By Ahmad Hathout
Several major telecoms have filed a review and vary application asking the CRTC to adjust its new outage reporting requirements and extend the deadline to implement them because they are currently “impractical or disproportionate” and impose “undue administrative burden” on their businesses.
The CRTC in September gave all telecoms two months to implement the new rules, which require them to report to certain official bodies major outages – newly defined as lasting at least 30 minutes and affecting 600,000 or more user minutes in most cases. Compared to the interim regime from 2023, the new…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Federal Court of Appeal will hear arguments made by Cogeco and Eastlink that allege the CRTC made several errors when it rejected their request to relook at its decision to allow the three largest telecoms wholesale access to their cable networks.
The July leave application, granted last month, charges that the regulator made three errors of law when it refused to review and vary the August 2024 policy that they say will cripple their businesses.
The applicants argue in a notice of appeal filing, dated September 29, that the CRTC misinterpreted section 2(e) of the…
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The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) announced Wednesday its board of directors for the 2025-2027 term, and confirmed the appointments of Kyle Irving as CMPA board chair, Michelle Wong as treasurer and Lauren Corber as secretary.
“In this pivotal moment for Canada’s nearly $12 billion media production industry, it’s more critical than ever that we pull together for Canadian content and stories,” Irving said in a CMPA press release Wednesday. “The deep expertise of our diverse Board of Directors will ensure our members are well represented to continue telling Canadian stories on our own…
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By Ahmad Hathout
A non-profit tribal council is asking the CRTC to extend the proposed far north retail internet subsidy to remote indigenous communities.
The regulator ruled earlier this year that it will implement a monthly internet subsidy for residents of Canada’s far north, which has some of the most expensive high-speed internet services.
But Matawa First Nations Management (MFNM), which is comprised of nine remote First Nations in northern Ontario with a combined population of over 10,000, says in a Part 1 made public Tuesday that this subsidy should not be exclusive to far north…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Cogeco is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to force the CRTC to make a decision on a joint complaint it made with Bell late last year alleging a Quebecor internet radio station is broadcasting on a commercial FM station illegally.
In August 2024, Quebecor made a deal with Leclerc Communication, the owner of commercial radio station CJPX-FM (99.5 FM) in Montreal, allowing Quebecor’s internet radio station QUB Radio to operate on those airwaves during primetime Monday through Friday.
“In the hyper-competitive world of Montreal radio, the upheavals of recent months in talk radio offer…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC’s vice president of broadcasting said Wednesday that some of the base contribution money collected from online streamers, which is to be delivered to Canadian content funds, has already been released, despite a court-ordered stay of that policy.
Scott Shortliffe told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, in a briefing about the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, that the streamers’ money from the previous broadcast year – which ended on August 31 – has been collected by an independent company and that some of the money has already been delivered.
“We understand that the money has been…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday denied applications from Bell and Ontario charging that the commission made an error in a previous decision by failing to clarify that it had exclusive jurisdiction over long-distance calls in correctional facilities.
The commission said Friday that this issue was not central to its 2024 decision – which determined that those call rates were forborne from regulation since 1997 and it did not have authority to retroactively adjust the rates charged by Bell between 2013 and 2021 – and that the Telecommunications Act does not give the CRTC “authorities in exclusive…
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Spoken word on FM, removal of tangible benefits among other recommendations
By Ahmad Hathout
Canadian content quotas on radio have contributed to a competitive imbalance in the market and reducing them will help traditional broadcasters be more adaptable to listener habits, the CRTC heard this week.
Rogers pitched Friday a reduction in the Canadian content quota on English-language radio – from 35 per cent to 25 per cent – that the broadcasting giant said will not only allow it to better manage its operations but also increase the consumption of its products. The company’s director of programming said there’s data to back…
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By Connie Thiessen
Canadian radio cannot continue to be used as a tool to prop up the music industry, Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) President Kevin Desjardins told the CRTC’s hearing on Canadian content on audio services Thursday.
“There has never been a more urgent moment than now for the commission to revise and adjust the regulatory regime for commercial radio in Canada. Simply put, the status quo will not do,” Desjardins asserted.
The CAB, presenting its case on behalf of its 26 members representing over 550 commercial radio stations, argued that the current regulatory burden, particularly “artificially high exhibition requirements” for…
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Sale of infrastructure also not out of the cards
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell’s chief financial officer said Thursday that leasing internet from Telus in western Canada is not out of the cards, but that owning the infrastructure is preferred for cash flow.
“It’s an opportunity for sure,” Curtis Millen said during a conference hosted by CIBC when asked about using Telus’s network in areas Bell doesn’t operate in. “We’ve had plenty of time to think about this.”
Bell, unlike Telus, is opposed to the CRTC policy of allowing the three largest telecoms to use the wholesale internet regime because the…
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