TAGGED AS IAN MORRISON
Optics for gov’t could hamper tax on foreign ads proposal: Friends
Media | 05/22/2018 5:15 pm EDT
OTTAWA — A media advocacy group calling for changes that would upend the ability for Canadian organizations to deduct taxes on foreign digital advertising admitted Tuesday...
Rogers, Bell add junk food bill concerns to lobby efforts
Media | 04/25/2018 2:54 pm EDT
Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. have registered to lobby the government on proposed Senate legislation, now moving through the House, to quell the impact of junk food advertising on children, joining critics who lobbied heavily in March about the bill they say will...
Ian Morrison steps down from watchdog Friends
Media | 02/12/2018 1:27 pm EST
Ian Morrison, the co-founder of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, is handing over the reins of the...
Broadcast lobbying jumped ahead of Creative Canada release
Media | 10/24/2017 6:20 pm EDT
Creative organizations stepped up and added to a surge in lobbying activity...
Future reviews to determine much of DigiCanCon strategy: experts
Media | 09/28/2017 11:25 am EDT
OTTAWA — While the response to the long-awaited results of Heritage...
Facebook beefs up lobbying squad
Media | 03/21/2017 3:04 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. is increasing its government relations presence in Ottawa, with three new registrations filed with the lobbying commissioner’s office last month. According to the federal lobbyists’...
CRTC ‘rebalances’ TV system funds; up to $90M available for local news
Media | 06/15/2016 10:44 pm EDT
The CRTC has established new funding for local television news in a decision on its local and community TV hearing, though advocates expressed concern that the changes won’t happen quickly enough for some stations. In a summary of the decision, issued Wednesday afternoon, the CRTC said independent stations will be able to tap into a $23.1-million Independent Local News Fund (ILNF), while new flexibility could make available up to $66.9 million for stations operated by...
Joly non-committal on $150M in extra funding for CBC
Media | 02/02/2016 10:08 pm EST
Heritage Minister Melanie Joly is refusing to specify that the CBC will receive the $150 million in extra funding the Liberal government promised during last year’s election, despite receiving questions on the subject from...
Not enough money in the system to fund local TV, watchdog says
Media | 01/26/2016 8:55 pm EST
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting told the CRTC Tuesday that its position that there is enough money in the TV system to fund local programming “flies in the face of the evidence, a form of...
As CBC’s funding increases, will it have to change course?
Media | 01/20/2016 8:04 pm EST
Following last fall’s election, the government is set to boost CBC/Radio-Canada's funding, but when that will happen and under what conditions is unclear. It also remains to be seen whether...
Friends says CBC refuses its anti-Harper ads
Media | 08/11/2015 4:48 pm EDT
The advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting says CBC/Radio-Canada is refusing to air TV advertisements critical of Prime Minister Stephen Harper for cuts to CBC. The group said in a press release that the ads in question...
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting at odds with Bell over TV ad
Media | 02/25/2015 9:54 pm EST
Advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting say a television ad was turned down by Canada’s largest broadcasters, yet at least one company says it has no record of the denial. In the...
CBC funding becoming political ahead of budget, election
Media | 01/22/2015 10:07 pm EST
MONTREAL — NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is promising, if elected, to reverse funding cuts imposed on CBC/Radio-Canada in recent years, though political observers do not expect the Conservative...
CBC plan’s emphasis on mobile not ‘logical’: analyst
Media | 06/26/2014 10:18 pm EDT
CBC/Radio-Canada’s re-focusing of its priorities on its digital and mobile presence is “not a very logical thing to do,” said Barry Kiefl, president of Canadian Media Research Inc....
CBC to take Radio 2 off the air, advocacy group says
Media | 05/22/2014 9:12 pm EDT
OTTAWA — CBC/Radio-Canada will stop over-the-air broadcasts of its Radio 2 service and make it an “exclusively on-line music offering,” advocacy group Friends Of Canadian Broadcasting said at a news conference on...
Bigger picture still in question as CBC cuts deep
Media | 04/10/2014 9:53 pm EDT
As CBC/Radio-Canada on Thursday announced another round of job cuts and other reductions throughout its organization, observers expressed impatience over the lack of a fundamentally different vision emerging from the public broadcaster. CBC said Thursday that more than 650 jobs and $130 million in spending would be cut over the next two fiscal years. Hubert Lacroix, CEO of the CBC, said in a press release that the cuts announced represent an “accelerating [of] the process of reinventing Canada's public broadcaster to meet the future needs of Canadians, taking into account a much...
CBC could go non-commercial, Senate committee told
Media | 02/04/2014 8:18 pm EST
A non-commercial CBC/Radio-Canada should be considered, Ian Morrison, spokesman for watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, told the Senate standing committee on transport and communications Tuesday. According to...