QUISPAMSIS, NB – The CCSA has named Lori Rosenberg as vice president, contracts effective October 10, 2017.
Most recently with Bell as its managing director, content, and vice chair and treasurer of Bell Fund, Rosenberg (pictured) led a team in managing all content partnerships – including negotiating all carriage rights – with broadcast media and distribution organizations, studios and sports leagues in Canada, the U.S. and internationally. Her role also included strategy and execution of content-based products, features and functionality, for traditional and digital platforms.
In her new role, based in Toronto, Rosenberg will be responsible for the negotiation, conclusion and…
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THE NINE MOST FRIGHTENING words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” according to an old joke popularized by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan. It’s funny ’cause it’s true.
Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly and her communications team must have forgotten this as they prepared for the announcement last week of her new Creative Canada policy framework (which offers some vision but punts many details down the field) – and augmented it with a shiny headline – the announcement Netflix will invest $500 million in Canada over the next five years.
Beyond her speech and…
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Quebec’s TV lords are upset
I RECALL THE DELEGATION of the Quebec media production types appearing before us – a panel of CRTC commissioners – when we were considering the extension of the Broadcasting Act to the Internet.
The issue was whether every Canadian website should be licenced by the state, and taxed, to supply funds for Canadian video programming. When asked whether they understood of the scale of government intrusion into communications, one of the panelists slammed her fist on the table and said "regulate it first, then we'll figure out what it means!".
Ah, the true descendants of Louis XIV…
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OTTAWA – New CRTC chair and CEO Ian Scott (pictured) will make his first public speech at next month’s New Developments in Communications Law and Policy.
Presented by the Canadian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications, the event will take place November 14 -15 at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa. The conference will provide opportunities to hear from and network with the lawyers, regulators and business leaders at the heart of the Canadian communications industry.
Other newly confirmed speakers include Grace Koh, special assistant to U.S. President Trump for Technology, Telecom and Cybersecurity, as well as U.S. FCC Commissioner…
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OTTAWA – The CMPA’s Prime Time In Ottawa conference is offering new networking opportunities through one-to-one pitching sessions with buyers as well as lunchtime topic tables.
Scheduled for January 31- February 2, 2018 at the Westin Ottawa, Prime Time in Ottawa (PTiO) is a national conference for some 600 of Canada’s most prominent business leaders from the feature film, television, interactive media, broadcasting and telecommunications industries.
New this year is the Prime Time Pitch Market where content creators can pitch their project in pre-arranged tête-à-têtes with leading Canadian and international industry executives. Prior registration will be required. Also, delegates may opt for a short…
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MONT TREMBLANT – “Embrace change,” is one of the messages Canadian Communication Systems Alliance president and CEO Jay Thomson had for members at last week’s 24th annual CCSA Connect conference.
This could hardly have been more on display as the organization saw significant change to its board with two women – Donna Robertson of Novus Communications as chair and Angela Lawrence of Hay Communications as vice chair – elected to lead the group for the first time as chair Dave Baxter wraps up his term (although he remains on the board with Cable Cable’s Mike Fiorini, Access Communications’…
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WHEN HERITAGE MINISTER Mélanie Joly delivered her Creative Canada vision statement last Thursday in Ottawa I was extremely pleased on behalf of Canadian screenwriters — at last, a vision for Canada that puts creators at the centre.
While “creator” can mean many things, when it comes to screen-based entertainment, it means the showrunners and screenwriters that the Writers Guild of Canada represents. However, I wasn’t only pleased for WGC members because I also felt genuine hope — for the first time in a long time (remember the long, Canadian-arts-and-culture-dry years of the Harper government?) — for Canada. The direction of…
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TORONTO – While welcoming Netflix Canada’s pending $500 million investment in Canadian content, Unifor said that Canada’s news industry also needs help, and quickly.
Canada's largest union in the private sector represents some12,000 journalists and media workers in TV, print and online. Unifor national president Jerry Dias said that the cultural and newspaper review must move faster.
"We have to move a lot more quickly on long-term solutions for our news and entertainment industries as audiences and advertising dollars move to the Internet”, Dias said in a statement. “France has done so, Canada should too."
Dias called the absence of a more significant…
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TORONTO – The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) has added four new members to its sizeable Board of Directors.
Cast & Crew Entertainment Services president and CEO Eric Belcher; Comweb Corp. and William F. White International Inc. chairman/CEO Paul Bronfman; Royal Bank of Canada senior director, recovery and resolution planning Patrick Cardarelli; and Don Carmody, producer and president of Don Carmody Productions Inc., have all been appointed to the Board effective immediately.
“We are pleased to welcome Mr. Belcher, Mr. Bronfman, Mr. Cardarelli and Mr. Carmody to the CFC Board of Directors,” said Board chair Christina Jennings, in the announcement. “Each one…
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Looks like Netflix is chilling with Ottawa
OTTAWA – The Canadian TV biz held a three-hour, industry-wide affair in Ottawa on Wednesday evening, where the Canada Media Fund showcased internationally competitive primetime broadcast TV series to local bureaucrats and politicians (and juuust before Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly outlined her vision to change a bunch of things.)
Netflix and other foreign Internet players, and their impact on local producers and broadcasters, loomed large at the National Press Center event and Joly only sent along her Parliamentary Secretary, Sean Casey, to address the industry gathering and praise Canadian TV producers.
In stage-side comments to…
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