By Ahmad Hathout
Not-for-profit media company Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) has lodged a complaint with the CRTC alleging Videotron is not treating institutional subscribers in a way that conforms with industry standard when it comes to carrying AMI’s programs.
Since 2016, AMI and Videotron have been deadlocked on the terms of a distribution agreement in which Videotron must carry AMI-TV and AMI-tele as part of the 9.1(1)(h) rule.
Central to AMI’s undue disadvantage complaint, as outlined in a Part 1 application made public this week, is that Videotron allegedly will not budge on how to treat institutional customers, such as hotels and…
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Telefilm Canada announced Thursday 22 projects in the French market will receive financing under its Production Program, representing a total financial commitment of $21.6 million.
The projects selected for production funding include 11 dramas, seven comedies, two science fiction/fantasies, one action/adventure and one musical. Several of the projects are co-productions between Canada and other countries including Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Luxembourg, Philippines and Spain.
A full list of the projects, including the screenwriters, directors, and production and distribution companies involved, is available here.
Telefilm said in a press release it received “an…
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The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) announced Thursday its members have voted “overwhelmingly” in favour of authorizing strike action if there is no resolution in its ongoing negotiations with the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA).
According to the WGC, 96.5 per cent voted in favour of a strike mandate during a week-long voting period, which saw 70.2 per cent of eligible voters taking part, the highest voter turnout in the WGC’s history.
“This strike authorization vote, a first in the Guild’s 33-year history, represents a pivotal moment for Canadian screenwriters,” WGC executive director…
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By Catherine Tait, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada
In 2021, more than 7.7 million Canadians watched Julia Grosso put away the game-winning goal to clinch gold for the Canadian women’s soccer team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
It was an incredible moment that united Canadians from coast to coast to coast. But as any athlete can tell you, an Olympic or Paralympic medal comes only after years and years of less-than-glamorous effort that often goes unnoticed. What we don’t see makes these athletes who they are.
And that’s why the public broadcaster does sports differently. We show you today’s athletes but…
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This is part two of a three-part feature. Please read part one here.
By Doug Barrett, adjunct professor in the Arts, Media & Entertainment MBA program at the Schulich School of Business
In my last piece, I suggested that the critical definition of Canadian Content was that set out in the Income Tax Act and Regulations and administered by the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO) and asked why the ongoing debate focused instead on the definition used by the CRTC.
In this piece, I’d like to look a little closer at the CAVCO role. In my…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said Wednesday that the company expects to see increased wireless subscriber movement between carriers throughout the year in part due to heightened competition and ease of switching.
The cable giant saw its rate of postpaid customer defections for the first quarter of the year increase to 1.1 per cent compared to the 0.79 per cent it logged in the same quarter last year.
Staffieri said part of this came from the competitive offers from other carriers that seeped from the holiday season into the new year. Quebecor’s Freedom, for example, has been pushing and holding…
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Corus Entertainment announced Tuesday its original young adult series Geek Girl will premiere May 30 exclusively on its multi-channel streaming service StackTV in Canada, with all 10 half-hour episodes available to stream on demand that day.
Based on British author Holly Smale’s novel of the same name, Geek Girl is a co-production between Toronto-based Aircraft Pictures and U.K.-based RubyRock Pictures, with creative support from Corus’s kids content producer Nelvana. The live-action series was filmed in the U.K. and Ottawa last summer.
Following its premiere on StackTV, Geek Girl will also air on Corus’s kids channel YTV in Canada this…
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Quebecor said it will rethink pricing strategy as a result
By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor will need to accept Telus’s rate to connect to its wireless network, the CRTC ruled Monday, eliciting a scathing response from the Montreal company that included a promise to reconsider its low-cost pricing and suspend the launch of certain plans in Manitoba.
Telus and Quebecor could not come to an agreement on the price-per-gigabyte component of that access, so they each presented their respective prices and asked the CRTC to make that determination via final offer arbitration.
While it said both offers would allow Quebecor’s mobile virtual network…
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By Connie Thiessen
A cross-section of Canadian media advocacy and culture groups are taking issue with what was “missing” from last week’s federal budget, ranging from a lack of AI protections to allocating a bigger share of the federal advertising spend to local broadcasters.
Earlier this year, Stingray and a coalition of 20 independent broadcasters that included Central Ontario Broadcasting, Dougall Media, Durham Radio, Evanov Communications, Golden West Broadcasting, Pattison Media, and Vista Radio, appealed for a greater share of the $86M federal advertising spend to go to local media. Right now, more than 70 per cent is spent with digital…
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By Doug Barrett, adjunct professor in the Arts, Media & Entertainment MBA program at the Schulich School of Business
It is well known that the Canadian government has directed the CRTC to review its definition of Canadian content, and that the Commission is currently wrapping up a vast series of Canada-wide and industry-wide consultations on the topic. Everyone is treating this as an important and vital process.
But the CRTC is not the principle Canadian content certification authority. That role belongs to the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO). CAVCO is an office within the Department of Canadian Heritage which certifies the…
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