Canadian Heritage announced Monday the launch of a fund that is intended to “support incentives and initiatives to encourage greater participation by diverse communities in the media and cultural industries.”
The Changing Narratives Fund was spawned via the 2024 budget, in which the federal government pledged $10 million over three years to assist “diverse communities and organizations, including Indigenous, Black, racialized, ethno-religious minorities, 2SLGBTQI+ and persons with disabilities, have their stories, experiences and perspectives better represented in the media and cultural industries, which will allow Canadians to appreciate and understand Canada’s diversity,” according to a Heritage release.
The fund will go…
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The Canada Media Fund and Telefilm Canada announced Tuesday plans to develop a three-year strategy to “foster growth and inclusion” in Canada’s audiovisual industry with a “focus on supporting Black and People of Colour creators through training initiatives, partnerships, and structured approaches to data collection.”
The press release notes that the organizations will collaborate with other federal audiovisual institutions and consult with Black and people of colour communities and other industry members.
“The overarching mission is to develop a strategy that increases access to audiovisual training institutions, collaborates with organizations in offering training programs, and integrates…
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By Connie Thiessen
The CRTC has released its “What We Heard” report, summarizing feedback collected from workshops with members of the audiovisual (AV) industry discussing the CRTC’s definition of Canadian Content (CanCon) and the possibility it might need to be adapted given fundamental changes to the broadcasting industry.
A total of 382 participants took part in 17 workshops in February and March of this year, including in-person events in Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Calgary, encompassing the perspectives of Indigenous and official language minority communities (OLMCs), online creators, small and large producers, domestic broadcasters, unions, and representatives from foreign streaming services.
The…
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A Writers Guild of Canada report, published last week, found a decline in the number of episodes across every TV format – a first since it started publishing its “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion” report.
Between 2018 and 2023, the report says one-hour drama episodes decreased by 45 per cent; the number of half-hour adult episodes dropped by 16 per cent; episodes of half-hour children’s live-action series decreased by 48 per cent; the number of half-hour animation episodes fell by 79 per cent; the number of 15-minute animation episodes fell by 33 per cent; and the number of 10-minutes-and-under animation episodes…
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Family and kids media company WildBrain announced Wednesday it has implemented a new leadership and team structure to “drive its global Distribution business and its Canadian broadcast network, WilBrain Television.”
As part of that transformation, the company appointed Katie Wilson to vice president of global sales and acquisitions, based in Toronto. Wilson, who has been the company since 2020, will “lead WildBrain’s team of dedicated content sales professionals, drive commercial and rights strategies for WildBrain’s world-leading library of kids’ and family content, and oversee sales revenue as well as the management of transactions rights (EST) and sales in the U.S,”…
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One satellite provider wants to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against it
By Ahmad Hathout
When Xplore announced on June 3 an arrangement to raise new money to fund its expansion of 5G and fibre networks throughout rural communities across the country, the news belied an underlying tension: the rural service provider had defaulted on millions of dollars in monthly payments owed to satellite service providers, who are now asking an Ontario court to force it to pay them back or else allow them to cut services.
But there’s an obstacle: On that same June 3 day, an Ontario Superior Court…
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By Connie Thiessen
Telesat Lightspeed has received a $2.14 billion loan from the federal government to expand internet and 5G network access using space-based technology.
Lightspeed is being billed as Canada’s largest ever space program, supporting 2,000 jobs across the country through Telesat and its supply chain, including satellite contractor MDA Space, which is best known for developing the Canadarm technology, the series of robotic arms used by the Canadian Space Agency.
Low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite networks operate 35 times closer to the Earth than traditional telecommunications satellites, taking less time to send and receive information, leading to faster internet service, even in…
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Telus announced Wednesday a partnership with Mila, the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, to mutually “develop artificial intelligence (AI) for the benefit of society.”
The Vancouver-based telecom and the Montreal-based research institute “will explore state-of-the-art AI technologies and potential industry impacts for the benefit of Canadian customers,” a press release said.
“Translating generative AI’s groundbreaking capabilities into real solutions is a critical step in realizing amazing outcomes for our customers and communities,” Jaime Tatis, chief insights officer at TELUS, said in the release. “Through our collaboration with Mila, TELUS is dedicated to fostering the growth of AI talent in Canada and to building state-of-the-art…
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By Len St-Aubin, a policy consultant who has worked for clients including Netflix, and was a member of the policy teams that developed the 1991 Broadcasting Act and the 1993 Telecommunications Act
On August 28, Cartt published Howard Law’s commentary rebutting my contention that Bill C-11 and CRTC regulation risk destabilizing market-driven CanCon.
Law took issue with my assertion that foreign streamers have driven the significant increase in foreign investment (FI) in CanCon over the last 10 years:
“…The fact is that foreign television companies around the globe were snapping up CanCon through pre-sales and advances…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Organizations representing news media and their workers are warning the CRTC not to redirect any of the $100 million they were earmarked by Google toward public interest participation in CRTC proceedings related to news linking matters.
The Broadcasting Participation Fund (BPF), which bankrolls public interest participation in CRTC proceedings, filed a Part 1 application this summer requesting that the commission expand its mandate to include matters pertaining to large technology platforms that must pay to link to Canadian news content under the Online News Act. Google has already agreed to put an annual inflation-indexed $100…
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