The CRTC will hold a virtual hearing on Oct. 30 as it considers separate broadcasting applications from CBC, Quebecor Media and Résonance Média.
CBC is asking for a broadcasting licence to operate an English-language commercial FM radio station to replace its English-language AM station CBY Corner Brook and to transfer its transmitters CBDT-FM Deer Lake, CBNA-FM St. Anthony, CBNC-FM Stephenville, CBNE-FM Port-aux-Basques, CBNF-FM Boone Bay, CBNH-FM St. Andrew’s, CBNJ-FM Port Saunders, CBYM-FM Mount St. Margaret, and CBYP-FM Portland Creek, in Newfoundland and Labrador, to the proposed new FM station. CBC is also asking for the…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Cogeco and Eastlink are challenging cabinet’s decision not to intervene in the CRTC’s refusal to exclude the three largest telecommunications companies from accessing the internet networks of their competitors.
The basis of the judicial review request is simple: that cabinet, through the recommendation of Industry Minister Melanie Joly, allegedly did not provide the legally required justification for declining their petition to reverse a policy that they say creates an “existential” threat to their businesses.
“Instead of explaining and justifying its decision to sit on the sidelines, the had a Minister send out…
Continue Reading
By Connie Thiessen
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) has opened applications for the Commercial Radio News Fund.
The new initiative, which was granted conditional approval by the CRTC earlier this month, will operate similar to the Independent Local News Fund (ILNF) for independent television stations, requiring certain online audio undertakings to contribute 1.5 per cent of their annual revenues.
The fund aims to prop up commercial radio news production outside the country’s biggest markets — Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa-Gatineau.
The CAB has now opened applications for the distribution of contributions received for the broadcast year 2024/25. Dependant on the outcome…
Continue Reading
Rogers says CRTC does not need to “expand” inquiry
By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers has told the CRTC that a lightning strike could have been the reason why some calls in Niagara region were being misrouted to dead air or allowing customers to hear the conversations of others.
Rogers said the event on July 25, which triggered a CRTC inquiry after media reports, affected a “single voice path” on its traffic and trunk facilities and impacted the inbound and outbound calls between Rogers and Bell customers. The cableco said it is unable to identify the number of affected voice customers…
Continue Reading
On the same day TVA Group’s 2025-26 programming lineup was revealed, its acting president and CEO, Pierre Karl Peladeau, issued an appeal for action to government authorities and the CRTC, asking them to address the “serious competitive imbalances” that he says are destabilizing Canada’s private television broadcasting ecosystem.
Echoing many of the points he has made previously regarding what he calls a “crisis” in private broadcasting — including in May when layoffs at TVA Group were announced — Peladeau said in a statement Tuesday that, despite its…
Continue Reading
Freedom Mobile announced Tuesday the expansion of its wireless subscription area in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, which it said is made possible by partner agreements enabled by the CRTC’s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) framework.
Additions to Freedom’s serviceable area include Chatham, Ridgetown, Wallaceburg, Blenheim, Dresden, Thamesville and Bothwell, among others, Freedom said in a press release.
“We are delighted to bring Freedom’s worry-free wireless solutions to Chatham-Kent residents. They can now enjoy our competitive plans, including our innovative Roam Beyond offering, while accessing Freedom’s fast and reliable wireless network,” Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO of…
Continue Reading
The CRTC in a decision last week rejected an application by Truth Broadcasting Network to take ownership and effective control of CJJC-FM (The Rock 98.5), a Christian music radio station in Yorkton, Saskatchewan.
In doing so, the commission also denied Truth’s request for a new broadcasting licence to continue the operation of the station, which is currently operated by 101056012 Saskatchewan Ltd., owned by station manager Dennis Dyck along with Scott Fitzsimmons, Dave Giesbrecht and Dwayne Kruger.
In its decision, the CRTC said Truth had communicated to the commission on several occasions that…
Continue Reading
By Connie Thiessen
WildBrain has announced it’s ending its broadcast channel business, including Family Channel, Family Jr., WildBrainTV and Télémagino.
The kids’ and family entertainment purveyor said it has been unable to negotiate a new carriage agreement with Rogers to carry the aforementioned channels after the CRTC found the cable giant wasn’t subjecting them to an undue disadvantage. WildBrain says Rogers has subsequently told it that it intends to remove the channels from its distribution service in the coming months. Together with its failure to secure a similar deal with Bell following a similar CRTC decision, WildBrain’s Continue Reading
A consortium of federal creative organizations is partnering to prioritize and harmonize the measurement and collection of audience data to better understand and amplify Canadian stories.
Telefilm, the Canada Media Fund (CMF), the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) said Thursday that the new audience data initiative is a “concerted audience-centred approach” that will “inform more effective strategies for reaching audiences, increasing the impact of the richness and diversity of Canadian and Indigenous stories —whether in feature films, television, documentaries, or animated films— and ensuring its discoverability across digital platforms and cinemas,” a press…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
A broadband consulting firm wants the CRTC to clarify that internet networks built using public dollars in southwestern Ontario are subject to the commission’s new wholesale internet framework.
Ontario-based Broadlytics Inc. filed a Part 1 application with the CRTC this week asking it to rule that networks built under the Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology Inc. (SWIFT) project be made to comply with the commission’s ruling on access to the aggregated fibre regime – meaning third-party access to the builds’ middle- and last-mile fibre networks. Otherwise, it says, those builds cannot uphold an obligation to open access.
“The Applicant requests…
Continue Reading
