By Steve Faguy
RIVIÈRE-DU-LOUP – Canada’s public broadcaster has cut ties with its last privately-owned affiliate TV station.
CKRT-DT, based in Rivière-du-Loup, Que., learned last year that Radio-Canada was not renewing its affiliation agreement past Aug. 31, 2021. Owner Télé Inter-Rives, which also owns affiliate stations for both TVA and Noovo in eastern Quebec, says it has no other source of programming for the station and will therefore shut it down — along with its six rebroadcasting transmitters — and return its licence to the CRTC.
“Over the last year, we have been able to discuss with Radio-Canada about this unilateral decision,”…
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Resumption of clause-by-clause consideration met by stalling tactics
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In a quickly scheduled evening meeting the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage resumed its review of the content of individual sections of Bill C-10, which aims to amend the Broadcasting Act.
Right away the committee went back to the discussion over whether the amended bill complies with the Charter of Rights.
The first hour featured an overlong speech (a classic filibuster) from Conservative MP Rachel Harder, about the importance of the Charter of Rights compliance for the bill being studied. She may have a point, but the stalling tactic angered…
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MONTREAL and WINNIPEG – The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, said this week it “deplores” the delay of the clause-by-clause study of Bill C-10 to amend the Broadcasting Act.
The coalition which includes creative associations such as ADISQ, ACTRA, CMPA, SOCAN and WGC, among others, “urges all members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage committee to agree to resume the study of the bill promptly,” reads its press release.
“Without a rapid resumption of this work, the entire fate of Bill C-10 is at stake. And without the immediate implementation of this bill, the entire Canadian cultural…
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MONTREAL – In a motion filed on Wednesday in Québec’s Superior Court, Bell Canada alleges wireless competitor Videotron neglected to ensure its subscribers were not roaming permanently on Bell’s network when travelling outside Videotron’s home territory.
CRTC Decision 2020-48, issued in February 2020 following a complaint filed by Videotron, said Bell Mobility was not to suspend wholesale roaming services offered to Videotron subscribers.
During a dispute between the two, the record of that proceeding shows Videotron had been in violation of a CRTC Policy regarding permanent roaming, where it had customers who never left the Bell network. Despite this, the…
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Rural areas need a single, open access, network
By Joe Hickey
IN A WORLD WHERE many causes are highly politicized, rural broadband access is a cause just about everyone can get behind. With it, Canada can improve rural access to education, healthcare, and economic growth. This is especially important in the wake of COVID-19, which put a glaring spotlight on the digital divide, and made it all the rage to support rural broadband access.
Even major urban telcos seem to be getting on board, with Rogers Communications promising a $1 billion rural broadband fund in its recent proposal to…
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By Brad Danks and Luc Perreault
AS WE WRITE, BILL C-10, An Act to Amend the Broadcasting Act, is stalled in committee at clause-by-clause review. Conservative members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage are asking the bill to be suspended pending a Charter analysis from the Department of Justice and an appearance from the Ministers of Justice and Canadian Heritage.
They say that an amendment made to the bill – removing a social media exclusion in proposed section 4.1 – is a substantial change and Canadians’ freedom of expression is at stake.
The Liberals say they are prepared to request a…
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By Howard Law
UNTIL LAST WEEK, PARLIAMENT’S Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage was plodding through the clause-by-clause review of Bill C-10 with no tasty headlines. Perhaps the bill’s revamp of the Broadcasting Act, which would sweep in Netflix, isn’t controversial anymore.
Of course, federal political partisanship is inevitable, as Canadian as bad weather.
And so, we now have the Conservatives’ faux controversy over free expression on social media platforms. In an e-mail blast from CPC MPs across the country, they made their case:
“Recently, the Liberal government introduced Bill C-10 – a bill that would regulate social media websites like Facebook, YouTube, and…
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Mediaucracy looks at Cancon policy for TV in the global online era
By Len St-Aubin
IN HER FORTHCOMING BOOK, Mediaucracy: Why Canada hasn’t made global hits and how it can, Irene Berkowitz shows how policies intended to support premium Canadian content are colliding with the global online era and that collision is preventing Canada from generating Cancon hits for the global market at a level this country’s world-class production industry is capable of as, ironically, this country turns out global hits for foreign broadcasters and streamers.
The book makes a strong case that this outcome is largely due to a missing link…
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VANCOUVER and OTTAWA — In response to Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne’s announcement last week the 3500 MHz spectrum auction scheduled for June 15 will not be delayed, independent telecom services provider Novus Entertainment has instead asked for the application process to be reopened.
“Novus would like to propose that the Department of Industry, Science and Economic Development (ISED) simply extend the time allowed for providing an application,” writes Donna Robertson, co-president and chief legal officer of Novus, in a letter sent to Minister Champagne on April 30.
“We would not expect a delay to the auction,”…
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OTTAWA — The department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) released today its latest quarterly report on wireless plans, which shows prices for the majority of mid-range data plans across Canada have decreased since tracking began a year ago.
As Cartt.ca readers know, the federal government wants service providers to reduce the cost of wireless plans by 25% over two years (from the beginning of 2020 to early 2022), and has been tracking prices since January 2020.
For plans with 2 GB to 6 GB of data, the latest tracking data shows most of these plans have seen price…
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