OTTAWA (CP) - The latest wave of big media mergers has spurred the federal regulator to announce a major consultation on the impact of consolidation on the broadcasting system.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said Tuesday it would launch a review of issues linked to the Broadcasting Act's objective of ensuring Canadians have access to diverse voices. Public hearings will take place in the fall and new policy guidelines are expected to be released by the end of 2007.
"The current wave of consolidation in the Canadian broadcasting industry, and the possibility of more major transactions in the future, raises important questions relating to the diversity of voices in Canada," said Konrad von Finckenstein, Chairman of the CRTC.
"Holding a public hearing in the fall will allow us to give these issues the thorough and in-depth study they deserve. This exercise will result in clearly articulated policy guidelines that will further the evolution of the Canadian broadcasting system from that point forward.
"
But the major media marriages already being reviewed by the CRTC will be subject to the regulations now on the books, and not those developed through the review. Those include transactions between CanWest MediaWorks and Alliance Atlantis Communications; Astral Media and Standard Radio; and CTVglobemedia and CHUM.
Celebrated opera collaborators John Estacio and John Murrell are set to raise the curtain on their latest full-length work, Frobisher, in Calgary this weekend. The Virgin Festival concert series adds a new stop in Vancouver this year, with a lineup that includes the Killers, My Chemical Romance, Billy Talent, Muse, AFI and Victoria's own Hot Hot Heat. An interpretation of Mozart's The Magic Flute rich with West Coast native symbolism opens this weekend, the culmination of a three-year partnership between Vancouver Opera and a First Nations group. The Washington, D.C., mayor's office hosted about 100 homeless people on Thursday at a screening of The Pursuit of Happyness, about a homeless man who becomes a millionaire.
Heritage Minister Bev Oda announced Friday continued federal support of $200 million over the next few years to the Canadian Television Fund, which has been embroiled in a controversy after two major contributors withdrew their financial support. The head of a human rights group in Afghanistan says he lacks the staff to monitor the fate of Taliban suspects handed over by Canadian soldiers to Afghan officials. The world's population is expected to soar to 9.2 billion by 2050, largely because AIDS is not expected to kill as many people as initially feared in the developing world, according to a new United Nations report. Sudan moved Tuesday to thwart the UN Human Rights Council from hearing its own report accusing Khartoum of playing a major role in orchestrating atrocities in Darfur. Taking a short walk seems to help smokers resist the temptation to light up, a review of studies concludes. A computer program may be more accurate than loved ones at predicting how patients who are incapacitated wish to be treated. A metallic liquid used in diagnostic imaging such as MRIs has been linked to a rare and potentially fatal skin disease, Health Canada said Tuesday. In the wake of two major amalgamations of Canadian media companies in the past year, the federal broadcasting regulator plans to look at ways to preserve a "diversity of voices" in the broadcasting system. The historical war epic 300 has been criticized as an attack on Iranian culture by government authorities in Tehran.
The Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children celebrates its 10th anniversary with a program that includes a tribute to the long-running Degrassi TV series and a retrospective of Canadian children's films. Viacom Inc. on Tuesday slapped video-sharing website YouTube and its owner Google Inc. with a $1 billion US lawsuit alleging massive copyright infringment.
Aging may seem both inconvenient and inevitable to humans, but a new study suggests single-cell organisms — and possibly other organisms — adopted aging as part of a more successful reproductive strategy. A European company opened a factory on Tuesday that will mass produce electronic circuitry using industrial-size inkjet printers to spray intricate patterns onto super-thin surfaces, a technique that will create a cheaper alternative to silicon chips. Stock indexes in Canada and the United States lost ground sharply on Tuesday as the rate of late mortgage payments in the U.S. hit three-year highs and the rate of foreclosures hit a record high. Hundreds of reporters from Canada, Britain, continental Europe and the U.S. began arriving in Chicago on Tuesday for the opening of the trial of Conrad Black on Wednesday morning.
Algoma Steel on Tuesday said talks about a possible takeover by Germany's second-largest steel company, Salzgitter AG, have been terminated. Unreasonably high security and rent fees at Canadian airports are gouging travellers and airlines alike, the head of an international aviation organization says. New questions have been raised about unusual patterns in the video displays of slot machines in Ontario. McDonald's is breaking its exclusivity deal with Coca-Cola, introducing select bottles of Pepsi beverages at certain U.S. restaurants.
Brent Burns scored with 36 seconds left in overtime as the Minnesota Wild beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on Tuesday. Mats Sundin had one goal and one assist as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Tuesday. Saskatoon's Stefanie Lawton scored two in the 10th end to nip defending champion Cathy King of Edmonton 6-5 at the Canada Cup of Curling on Tuesday.
News RSS