By Ahmad Hathout
A paper published in the Canadian Bar Review last spring that called federal jurisdiction over online streamers “suspect” was studied by Canadian Heritage, according to heavily redacted briefing material obtained by Cartt, and the author believes the Online Streaming Act is “inevitably going to be challenged” on that basis.
Michael Ryan, a lawyer specializing in Canadian telecommunications and broadcasting law and regulation, told Cartt in an interview that he was “expecting, frankly, somebody to come forward and challenge this law before now they inevitably will.
“It’ll be an American streaming company or somebody else who feels that they’d…
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The CRTC on Thursday approved Stingray’s acquisition of Calgary’s CHUP-FM (C97.7) from Rawlco Radio.
The $6.1-million acquisition, announced in November, will see Stingray operate three FM stations (including CKMP-FM and CFXL-FM) in the competitive market served by 10 distinct radio ownership groups; allow Rawlco to focus operations on the Saskatchewan market; and generate $366,240 in tangible benefits to Canadian content funds.
Stingray proposed that it would operate CHUP-FM under the same conditions as those in effect under the current licence, which includes at least 40 per cent of its musical selections from popular music and special interest music combined to Canadian…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Cabinet, on the advice of Innovation Science and Economic Development (ISED), will not order the CRTC to revisit a decision denying a complaint alleging Bell and its subsidiary Northwestel violated aspects of a wholesale call traffic agreement.
Iristel leveraged the opinions of two CRTC commissioners to bolster its case charging that the CRTC did not ask past and present Bell employees about the telco’s alleged refusal to set up an agreed-upon interconnection point at Kuujjuaq in northern Quebec and Whitehorse to carry its call traffic. Instead, it said it had to accept an interconnection point that didn’t allow…
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It was probably only a matter of time, but the CRTC has now turned its attention to new device setup charges and SIM fees that Rogers is charging customers, following the telecom regulator’s ban on activation fees that took effect June 12.
The CRTC has already taken Rogers competitors Bell and Telus to task over new fees those two telcos recently introduced that the commission has said do not appear to fall under the exemption for optional services and products in its new policy prohibiting fees for activating, modifying and cancelling mobile and internet plans.
In a Continue Reading
CBC/Radio-Canada has an opportunity to better serve small communities lacking media coverage and should have “the reflection of local communities and audiences” explicitly stated in its mandate, according to a report by the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications released Wednesday.
Having the national public broadcaster’s mandate officially amended in the Broadcasting Act was one of seven recommendations made by the senate committee in its report, which is the culmination of a study undertaken by the committee in 2024 and 2025 to examine the local services provided by CBC/Radio-Canada. More than 60 witnesses appeared at the committee’s public…
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Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) provided an update last week on the status of high-speed internet deployment across Canada, saying 96.4 per cent of Canadian households had access to internet meeting the federal government’s minimum speed objective of 50/10 Mbps at the end of 2024.
On behalf of ISED, Canada’s secretary of state for rural development, Buckley Belanger, provided the update in response to questions posed in the House of Commons in April by Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis, who represents the Ontario riding of Haldimand–Norfolk.
Belanger’s written response, presented in the House on June 10, cited the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor’s Videotron is asking the CRTC to get involved in adjusting the wholesale roaming access prices charged by SaskTel, which would reverse over a decade of regulatory forbearance.
In a Part 1 application with redactions made public Monday, Videotron is claiming it is being forced to pay unfairly high wholesale roaming prices to the dominant wireless service provider in Saskatchewan with no regulatory avenue because the CRTC in 2015 excluded the Crown corporation from the policy that regulated those rates for market power players Rogers, Bell, and Telus. However the regulator “retained the power to…
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On the day the CRTC’s new prohibition on fees for activating, modifying or cancelling wireless and internet service plans came into effect this past Friday, the commission sent letters to Telus and Bell asking the telcos if they have stopped charging customers new fees that it had previously warned could be in violation of the new rules.
Last Tuesday, the CRTC told Telus via a letter its new $15 SIM purchase fee may be considered to be an activation fee that would be prohibited as of Friday. In a Continue Reading
By Doug Barrett, adjunct professor in the Arts, Media & Entertainment MBA Program at the Schulich School of Business
On June 3, Culture Minister Marc Miller scored an own goal on Canadian cultural sovereignty by announcing that the government will develop new policy directions to the CRTC to “adjust” the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, presumably by scrapping the requirement that foreign online undertakings make financial contributions to the production of Canadian programming.
This move — just 21 days after the CRTC decided to increase their financial obligation to the system — constituted a…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday launched its consultation on the harmonization of the four consumer codes to “improve clarity and consistency of consumer protections across all retail services.”
The regulator also said the harmonization — bringing together the internet, wireless, television, and deposit and disconnection codes — will serve to reduce administrative burden for the CCTS, the complaints watchdog that administers the codes, and the industry by reducing reporting to the commission while making it easier to monitor and improve a single set of rules across all communications services. Some consumer protections, it added, could apply to all retail…
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