GATINEAU – Canada’s major cable companies and telcos are squaring off against MTS Allstream and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre over the CRTC’s authority to mandate broadband as an essential service in the so-called “Obligation to Serve” CRTC proceeding beginning Tuesday in Timmins, Ont.
Comments filed with the CRTC in late August show that Bell Canada, Telus and all of the large cablecos are, not surprisingly, opposed to any Commission intervention on this matter, while PIAC and MTS firmly believe that the CRTC can make broadband essential.
The issue has become a central theme in the proceeding which will cover…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Despite the fact that when compared to the likes of Rogers, Shaw, Bell, Telus, Videotron and Cogeco, Bragg Communications (EastLink) is pretty small, the CRTC told the company in a letter this week that it won’t be exempted from the CRTC’s requirement to file a public version of its aggregated annual return.
“In Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2009-560 the Commission determined that the disclosure of the public version of the aggregated annual return filed by the large ownership groups, including Bragg, was in the public interest, and that any harm that would result from such disclosure did…
Continue Reading
Perry Hoffman
GATINEAU – Canadian cable operators do not believe that a local-into-local signal carriage regime imposed on DTH companies would be disastrous for the operations of Bell TV and Shaw Direct.
Bell TV and Shaw Direct say in their submissions on 2010-488, the review of the direct-to-home satellite distribution policy they don’t have the capacity to carry all local over-the-air (OTA) signals, and despite technological improvements in compression coming online in the future complying with a local-into-local regime will be problematic.
Both say that if forced to carry all over-the-air (OTA) stations, they will have no choice but to remove specialty…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Canada’s major cable companies and telcos are squaring off against MTS Allstream and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre over the CRTC’s authority to mandate broadband as an essential service.
Comments filed with the CRTC in late August show that Bell Canada, Telus and all of the large cablecos are, not surprisingly, opposed to any Commission intervention on this matter, while PIAC and MTS firmly believe that the CRTC can make broadband essential.
The issue has become a central theme in an ongoing proceeding on a broad variety of telecom matters, generally referred to as the obligation to…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Most stakeholders agree that the CRTC’s new community TV policy did little to lessen cable’s firm grip on the country’s community channels. But even some of the country’s biggest cable companies appear to have some concerns.
“The closed captioning component is going to be a challenge”, said Colette Watson, VP of Rogers TV, in an interview with Cartt.ca. “As of December 31st, the funding is frozen to the levels we’re at now for four years. That’s fine, we’ll make that work. The issue then becomes, if in that same time frame we have to caption 100%…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Should broadband be deemed an essential service for all Canadians in the same way as basic telephone service?
Count the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) firmly on the ‘yes’ side of that question. In a new report called Is Broadband Basic Service, the Ottawa-based consumer organization details how Canada could benefit from such a plan, and how countries like Japan and the European Union have been successful thanks to policy and infrastructure investments that make broadband service a basic right for their citizens. All of which stands in contrast to Canada where no such regime exists –…
Continue Reading
WHY WOULD KEITH PELLEY move to Rogers Communications? That’s the question the industry is asking this week. There are many speculative answers, but let’s try to look at some facts before we lob our own opinion-grenades.
Pelley is a sports guy. A TV guy. A sports TV guy. He’s a heck of a broadcast executive who is still riding a massive wave of goodwill generated by the stellar Winter Olympics broadcast, one which he constructed from the ground up and oversaw. He and his people did a terrific job and with a bit of downtime between now and…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The CRTC’s proposal to include broadband as part of the basic service objective (BSO) for telcos is getting lukewarm support, at best. The Commission proposed the idea in a broad consultation on a variety of telecom matters, referred to as the “Obligation to Serve” proceeding.
MTS Allstream Inc. and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) are two that have said making broadband part of basic service would represent a logical extension of the current regime. Presently the BSO only applies to local voice services.
“Including broadband access in the Commission’s universal service objective would also recognize the…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – The parent company of Canadian-based Intercable Africa announced today it’s financing has fallen through.
The company, run by former Videotron executive Guy Laflamme (who also launched Portugal’s Cabovisao before Cogeco rescued it from creditors), has been building a cable system in Reunion, a tiny French-controlled island nation of about 800,000 in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar.
In a press release, the company said it was not able to obtain additional financing with Absa Bank and The Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB), nor an extension of the due date of its current outstanding bridge facilities.
Therefore, all credit facilities…
Continue Reading
REGISTRATION IS NOW open for the 7th annual SCTE-Ontario golf tournament.
Scheduled for August 10 at Wooden Sticks Golf Inc. in Uxbridge, ON, this popular event is limited to 144 golfers, so early registration is encouraged. With a shot-gun start at 1:30 PM (after lunch), the format will be a ‘best-ball’ tournament followed by dinner and awards in the evening.
Fees are $125 (including tax) per person which includes green fees, lunch, dinner and participation in all activities.
To sponsor an event or contribute to the prize table, please contact Gillian Hillhouse at gillian.hillhouse@cogeco.com or (905) 333-7069. For more details and to register,…
Continue Reading
