In a letter Wednesday, the CRTC acknowledged the measures Meta has taken to ensure its Facebook and Instagram platforms comply with the Online News Act, while also saying the commission will continue to monitor the situation.
In October 2024, the CRTC began investigating whether Facebook was continuing to allow Canadian news to be available on its platform in violation of the Act.
In a series of responses, Meta told the CRTC it had taken steps to ensure its platforms are not operating as digital news intermediaries within the scope of the Online News…
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Regulator says OUTtv must-carry application won’t be reviewed
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC ruled Friday that Rogers unjustly removed LGBTQ+ channel OUTtv from its premium pre-assembled television package while the two were negotiating a new carry rate.
Prior to the end of the previous agreement, OUTtv was in Rogers’s Premier television package, which the cable giant stopped marketing in favour of its best pre-assembled package called Ultimate TV. After the carry agreement ended, Rogers removed the channel from the Premier package and, instead of putting it in Ultimate TV, slotted it into two themed ones called Variety and Lifestyle and Entertainment.
OUTtv, whose…
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The CRTC has denied a request from Bell to temporarily allow it and other wireless service providers to provide locked cellphones after purchase.
In a letter dated April 22, Bell and its flanker brand Virgin Plus informed the CRTC of their intention to start selling locked cellphones to address an increase in crime at Bell’s points of sale, with the phones to be locked to Bell’s network for up to 60 days after purchase.
Bell’s letter was sent to the CRTC just days before putting its new practice into effect, noted the CRTC in a…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The parties involved in a class action lawsuit over historical long-distance rates charged at Ontario correctional facilities are in “jurisdictional limbo” because the CRTC refuses to definitely state that it has domain over those rates, Bell claims in a new court filing.
Nearly a month after Ontario filed its own leave to appeal application at the Federal Court of Appeal, the telco is similarly asking the high court to find that the regulator failed to address an issue central to the lawsuit: that the CRTC’s forbearance from regulating those rates is itself an exercise in…
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Bell says its ‘Flex Option’ complies with code
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC is asking Bell a series of questions to see if a new plan that gives customers an additional 12 months to pay off the remaining balance owed on their devices is onside of Wireless Code rules.
Bell’s new “Flex Option” provides customers an additional option to pay off their device after the initial two-year service plan period. The appeal is that the customer pays a lower monthly amount for the phone during the service plan period. The customer then has three options for dealing with the…
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By Howard Law, author of MediaPolicy.ca and Canada vs. California: How Ottawa took on Netflix and the streaming giants (Lorimer, 2024)
In October 2022, Netflix appeared at the Senate committee reviewing the proposed Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, when the Conservative senator Fabian Manning pitched a softball question: What was the Hollywood giant’s “main priority” in amending a bill it didn’t welcome?
The Canadian spokesperson for the streamer was succinct in his answer: “If I had to choose just one, it would be the issue of copyright ownership.”
Last week, Netflix got what it wanted.
The CRTC’s Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The Ontario government is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to review whether the CRTC again abrogated on its alleged duties to clarify whether it has jurisdiction over long-distance calls in correctional facilities.
In late September, the CRTC rejected applications filed by Ontario and Bell that requested that the regulator explicitly state that its power to forebear from regulation is itself a form of regulation, which would place these call rates squarely in its domain and have the ultimate effect, the applicants believe, of avoiding courts making conflicting determinations on what those…
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The CRTC last week approved separate applications by Lakeside Radio Broadcasting Corp. and FAB Broadcasting Corp. — both owned by London Publishing Corp. — to change the ownership and effective control of radio stations in Kincardine and Listowel, Ontario, respectively.
With the approval of Lakeside’s application, parent company London Publishing is acquiring Gregory Hetherington’s 47.4-per-cent share of Lakeside, giving Raymond Stanton effective control of classic rock radio station CIYN-FM Kincardine (operating as Shoreline Classics FM) and its transmitters CIYN-FM-1 Goderich and CIYN-FM-2 Port Elgin, Ontario.
Based on a CRTC-revised transaction value of…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday said it is suspending a trio of applications from channels that are asking for an increase in the monthly wholesale rate to carry them until it resolves some proceedings that may impact those decisions.
By majority decision, the regulator said it is deferring the applications of Cable Public Affairs Channel Inc. (CPAC), TV5 Quebec Canada (TV5), and Vues & Voix until it decides on “whether the existing regulations remain suited to and effective in supporting services of exceptional importance, and is reassessing, among other things,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC said in a letter Wednesday that it will clarify rules surrounding the disclosure of information related to last-mile fibre locations for competitors.
The letter was prompted by a Telus Part 1 application, dated June 9 but made public Wednesday, that asked the CRTC to impose enforcement action against Rogers for cutting off its access to the cable company’s wholesale access portal on April 4. The service was eventually restored within a day, but the Vancouver-based telco said the incident “severely” disrupted its operations.
Telus said it received notice on that Friday afternoon from Rogers saying that it…
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