OTTAWA – Former CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais’ ears must have been on fire Monday.
While the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement did away with the CRTC’s 2015 decision to ban the simultaneous substitution of Canadian ads into the broadcast of the Super Bowl here (one of the landmark rulings to come out of Blais’ so-called “Let’s Talk TV” process), the Federal Court of Appeal on Monday sided with Bell saying the Regulator has no right to dive deeply into affiliate contracts between broadcasters and carriers, what the Commission called its Wholesale Code.
The Wholesale Code, said the Regulator…
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New NAFTA means return of Canadian ads to Super Bowl – and QVC is coming
OTTAWA – Buried deep within the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade is a specific bit of direction to the Canadian government about a TV show.
Okay, it’s the most popular show of the year, every year, but it’s highly unusual such a comprehensive agreement on trade also requires our federal government to rescind a decision by our communications regulator which has been upheld by the courts, too. However, this new trade agreement demands the decision made by the CRTC to prevent the simultaneous substitution of…
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TORONTO – Shaftesbury’s Scott Garvie has been re-elected chair of the executive committee Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) for the third time, a role that he has held since June 2016.
The CMPA is the national advocacy organization for independent producers, representing hundreds of companies engaged in the development and distribution of English-language content made for television, cinema and digital media channels.
"It’s a great honour to again be chosen to lead the impressive group of diverse producers who make up our board," said Garvie, who is also SVP at Shaftesbury. "There are a number of important issues we must address…
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AS THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of Canada’s fastest-growing telecommunications company, I understand corporations operate to make a profit. Profits build shareholder value and create jobs.
And in competitive environments, corporations will battle. I get that. My company is currently entangled in a heated dispute with Telus Corp. in Canada’s North. Of course, we think we’re right and Telus thinks something else. Lawyers are involved. The regulator is involved. Even politicians are beginning to take notice.
The problem is that innocent Canadians are involved, too.
And this week, I received a phone call from a CBC reporter that underlined that…
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TORONTO – Sportscaster Bob Cole is set to kick off his 50th – and final – season calling games for Hockey Night In Canada.
Sportsnet said that Cole, 85, is scheduled to do play-by-play for 10 NHL games, all of which will come in the first half of the 2018-19 season.
His first game of the year will be on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, October 6 for the game between Montreal and Pittsburgh. Further details of a tribute in his honour will be announced at a later date.
“There are so few broadcasters and voices in sport that transcend the…
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OTTAWA – Three of Canada’s largest wired and wireless operators, and one independent, assembled on Parliament Hill Wednesday afternoon to discuss revisions to the Copyright Act.
Independent ISP Teksavvy had the stage first and vice-president of regulatory and carrier affairs, Andy Kaplan-Myrth, reiterated his company’s commitment to network neutrality and the privacy rights of their customers, including when it comes to copyright. He reminded the politicians on the committee TekSavvy’s appearance at the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, was as a far different operator than the likes of Bell, Rogers and Shaw. Teksavvy is just an ISP and…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor is urging all of Quebec's political parties to formally commit to maintaining the province’s film or video production services tax credit and to support the local production industry.
With the Quebec general election now days away, Quebecor president and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau said his company is seeking “fiscal predictability” in order to move forward with a $40 million investment to build new MELS studios to keep up with demand for production space.
Noting that the 23 foreign films shot in Quebec last year generated direct expenditures of $383 million, up 28.5% from 2016 and 440% from 2009, Péladeau said that Quebec…
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OTTAWA – The panel reviewing the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Acts has officially kicked off its public consultations with a call for comments from stakeholders and interested parties.
On Tuesday, the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel, as it is formally known (or as the policy wonks on Twitter are calling it, #BTLR), released Responding to the New Environment: A Call for Comments which asked for feedback under the following four broad themes:
Reducing barriers to access by all Canadians to advanced telecommunications networks;
Supporting creation, production and discoverability of Canadian content;
Improving the rights of the digital consumer; and
Renewing the institutional framework…
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TORONTO – To compete with OTT players, does ad-funded TV in Canada need a ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’ to focus the entire industry? If so, what would that rallying cry look like?
The BHAG was one of the stated aims of an industry panel session on the future of ad-funded TV in Canada at the Future TV Advertising Forum Canada at the Steam Whistle Brewery in Toronto last week.
The panel did not unite over a single big hairy goal, but did identify some smaller furballs – like broadcasters needing to collaborate more on content creation, strengthening channel branding and…
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OTTAWA – Despite three tornados having torn through the city just days prior, the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology reconvened in Ottawa on Monday to further discuss the Statutory Review of the Copyright Act.
Speaking before the committee, Nathalie Dorval, chair of the board of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and VP regulatory and copyright at Cogeco Inc., noted private radio broadcasters have contributed $47 million in Canadian content development funding.
Dorval said the majority of this funding is directed to Canada’s four largest music funding agencies, FACTOR, Quebec’s Musicaction, Radio Starmaker Fund and Fonds Radio Star, all of…
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