OTTAWA – The Ontario towns of Aurora and Georgina may soon each have a new radio station after the CRTC issued a call for comments on market capacity and on the appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications to serve the two areas.
The Commission said Monday that it issued the call after receiving an application from Bhupinder Bola, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated, to serve Aurora, plus an application from Renfrew-based My Broadcasting Corporation to serve the Georgina market.
Interventions are due by August 10 and the deadline to file replies is August 22, 2016. …
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Customers of Ice Wireless and its affiliate Sugar Mobile may continue to roam on Rogers’ national mobile network, at least in the short term.
The CRTC has granted Ice Wireless’ request for interim relief while considering its request for final relief by preventing Rogers from prohibiting customers of Ice Wireless or Sugar Mobile from roaming on its mobile network.
A letter from secretary general Danielle May-Cuconato addressed to Ice Wireless president & CEO Samer Bishay and Rogers’ SVP regulatory David Watt said that the Commission has determined that the application, filed in February 2016, has met its…
Continue Reading
Says commissioner Vennard conducted herself inappropriately, too
TORONTO – In a judicial review application filed with the Federal Court on Tuesday, former Ontario regional CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan alleges institutional bigotry within the Commission as part of the justifications why his firing should be reversed.
Documents filed by Shoan also say a serious complaint against another commissioner, Alberta and NWT commissioner Linda Vennard, was swept aside and that shows an unfair inconsistency in how staff complaints about the two commissioners have been treated.
He also seeks an immediate stay of the Order-in-Council which rescinded his appointment, so he can return to his…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Certain types of differential pricing should be banned because they can harm competition, stifle innovation and increase prices, said the Competition Bureau in response to the CRTC’s plan to review the controversial practice.
Differential pricing occurs when an internet service provider (ISP) charges one price for customers to consume one type of content, and another price for other types of content, a move that can influence the fundamental choices that consumers make.
In its submission to the Commission, the Bureau advocates that differential pricing where ISPs receive financial benefit from content providers for favouring their content should be prohibited. An…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – In an unsurprising decision, the CRTC denied Bell Canada’s request to review and vary the decision which gives third party independent Internet service providers access to incumbent networks’ newest fibre infrastructure.
Bell had submitted a Part 1 application to the CRTC to review and vary Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-326 that states incumbent telecom providers must introduce a “disaggregated wholesale broadband access service” (DBS) so that independent ISPs gain access to FTTH (fibre to the home) facilities.
In a nutshell, Bell believes the CRTC’s decision has unfairly changed the rules governing fibre-to-the-home broadband networks by mandating…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU and TORONTO – The federal government has relieved Raj Shoan of his duties as CRTC commissioner for Ontario. This is believed to be the first time a commissioner’s appointment was rescinded mid-term.
The Order-in-Council says the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Mélanie Joly, wrote to Shoan “informing him that certain of his actions brought to her attention called into question his capacity to continue serving as a Commissioner of the CRTC, providing him with information regarding these concerns including the documentation upon which they were based, and inviting him to make any representations that he wished…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – A drop in advertising revenue helped slow the pace of growth at Canada’s specialty, pay, PPV and VoD television services in the broadcast year ending August 31, 2015, according to the CRTC’s statistical and financial report for this sector released Thursday.
Pay, Pay-per-View, Video-On-Demand and Specialty Services – Statistical and Financial Summaries 2011-2015 said that the sector generated revenues of $4.3 billion in 2015, a modest 0.5% increase over the $4.2 billion earned the previous year, which was hampered by a $19 million decline in advertising revenue, which was offset by a $30.6 million increase in subscription revenues.
The report…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Ontario CRTC Commissioner Raj Shoan got his day in court Tuesday in his attempt to quash a finding of workplace harassment levelled against him last year.
That complaint, brought by former executive director of communications Amanda Cliff against Shoan over seven different email threads sent over seven months in 2014, was investigated by an outside third party firm hired by the CRTC. After conducting multiple interviews with Commission staff, commissioners and chairman Jean-Pierre Blais (and uncovering a workplace seemingly in turmoil, with plenty of blame to go around, if you read the report, as…
Continue Reading
DEMORESTVILLE, ON – Broadcast industry veteran, former CRTC director-general, and community advocate Peter Fleming passed away June 15 after a brief battle with cancer. He was 66.
Fleming spent close to 25 years at the CRTC between 1973-1997, holding a variety of positions including director-general of radio and television broadcast policy. He went on to become a consultant to the broadcasting industry, helping various television and radio companies in Canada in preparing applications, policy positions and presentations to the broadcast regulator. Early on his consulting career, he helped the Government of South Africa to develop its post-apartheid broadcast legislation.
Fleming also served on the…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC will consider broadcast licence renewal applications from Canada’s big English- and French-language ownership groups at two public hearings this November.
The Commission said Wednesday that it will review applications from French-language ownership groups Bell, Corus, Quebecor and Groupe V starting November 22 in Laval.
The public hearing to review the applications from the English-language ownership groups Bell, Corus and Rogers, plus Shaw Communications and Telelatino Network, will begin on November 28 at the CRTC’s headquarters in Gatineau.
The deadline for the submission of interventions/comments/answers is August 2, 2016.
www.crtc.gc.ca
Continue Reading
