By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Tabled on November 3, 2020, Bill C-10 finally reappeared in the House of Commons on February 5, 2021 in the House of Commons, for discussion on its second reading.
It ended on a motion by the Conservatives that “Bill C-10, be not now read a second time but that the order be discharged, the bill withdrawn and the subject matter thereof referred to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.” The amendment was not voted on.
Also on Friday, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (CHPC) held its second meeting on the bill to amend the Broadcasting Act….
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By Len St-Aubin
DEBATE ABOUT BILL C-10 thus far has focused on Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s goal to make big foreign online audio and video streamers, like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, YouTube and Spotify, contribute to the creation of Canadian content.
But Bill C-10’s scope is vast. It will impact broadcasting and the internet in Canada, and all Canadians
It’s a valid public policy goal to expect big foreign streamers which have significant market share and revenues in Canada to engage with Canadian creators in the production of Canadian stories for Canadian and global audiences. It’s a valid question whether amending the…
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TORONTO — In partnership with the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO), Amazon Prime Video announced today it is committing $1.25 million to support the Canadian BIPOC TV and film production community through a donation to the ISO’s Solidarity Fund and Indigenous Development Program as well as a new pitch program.
The donation from Amazon Prime Video will support creators who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour as the industry faces ongoing hardships during the Covid-19 crisis. In addition, the new pitch program will provide grants of $10,000 to 10 selected Canadian BIPOC creators who will have an opportunity to pitch…
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TORONTO — Organizers of the Banff World Media Festival today announced CRTC chair and CEO Ian Scott will speak on the opening day of the virtual Banff 2021 festival, which starts Monday, June 14.
Scott’s virtual keynote session will kick off the festival’s Marketplace Week (June 14 to 18) and a month of curated online programming (running until July 16).
With delegates from more than 50 countries, the Banff Festival attracts some of the world’s top creators, producers, showrunners, talent, networks, studios, streamers, press and media companies. The 2021 edition of the Festival will build on the success of last year’s…
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By Etan Vlessing
OTTAWA – Neil McEneaney, president and CEO of media measurement firm Numeris, was on the hot seat Thursday as he told the virtual CMPA Prime Time conference how the Canadian TV ratings firm collects and measures race-based audience data amid an industry reckoning.
McEneaney told an online panel that while Black Canadians and others from diverse communities were included in Numeris panels for a representative sample of domestic TV viewership, Numeris isn’t “segmenting one race or another” as it focuses on broad Canadian French and English language TV audiences.
He explained Numeris’ “measurement design” for data points is to…
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Employees finally hear from leadership
By Greg O’Brien
TORONTO – After more than a week of “hearing nothing internally and everything externally,” said one Bell Media employee to Cartt.ca, workers at the big broadcaster finally received something from their boss and their boss’s boss’s boss today.
“It’s about time. We’ve had to hear everything through Cartt and other sources,” another told us. Both talked to us on condition of anonymity since they are not allowed to speak the press. As readers will recall, Bell Media has been cutting staff, beginning with an executive cull on January 5th and continuing through…
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Data plan prices have dropped between 10% and 18% since last year
OTTAWA — With no fanfare, or even a press release, the ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry released its latest quarterly report on wireless plan prices last Friday, which shows the majority of monthly wireless plans with 2 GB to 6 GB continue to decrease in price across Canada.
ISI (formerly ISED) is tracking wireless plan pricing as part of the federal government’s public pledge to consumers to reduce the cost of wireless services by 25% by early 2022. Benchmark prices, or the prices to which the 25% reduction…
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TORONTO — Blue Ant Media today announced Julie Chang (above) has been promoted to executive vice-president of international co-productions.
In her new role, Chang will initiate and lead co-productions for Blue Ant Media across the company’s integrated business units. Her responsibilities include identifying, structuring and closing content creation deals and leveraging financing opportunities with international partners for the company’s Blue Ant Studios global production arm, its Blue Ant International distribution business, and its linear and streaming channels, including T+E, Cottage Life and Smithsonian Channel Canada in Canada and Love Nature worldwide.
With her promotion, Chang joins the company’s corporate management team…
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By Etan Vlessing
OTTAWA – Janet Yale, chair of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Review (BTLR), on Monday argued the federal government’s proposed Bill C-10 is “future forward” legislation for the digital age as it seeks to embed increasingly dominant foreign online players in Canada’s TV regulatory system as content curators.
“It’s a simple, effective way to bring online undertakings into the legislative framework and support cultural policy on a like-for-like basis,” said Yale (right) on Monday during a virtual debate with University of Ottawa professor and Bill C-10 critic Michael Geist (left) during the Canadian Media Producers Association annual Prime…
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Local stations hit Monday as radio reporter jobs slashed. CFRB newsroom decimated. Cuts at 9 Channel Nine to be announced Wednesday
By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — After recent cuts at the senior executive and senior manager levels, Bell Media began making major changes at the local level this week, with a so far unspecified number of job cuts happening at local stations and in Toronto.
UPDATE: Since publication of this story, Cartt.ca has learned 210 positions will be cut in Toronto alone. Notices of the mass layoffs have been posted at the Bell Media buildings in Toronto on Queen St. W., 9…
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