Government of Canada announces support for broadcasters
By Adnews Staff
The Government of Canada has announced new initiative intended to provide support to the Canadian television and radio sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of this initiative, the CRTC will waive the next payment of licence fees usually paid by broadcasters. Instead, the government will provide additional funds to the CRTC to support its operations. According to the government, the move is intended to allow radio and television companies to continue to provide consumers with public health information despite declining advertising revenues.
In related news, Canadian Heritage is working to simplify the process for submitting and processing requests for funding from the Canada Book Fund and Canada Periodical Fund, in order to support the magazine and book publishing industries.
“Canadian broadcasters are working hard to fulfill the mission of sharing credible and verified information with Canadians,” said Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage. “This task is even more difficult since they also face significant drops in advertising revenue. The decision to waive the regulatory charges is one we could make quickly and we are working on more measures to support the industry. We will continue to monitor the impacts of COVID-19 on all sectors, ensuring we remain well-positioned to respond to this rapidly changing environment.”