TORONTO – Bell is the latest media company to pause advertising on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram social media products, becoming the latest giant to retaliate after Meta’s decision to end news link sharing in Canada.
“As Meta continues with its plan to block Canadian news content from its digital platforms, we are immediately pausing our advertising on Facebook and Instagram,” Bell Media president Wade Oosterman said in a late Friday afternoon statement.
“Like many Canadians, we are concerned about the consequences Meta’s decision to block links from Canadian news organizations will have on Canadians, and all those who reside or work…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Bell filed Wednesday a letter of support for the Supreme Court of Canada to review a Federal Court of Appeal decision affirming that the CRTC does not have jurisdiction over wireless attachments on municipal structures.
The one-page letter supporting Telus’s application includes a copy to Rogers, Cogeco, Quebecor, Xplornet, Ice Wireless, the province of British Columbia and opponents of the argument, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Electricity Canada.
Telus filed the appeal to the high court last month, which has yet to decide if it will hear it. The Vancouver-based telecom argued that the appeal…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The spate of acquisitions by incumbents of wholesale internet service providers in recent months is not because of a difficult market or bad wholesale access rates, Bell argued in its most recent submission to the CRTC’s wholesale internet framework proceeding, which is messaging that runs counter to what competitors have been saying.
“These acquisitions were completed for a variety of reasons, including succession planning, and the sales were made at strong valuations, not because the Resellers went bankrupt, were driven out of the market or…because of ‘the broken wholesale access model,’” Bell said, in reference to…
Continue Reading
By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA — In a rare display of non-partisanship support for government legislation, Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez – joined by his opposition counterparts Martin Champoux of the Bloc Québécois and Peter Julian of the New Democrats – announced at a Parliament Hill news conference on Wednesday that the federal government will suspend advertising on Facebook and Instagram in response to parent company Meta Platforms Inc.’s decision to end news availability on both platforms prior to bill C-18 taking effect.
Last week, Google followed suit and announced that it would…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – The federal government, Cogeco and Quebecor announced Wednesday they are pulling all their advertising investments from Meta’s platforms after the social media company banned news linking in response to the passing of the Online News Act.
“Any move by Meta to circumvent Canadian law, block news for its users or discriminate against Canadian media content on its platforms, through its algorithms or otherwise, cannot be tolerated,” Quebecor said in a press release Wednesday morning.
“In view of Meta’s categorical refusal to enter into negotiations, Quebecor announces that, effective immediately and until further notice, it is withdrawing all advertising by…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Corus CEO Doug Murphy reiterated Thursday the need for the CRTC to take immediate action on lessening Canadian content requirements ahead of the implementation of a new Broadcasting Act policy to force foreign streamers to contribute to those requirements.
Praising the death of the old Broadcasting Act and the introduction of three consultations on the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, Murphy said the CRTC needs to set its sights on the now as broadcasters are being squeezed financially.
“We continue to urge the regulator through those consultations and other forums to revisit the obligations on Canadian…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The Federal Court has again denied movie studio Voltage Pictures its request for the court to allow it to group a bunch of alleged copyright infringers to sue because its litigation plan was contrary to the Copyright Act.
Voltage Pictures had to show the court how it was to deal with notifying the hundreds of anonymous alleged downloaders and sharers of its movies about its plan to sue them in a rare reverse class action lawsuit, a process that groups a basket of defendants for a mass lawsuit.
But the studio’s proposal to use the notice-and-notice system…
Continue Reading
TVA union asking CRTC to stop Quebecor from closing newscasts
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Bell said if Quebecor follows through on an announcement to end two newscasts without commission approval, the CRTC has no choice but to fine the company due to repeated violations of its conditions of licence, according to an intervention in the case.
On June 2, Quebecor’s TVA made the decision to this week end the two CFCM-DT weekend newscasts in Quebec, one day after it filed a Part 1 application asking the CRTC to remove that obligation due to financial constraints. The CRTC followed up with a…
Continue Reading
By Caroline Paquet, pictured above, president of Cogeco Media
In today’s world where everything is moving too fast, we often take for granted things that seem unchangeable. It’s only when they’re gone that we realize we should have acted while there was still time. Commercial radio stations across the country, particularly those operating in the regions, could be facing this situation if nothing is done to help them.
Cogeco Media is 21 stations in the various regions of Québec: Montréal, Québec City, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke, Gatineau, Saguenay, Lac St-Jean, St-Jérôme and Lachute. It’s also more than 650 employees across the province who…
Continue Reading
OSGOODE – Bell and Cogeco will get a combined $71 million from the federal and provincial governments to provide high-speed internet access to more than 22,000 homes in 74 rural communities across eastern Ontario, according to a press release Thursday.
Bell will be tasked with tackling roughly 82 communities, while Cogeco will address access in three.
The funding will come, in part, from a joint partnership between Ontario and Innovation Canada’s Universal Broadband Fund.
Cogeco will be tasked to provide access to the communities of Battersea, Inverary, and Marysville.
Meanwhile, Bell will provide access to the following communities:
Algonquin, Athens, Blanchards Hill, Brockville, Charleston,…
Continue Reading
