MONTREAL – Stingray said Friday that Denis Coderre, the former mayor of Montreal, will serve as a special advisor supporting the company's business strategy and international development.
As part of his role within Stingray, Coderre (pictured) will provide strategic counsel and lend his expertise to the company in the areas of government relations, regulatory advocacy, issues management, and strategic planning, reads the announcement. He will help Stingray develop informed political insight, build collaborative alliances with industry players and secure high-level meetings with decision-makers that the company described as “vital” to its domestic and international market expansion.
"I am delighted to announce…
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GATINEAU – Late Thursday afternoon we’ll know whether or not Wi-Fi based service providers can roam onto cellular networks.
In a decision (CRTC 2017-56) on wholesale mobile wireless roaming service tariffs on March 1st of 2017, the CRTC excluded Wi-Fi providers from being able to access these rates in order to provide mobile services to Canadians beyond public Wi-Fi zones. Since they’re not facilities-based providers like the main mobile providers, they were excluded in the decision.
In June, however, the federal government asked the CRTC to re-examine that call, saying it wants to explore every option…
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FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTION in Canada is booming. Profile 2017, the CMPA’s latest annual economic report, finds production volume in this country at an all-time high, reaching a total of $8.38 billion last year, and creating over 170,000 jobs. Canadian television content alone reached $2.99 billion in production volume and generated 61,200 jobs.
With few exceptions, production budgets are growing, distribution advances increasing, and foreign pre-sales are up. This tells us that Canadian content is seen as a smart investment and that our shows are more exportable than ever. On top of this, foreign location and…
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ONE OF CANADA’S LARGEST independent telecom companies was born as the result of a vulnerability assessment. “I was working at Bell Canada in the late 1980s, when the CRTC changed the rules with regard to retail sharing,” recalls Distributel founder and chairperson Mel Cohen.
He was assigned to a task force then to explore ramifications of the rule change that could threaten Bell’s position in the market. Instead of coming away from that project worried for his employer, he came away inspired to go out on his own. “I remember knocking on doors of small businesses in Mississauga, asking, why…
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Part VIII in our series on rewriting the Telecom and Broadcasting Acts
IT’S BEEN PRETTY CLEAR throughout Cartt.ca’s investigation of the opportunities and challenges associated with modernizing Canada’s telecommunications and broadcasting legislative frameworks that the Broadcasting Act appears most in need of updating.
We won’t rehash it here (check the prior seven articles on our “Investigates” page), but think Netflix and their online TV provider brethren and the myriad challenges facing media. That said, the Telecommunications Act requires some tweaking, too, according to interviews and comments in industry fora.
It’s been nearly two years since broadband services were…
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TORONTO – Registration is now open for the 2018 RTDNA Canada National Conference scheduled for May 25-26 at the Sheraton Hotel Toronto in Toronto.
The conference will explore the value of journalism, in terms of both as a business and as a profession, and how journalists can regain public trust. Participants will enjoy two days of interactive sessions featuring top Canadian and international journalists and industry specialists sharing their tips and experiences.
In addition, various workshops will offer new skills and a deep dive into the world of radio, TV and digital metrics. Other features include a Presidents Reception and Awards Gala…
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OTTAWA – Production of the feature film Maudie, the Canadian/Irish co-production starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, generated $6.4 million in GDP, drove $9 million in total economic output, and contracted services from nearly 300 businesses across Canada, says a new study released by the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA).
The study, available here, also found that work on the film in Newfoundland and Labrador saw $3.7 million in production expenditure, which yielded $4.1 million in GDP and $5.6 million in total economic output for the province. In Ontario, a production expenditure of $1.7 million generated $2.3 million in GDP…
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TORONTO – The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) is adopting all 12 of the recommendations made after the conclusion of an anti-harassment audit of workplace policies and practices.
The audit, announced last December, was led by Daina Green who is recognized internationally as a member of the United Nations Development Programme Roster of Experts in Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Public Administration. Green gathered information from over 100 members, staff and leaders in the Guild plus conducted one-on-one interviews with over 60 people.
“The DGC believes that every institution in our sector has an obligation to promote fairness, safety, dignity…
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TORONTO – Canada’s creative community has released an industry-wide code of conduct to help prevent and respond to harassment, discrimination, bullying and violence in the workplace.
The Code, which has already been adopted by 24 organizations with more to follow, “represents a commitment by engaged stakeholders to shift the culture, to prevent and respond to harassment including sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying and violence and to ensure every workplace is one where safety, respect and professionalism are the norm”, reads a statement signed by The Canadian Creative Industries.
The Code springs from work that began last November for an industry-wide response to…
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THE PROPOSED REVIEW of our communications acts is about to proceed, but the problem is finding a significant issue that legislative change would solve.
Of course, some improvements are possible, but I would gladly forego a few improvements if the alternative would be to subordinate the Telecom Act to the purposes of the Broadcasting Act.
Each Act has been perfected over time for the purposes it serves. To borrow internet terminology, the Telecom Act deals with market power at the transport and infrastructure layers. The Broadcasting Act deals with the perceived problem of Canadian content, namely that without subsidies and –…
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