CRTC decision on CBC's digital music service hits a sour note with Stingray

By Lesley Hunter

OTTAWA and MONTREAL – How can you compete with free? That’s one of the questions that Eric Boyko, president and CEO of Montreal-based Stingray Digital Group, is asking after the CRTC rejected his company’s complaint Tuesday against CBC’s six month old digital music service CBCMusic.ca. Stingray filed a Part 1 application with the Commission in April alleging undue preference by the national broadcaster’s ad-supported service, citing its dependence on government funding that is not available to private enterprises and its reliance on preferential copyright licence fees. Stingray is a private, subscription-based, multi-platform music service provider that owns digital music service...