Catching Up on MediaPolicy.ca – C-11 direction to CRTC is Gazetted – Whyte on Reisman and Indigo Books – JT gives Big Tech the steely eye

June 11, 2023

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has Gazetted his draft Policy Direction intended to guide the CRTC in its implementation of key regulatory issues within our spanking new Broadcasting Act, as amended by Bill C-11. 

MediaPolicy.ca posted some highlights. It’s no surprise that YouTubers and algorithms top the list. 

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The best read of the week is from Ken Whyte, if only because anything the lad writes sounds like he was born speaking in iambic pentameter.

Whyte has written more than once about Indigo Books, owned by Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz, and offers his insights on whether things are about to change.

The other read of the week is a policy piece advocating for a national news strategy for Canada. Co-written by two ex-Commissioners of the CRTRC, former Chair Konrad von Finckenstein and Peter Menzies, it’s a thoughtful manifesto worth the thirty minutes of your time.

The authors invite a continuation of the dialogue and MediaPolicy.ca hopes to take them up on it soon.

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As for our current dogfight between the federal government and Big Tech over the Online News Act Bill C-18, we appear to be stuck in the ‘no, f**k you‘ phase as the government’s anger over Meta and Google tactics is now being voiced in defiance by the Prime Minister (see the video above).

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The back and forth about Canadian mobility prices —well its more like a Punch and Judy show— rests on the bedrock assumption that monthly bills are not internationally competitive. It seems to be orthodoxy now that the Heritage Committee, CRTC, Competition Bureau and ISED Minister Champagne have endorsed it. Because after all, who believes the telcos saying it isn’t so?

For the skeptical mind, have a read of Mark Goldberg’s latest post.

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