Without a major regulatory change, the traditional TV industry here faces a chilling future
IF THE CRTC DOESN’T, at long last, review the 1999 New Media Exemption Order, the Canadian TV industry as we know it may well perish in the next five years, at the cost of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs – all while production of Canadian content shrivels to whatever the CBC makes.
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission reached a compromise deal with the subscription TV titans in the States over the American regulator’s so-called push to “unlock the…
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TORONTO – Bell Media’s Investigation Discovery (ID) and Discovery Science will both be opening up for a four week free preview September 22 through October 19.
The timing will coincide with the launch of new ID series Las Vegas Law, Vanishing Women plus new special Adnan Syed: Innocent or Guilty? (pictured), featuring the convicted murderer and subject of the acclaimed Serial podcast. Highlights from Discovery Science include the debut of new series How To Build…Everything and Alaska Mega Machines.
The four-week preview is available through television service providers including Bell and Bell Aliant, Cogeco, Eastlink, MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw, Shaw Direct, Telus,…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC shouldn’t bow to pressure from the vertically integrated (VI) entities and loosen any regulatory measures on their activities, according to comments from the non-VI broadcast distributors.
In comments to the licence renewals of the large English and French-language ownership groups (for which a public hearing is coming in November), the non-VI BDUs tell the Commission that in fact it needs to strengthen regulations ensuring the VI companies (Rogers, Bell and Quebecor) don’t exhibit any anti-consumer and anti-competitive behaviour.
Telus says the Commission has rules to ensure carriage contracts for TV channels are done on…
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TORONTO – Bell Media’s Discovery is gearing up for its first-ever nationwide free preview this fall which will include the debut of Frontier, its first original Canadian scripted drama.
Set against the raw backdrop of 1700s Canada, Frontier (pictured) stars Jason Momoa in a thrilling action-adventure series that revolves around warring factions vying for control of the fur trade in a ruthless game of wealth and power. The series will debut on November 6. Other programming highlights include the return of Canada’s Worst Driver and the premier of new original Canadian series Tougher Than It Looks? on October 24.
Discovery’s free preview…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) said today it has received a letter from the CRTC indicating the Commission is deferring consideration of almost 60 complaints filed against community TV channels until their cable licence renewals this fall.
The complaints were filed by CACTUS in partnership with community groups earlier this year, and were concerned with cable community TV channels operated by Eastlink, Cogeco, Shaw and Rogers. According to CACTUS, the channels either fail to air adequate local content (generally 60% of the program schedule) or adequate citizen-generated content (generally 50% of the schedule)…
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MONTREAL – Five years ago, during a surprisingly competitive CRTC process to award new commercial AM radio stations in Montreal, one independent group burst onto the scene with grand promises to revolutionize the industry. Within two years, the three investors had acquired three licences for AM talk stations and the industry was filled with hope of new jobs and new alternatives to incumbent stations owned by major corporations.
But five years later, the group has nothing to show for it. It has already lost one of its three licence authorizations, and in November will lose the other two if it…
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Growing in small market Quebec
MONTREAL – It only started in 2012, but Quebec’s Attraction Radio has already grown, entirely through acquisitions, to become one of the top radio broadcast owners in Quebec, based on a business model of small-market stations each maintaining their own identity and local management.
On Tuesday, the CRTC published the latest acquisition by this group, of CIPC-FM Port-Cartier (Radioactive 99.1) and CKCN-FM (PUR FM 94.1) in nearby Sept-Îles, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, 500 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.
Both stations were owned by four shareholders, Yvan Beaulieu, Jean Laverdière, Luc Hovington and…
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TORONTO – Bell Media’s The Comedy Network is readying new series and epsiodes as it preps for a free preview from June 30 – August 4.
The new content includes the linear TV premiere of the CraveTV original hit Letterkenny and the new series Wrecked (pictured), a half-hour single camera comedy that follows a group of plane crash survivors trying to make a new life for themselves on a deserted island. It also includes a marathon of The Detour, the return of Angie Tribeca, and new episodes of Just For Laughs: All Access.
The Comedy Freeview is available on TV service…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has extended the deadline for submission of interventions into its highly anticipated review into differential pricing practices related to Internet and wireless data plans.
The Commission said Friday that initial interventions are now due by June 28, rather than the original deadline of June 17, 2016.
The revision comes at the behest of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) which noted in a letter to the CRTC that parties had less than a month to prepare their interventions, while a significant number of other Commission proceedings that they need to prepare for are also ongoing. …
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TORONTO – TV service providers offering cost and channel choices through skinny basic TV programming packages receive higher marks in customer satisfaction, according to new data from J.D. Power.
The Canadian Television Provider Customer Satisfaction Study measures overall satisfaction with television service providers based on six factors (in order of importance): performance and reliability; cost of service; programming; communication; billing; and customer service. The Canadian Internet Service Provider Customer Satisfaction Study is based on five factors (in order of importance): performance and reliability; cost of service; communication; billing; and customer service. Both studies were released Thursday.
Videotron ranked highest in…
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