By Ahmad Hathout
The Federal Court of Appeal has set a date for a hearing into whether the CRTC erred in freezing Rogers’s ability to move and remove certain Corus channels.
The court will hear the case on September 23 at 9:30 am in a special sitting in Toronto, according to an order dated Friday.
Rogers filed the original application against two confidential November decisions of the CRTC that froze its ability to remove or relocate three Corus channels: Slice, Home Network, and Flavour Network.
Rogers has argued that the Broadcasting Act’s standstill rule – which requires the two companies…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Corus is preparing to pull the plug on a handful of children’s services come September 1, Cartt has learned, amid the company’s pursuit to cut down on costs and as the CRTC weighs what to do about such at-risk programming.
Corus has told distributors that Disney XD, Disney Jr., Disney French (La Chaine Disney), Nickelodeon, and ABC Spark will be pulled at the start of the new broadcast year, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told us, which was then confirmed by Corus.
“Corus regularly reviews its portfolio of channels to ensure we are meeting the evolving…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC said late last month that it will review complaints filed by independent telecoms claiming a price war between larger telecoms is compromising the sustainability of their businesses.
The complaints, led by Transat Telecom and Bravo Telecom, claim that the CRTC has left the independents exposed to predatory pricing occurring in Ontario and Quebec. They are now asking the commission to suspend regulatory forbearance to address what they perceive as a market imbalance.
The commission, which originally suspended the November 2024 and January 2025 complaints, said in a letter on June 27 that it has reopened the applications…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The public broadcaster and a trade group representing independent producers are floating the use of platform home pages as a possible way to amplify the discoverability of Canadian content.
Representatives from CBC/Radio-Canada said Wednesday that the CRTC should ensure that discoverability and marketing of such content are not counted toward distributors’ contribution requirements, including both the base financial component and traditional Canadian programming expenditures (CPE). The reason, according to CBC execs, is that vertically integrated broadcasting giants already support discoverability and promotion of CanCon “as a regular course of their business.”
Indeed, VIs including Bell and Rogers have said…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers says it is being hamstrung by having to set aside money for the $750-million Broadband Fund that it says is not efficiently distributing money to projects.
The cable giant said in a Part 1 application made public Monday that it has to tie-up millions of dollars in “uncalled” contributions – amounts that the telecom must be ready deliver to the National Contribution Fund (NCF) when requested – which is creating large liabilities on its balance sheet.
It is asking the CRTC to change the NCF’s collection practices to prioritize the amounts that are waiting to be collected over…
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In a number of decisions published Monday on its website, the CRTC has approved the sale of several radio stations located in Ontario.
My Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) has received CRTC approval for its purchase of three stations from Rogers Media, including Easy 101.3 (CKOT-FM) and its sister station Country 107.3 (CJDL-FM) in Tillsonburg, and Jack 92.3 (CJET-FM) in Smith Falls. Based on a transaction value of $1,095,000 (as revised by the CRTC) for the purchase of the three stations, MBC is required to pay a total of $65,700 in tangible benefits in equal instalments over seven…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Telus is asking the CRTC to ensure that all Canadian distributors get a fair shot at negotiating carriage of content held by Rogers and Bell.
“It ensures that Canadians nationwide will have competitively priced access to readily discoverable Canadian content that should be accessible to Canadians across the country at fair prices because it precludes vertically integrated companies like Rogers and Bell from keeping important content to themselves,” Daniel Stern, Telus’s associate general counsel, said Thursday.
The overarching Telus position is that service providers must be able to bundle television and internet to compete against these VIs. The…
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By Ahmad Hathout
In an extraordinary legal filing, Bell is accusing Telus of training and using door-to-door salespeople to pitch an unlicensed IPTV application to get customers to switch to Telus internet services.
The activity is allegedly taking place in areas where Telus wholesales internet service from Bell, according to a statement of claim in Ontario Superior Court, filed Thursday.
The representatives “promote, facilitate, authorize, and assist in the installation of an illegal, unlicensed IPTV application … that reproduces and retransmits Canadian and international programming, including works and signals in which Bell and its affiliated programmers hold copyright,” the statement alleges.
The representatives…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The head of Corus said Thursday that the CRTC’s recent decision to make the company’s 15 Global stations eligible for funding from the Independent Local News Fund (ILNF) will make a significant impact on its financials, as it deals with advertising uncertainty heading into the fourth quarter.
It’s too soon to tell whether the roughly three-week-old decision will come in time to assist the media company going into the traditionally softer fourth quarter. But if it does, it would come at an important time for the company, as it battles a difficult advertising and high-content-cost…
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By Ahmad Hathout
An Eastlink executive said Wednesday that the company has experienced challenges getting large streaming platforms to do deals with a smaller distributor like itself, as more Canadians seek bundles with both linear and online options.
“It is extremely key,” Andy Garrett, vice president of product management, said about being able to do package deals with big streamers like Netflix and Apple TV. “I know a lot of the larger streamers are looking for or wanting to do business with a large provider. So they would typically say that we’re too small and we’re not worth their time.
“Not being…
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