Broadcasting Regulatory Policy
As Netflix Goes Global, CanCon Must Broaden Its Appeal
Since the introduction of Netflix to the Canadian market in September 2010, online television distribution, known as “Over the Top” (OTT) services, have expanded rapidly at a rate of over 25% per year in Canada, becoming one of the main distribution systems for home entertainment. However a 2012 article by Michael Rimock in the Canadian […]
Canadians #TalkTV: The Question Surrounding Digital Content Licensing
For the past month the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has been attempting to open its policy and regulation processes to the Canadian public. On October 24, CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais launched A Conversation with Canadians with speeches and discussions at the Université Laval and Ryerson University. As Mr. Blais stated during his presentation at Ryerson, this conversation is designed to […]
The Ever-Present Need for Canada’s ‘Digital Economy Strategy’
The 2013 Speech from the Throne seems like a distant memory. Ongoing allegations and revelations emanating from Canada’s Senate chamber have all but overshadowed the Government’s agenda, which Governor General David Johnston dutifully delivered to Canadians on 16 October 2013. Canadians who are eagerly awaiting the Government’s plans for moving the country forward in a […]
Few People Download Illegally, But Those That Do, Do It A Lot
The few, the mighty. That's one way to describe illegal downloading habits.
CRTC Gives Rejection With a Silver Lining to Sun News
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has rejected Sun News Network’s request for mandatory carriage, but there is still hope for the beleaguered network.
Technological Neutrality: (Pre)Serving the Purposes of Copyright Law
In the realm of law, neutrality is widely hailed as a fundamental principle of fairness, justice and equity; it is also, however, widely criticized as a myth that too often obscures the inevitable reality of perspective, interest or agenda. It should come as little surprise, then, that the principle of technological neutrality, recently employed by […]
CRTC Sees New World of Media from Banff Festival
On June 12th, 2013, the Chairperson of the CRTC - Jean-Pierre Blais - addressed a gathered group of context creators and advertisers at the Banff World Media Festival in Alberta. In his speech, Blais laid out the current role of the organization and how he sees it evolving in the future.
Game of Thones - Piracy is Coming
TorrentFreak has reported that the first episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones season three broke historic download records, with more than a million as of April 1st, 2013. Canada ranked fourth internationally in terms of the highest number of TorrentFreak S3E1 downloads, representing 7.4% of total downloads at the time of reporting.