The CRTC on Monday announced it has administratively renewed the broadcasting licences for various television programming undertakings, networks and broadcasting distribution undertakings from Sept. 1, 2026 to Aug. 31, 2027.
These licence renewals cover the large broadcasting groups of Bell, Rogers, Quebecor, Corus and Blue Ant, as well as smaller broadcasters including APTN, Accessible Media, Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC), OUTtv, Pelmorex Weather Networks, Stingray, Super Channel, TLN Media Group, TV5 Quebec Canada and ZoomerMedia, and BDUs operated by Cogeco, SaskTel and Telus.
The broadcasting regulator said the administrative renewals are necessary to allow the various undertakings to…
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By Connie Thiessen
Chris MacDonald, the former CRTC commissioner for Atlantic Canada and Nunavut and a longtime Rogers Communications senior manager, has passed away following an undisclosed illness. He was 44.
While still studying business administration at UNB (University of New Brunswick), MacDonald began his career as a research assistant and later executive assistant to New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord.
He joined Rogers in 2005 as a strategic account manager, moving his way up to market manager for Atlantic Canada and then senior manager of sales for fiber solutions and small business over the next decade.
He was appointed to the CRTC in 2015 to a five-year…
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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)
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,'” Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!'”
“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument,'” Alice objected.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC said Thursday that Bell must pay for all corrective work to attach third-party equipment for which it did not issue an invoice to Quebecor before the regulator ruled that all such work must be done by the structure owner at its own expense.
The clarification favours Quebecor, which asked the regulator late last year to decide on a dispute with Bell that dealt with the status of permit applications that had yet to be fully approved by Bell when the CRTC in January ordered the telcos to make the necessary corrective work…
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Crave subs top five million
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell executives said Thursday that the company will focus on trade-in and other “device residual programs,” rather than device discounting, to address affordability for consumers.
Bell reported wireless product revenue that was $555 million, down 6.6 per cent in the quarter against the equivalent period that ended June 30 last year. The company noted in its second-quarter earnings report that this was a result of lower wireless device sales to consumers “mainly from lower contracted activations due to a greater mix of bring-your-own-device activations and fewer upgrades, partly offset by reduced discounting and…
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The CRTC wants to know if Selkirk and its surrounding areas in Manitoba can home an additional commercial FM station.
The regulator, which made the call for comments Monday, received an application from a Kelly Dion to operate that English-language station at 90.5 MHz in the city about 40 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. It would also serve St. Andrews, St. Clements, and the southern Lake Winnipeg beach communities in the province.
Comments are due September 2.
The city is primarily served by CFQX-FM (104.1 MHz), which delivers country music and is owned by the Jim Pattison Group.
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By Ahmad Hathout
Under new management, Telus is resetting its dividend and pausing acquisitions to get its debt level in check.
Starting October 1, the corporation will issue a quarterly dividend of $0.1875 cents per share, which is 75 cents on an annualized basis – a reduction of 55 per cent from the existing distribution. It is also eliminating the discount on dividend reinvestments.
“It served a clear purpose during the peak of our network build, preserving cash when capital intensity was at its highest,” Telus CEO Victor Dodig said Friday about the dividend reinvestment plan in his first earnings call as…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The News Forum (TNF) is alleging Cogeco and Quebecor’s Videotron are not giving it television package treatment demanded by CRTC regulation.
The independent national news service, which broadcasters must offer to their subscribers under the 9.1(1)(h) rule, claims in separate but nearly identical Part 1 applications that the aforementioned broadcasters are excluding it from packages that include incumbent news networks CBC and CTV, thereby giving those services an advantage over it.
“Broadcasting Order CRTC 2022-297 requires BDUs to distribute TNF, CBC News Network, and CTV News Channel, and to include those services in…
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The CRTC said Tuesday an independent external audit of Broadband Fund recipient Broadband Communications North (BCN) has found BCN was non-compliant with a specific condition of the funding and was over-reimbursed for a satellite project in northern Manitoba.
The project, which was approved for $9.9 million in funding in 2020, was to improve satellite capacity for the remote communities of Barren Lands, Lac Brochet, Pukatawagan, Shamattawa First Nation and Tadoule Lake.
The external auditor’s report submitted to the CRTC in July 2025 found that BCN received third-party funding, in addition to…
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By Ahmad Hathout
A letter to the Federal Court of Appeal this month signaling the federal government’s intention to eliminate the CRTC’s base contribution requirement on streamers is not causing panic among some creatives, who say they want to see the government’s new policy direction before drawing conclusions.
The attorney general informed the court on July 17 of the federal government’s “intention is to eliminate the base contribution requirement on streaming services and to provide government funding to replace those contributions.” The five-per-cent financial obligation levied on streamers in 2024 was expected to draw some $200 million into…
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