GATINEAU – As of yesterday, CBC is no longer allowed to air advertising on Radio 2 and ICI Musique.
The CRTC granted the CBC’s request back in 2013 to sell national advertising on the services until August 31, 2016. The Corp. complained at the time its parliamentary appropriation had been shrinking every year, and it needed a financial boost to make certain ends meet.
Advertisers, however, did not exactly beat down the CBC sales doors to buy ad time. According to the CBC’s Commission filing earlier this year to extend the permission to…
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TORONTO – Add the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) to the list of stakeholders objecting to the CRTC’s recent changes to its policy framework for Certified Independent Production Funds (CIPFs).
The union of English-language professional performers is taking issue with the regulator’s decision to drop the minimum CAVCO point requirements from eight to six to fund a Canadian independent production, and criticized the Commission’s rationale that the move could “facilitate the hiring by production companies of non-Canadian actors or creators, who may increase a project's attractiveness and visibility in international markets.”
ACTRA says the ruling not…
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OTTAWA – MTS has officially asked the CRTC to transfer ownership and effective control of its licensed terrestrial broadcasting distribution undertakings operating in Winnipeg and surrounding areas to Bell Canada.
In application dated June 8, 2016 but made public on Tuesday, MTS said that the steps of the proposed transaction affecting the licensed broadcasting undertakings would be as follows:
– First, the parent corporation of MTS, MTS Communications Holdings Inc. (MCH), would be wound up into Manitoba Telecom;
– Second, Bell would acquire all the issued and outstanding shares in the capital of Manitoba Telecom;
– Third, BCE would incorporate a new wholly owned…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – The CRTC has issued 10 citation letters for alleged violations under the Voter Contact Registry during the 2015 federal election.
The registry, which came in to force in August 2015, is intended to protect Canadian voters from rogue and misleading telephone calls during federal elections, and to help to ensure that anyone who contacts voters during an election does so transparently. The CRTC can send warning letters, issue citations or impose penalties of up to $1,500 per violation per day for individuals and up to $15,000 per violation per day for a corporation.
The citations, made public Monday, are…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a request from three consumer groups asking it to expand and/or revise the geographic boundaries for local number portability (LNP) to more accurately reflect the current network and marketplace structure for telephony services.
LNP allows subscribers to keep the same telephone number when changing service providers. The Commission required all wireline local exchange carriers to implement LNP as part of its framework for local competition established in May, 1997.
In an application dated June 15, 2015, the Consumers' Association of Canada, the Council of Senior Citizens' Organizations of British Columbia, and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre proposed…
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OTTAWA – In what it says is an effort to provide greater flexibility in the funding of Canadian programs, the CRTC has unveiled changes to its policy framework for Certified Independent Production Funds (CIPFs).
As part of the current funding system, the Commission mandates certain indirect financial contributions by BDUs to the creative sector through production funds, including the Canada Media Fund (CMF), which receives funding from both the mandated contributions of BDUs and the federal government. A number of independent production funds, known as CIPFs, have also been certified by the CRTC to receive funding from BDUs and tangible benefits…
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OTTAWA – Canadians may be able to watch U.S. ads in next year’s Super Bowl after the CRTC officially moved to prohibit simultaneous substitution for the big game starting in 2017.
The Commission issued a distribution order on Friday that effectively halts simultaneous substitution (simsub) for the event starting with Super Bowl 51, scheduled for February 5, 2017. Simsub occurs when a BDU temporarily replaces the signal of one TV channel with that of another channel showing the same program at the same time. According to the CRTC, during the Let’s Talk TV proceeding Canadians expressed ongoing frustration with the practice,…
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OTTAWA – A squabble between a Canadian telco and an American reseller that saw 27,000 Canadians temporarily lose their phone services has prompted the CRTC to evaluate the disconnection practices between telecommunications service providers.
The Commission issued a call for comments Thursday as part of a proceeding to consider whether regulatory measures are required to mitigate future occurrences of situations similar to the dispute between Toronto-area telecom Iristel Inc. and American VoIP provider netTALK that played out earlier this year.
Specifically, the CRTC is seeking feedback, with supporting rationale, on the following questions:
Should the Commission impose an obligation that contracts…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has found in favour of Toronto-based local exchange carrier Beanfield Technologies Inc. after it claimed that it was denied timely access on reasonable terms and conditions to provide services in certain multi-dwelling units in that city.
Beanfield filed a complaint with the Commission dated December 22, 2015 alleging that Toronto Standard Condominium Corporation No. 2322 denied it access to the multi-dwelling unit (MDU) buildings located at 65, 75, and 85 East Liberty Street (the East Liberty Street MDUs) in downtown Toronto.
Noting that Bell Canada, Coextro, and Rogers Communications are permitted to offer services to residents at those…
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OTTAWA — The CRTC today helped clear the way for Evanov Communications Inc. (ECI) to consolidate its radio broadcasting assets in Quebec under the operations of Evanov Radio Group, as part of the company’s corporate reorganization.
In Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2016-323 issued August 12, the CRTC announced it has approved Evanov Radio’s application to acquire the licences of its parent company’s three Quebec-based radio stations, subject to being in compliance with certain conditions of licence requiring Evanov Radio Group to fulfil outstanding commitments to Canadian content development.
The French-language AM radio station CHRF Montréal and the English-language FM station CHSV-FM…
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