offers 12 television channels in Canada.
AJE…
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