By Howard Law
DESPITE THE SENATE’S singular focus on Bill C-11’s regulation of user generated content, today’s witnesses shed some light on other issues both important and neglected.
The biggest issue that has been mostly avoided in both the House and the Senate is what the post C-11 broadcasting world will look like when the US streamer/studios are placed under new obligations to make and/or finance CanCon, known in CRTC lingo as “Canadian Programming Expenditures (CPE).”
Debate over that issue immediately invokes a hot button issue: what counts as a certified “Canadian” program?
And debate over what is a Canadian program immediately poses…
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By Leonard St-Aubin
MORE THAN A YEAR ago I wrote in Cartt.ca that it would be no easy feat, under Bill C-10 (now C-11), to integrate global streamers into Canada’s protected domestic broadcasting system, laden with complex regulation and cross-subsidies for Canadian content (Cancon).
And I predicted that high-profile Cancon would be outsourced to global streamers as Canadian broadcasters struggle to compete.
Three recent developments validate those observations.
First is a chorus of calls for flexibility in what qualifies as Cancon, from Disney, Netflix, Spotify, and North American screen workers union IATSE. The issue is that Cancon’s outdated definitions are likely…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – There is “no silver bullet” that will put an end to fraudulent phone calls, Ian Scott, chair of the CRTC told the House of Commons Committee on Industry, Science and Technology last Thursday during a meeting at which Commission representatives updated the committee about their ongoing work on the problem.
“There is no single solution – no silver bullet – that will put an end to this scourge,” Scott said. “That is why we have put in place a robust strategy that relies on a number of technical and regulatory solutions.”
Back in March 2020, the…
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By Konrad von Finckenstein
THE STATED PURPOSE of Bill C-18, the Online News Act, “is to regulate digital news intermediaries with a view to enhancing fairness in the Canadian digital news marketplace and contributing to its sustainability, including the sustainability of independent local news businesses.”
The motivation for the act stems from the idea that local newspapers do not get the appropriate recompense for news that they produce but that reaches the public via digital platforms. These platforms are considered to have inordinate market power that can be misused.
Scheme of the act
To rectify the situation, the act contemplates a mandatory bargaining…
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By Douglas Barrett
AMID THE GATHERING storm of comment on what should constitute a Canadian program once Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, is passed, there’s a question that needs to be addressed at the forefront: what is a Canadian producer?
Generally, when we think of a film or television producer we are speaking about the person or persons who have developed the creative property, raised the financing, engaged the key creatives including and especially the writer(s) and director, cast the performers, ensured the production stayed on time and budget, managed all aspects of post-production, and delivered the completed product to…
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CBC/RADIO-CANADA HAS responded to an open letter penned by Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau, published here on Cartt.ca earlier today.
In his open letter, Péladeau expressed discontent with the direction of the national public broadcaster and the fact the government did not include any direction to the CRTC to consider “the advertising dollars the CBC/Radio-Canada is gobbling up” when it told the Commission to reconsider its decision on the renewal of CBC/Radio-Canada’s licences.
“Mr. Péladeau’s preoccupation with CBC/Radio-Canada is well known,” a CBC/Radio-Canada spokesperson said in an email to Cartt.ca. “He has, for years, repeated the claim…
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By Connie Thiessen
OTTAWA – Media Technology Monitor (MTM) has released a new report that indicates one in five English-speaking Canadians and one in six Francophones have “cut the cord” and canceled their paid TV service.
MTM says while the majority of Canadians (69% of Anglophones and 74% of Francophones) continue to subscribe to services like cable, fiber optic or satellite TV, many are choosing to forgo paid TV and opting out.
“Cord Cutters” tend to be younger, well-educated and often have children under age 12 in the home, according to the report, which also found that streaming Subscription Video on Demand…
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IN JUNE, THE CRTC renewed CBC/Radio-Canada’s broadcasting licences on terms that caused widespread indignation. Dozens of organizations protested that the new conditions of licence constitute a major departure from the mission of a public broadcaster. Last Thursday, the Governor General in Council ordered the CRTC to reconsider its decision, bearing in mind that the national public broadcaster must continue to make “a significant contribution to the creation, presentation and dissemination of local news, children’s programming, original French-language programming and programming produced by independent producers.”
That order is good news for Canada’s production industry and we welcome it. However, there’s nothing…
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Bell, Cogeco, Eastlink, SaskTel asking for $3/month increase to skinny basic packages
OTTAWA and GATINEAU — Six years after skinny basic TV packages were first introduced in Canada, with a CRTC-mandated price cap of $25 per month, a group of TV service providers has asked the Commission to increase that cap to $28 per month.
Bell, Cogeco Communications, Eastlink and SaskTel filed a joint application in January 2022 making the request, which also asked for subsequent yearly adjustments based on inflation, according to a CRTC press release today.
“They indicate that the proposed annual increase to the price of the…
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MONT-TREMBLANT – Yesterday the Canadian Communication Systems Alliance wrapped up the main portion of its sold-out Connect 2022 conference, which had been going on for the past two days in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec.
Over a dozen new members joined CCSA, Jay Thomson (above), CCSA’s CEO announced at a lunch on the first day of the event.
At a dinner last night, Thomson announced the next CCSA Connect conference will be held in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador from Sept. 11-13, 2023.
The following photos were taken over the course of Connect 2022, which featured speakers, a showcase and time to meet people and…
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