By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Quebecor has asked the CRTC and the Competition Bureau to conduct an inquiry into whether the three largest wireless providers, Bell, Telus and Rogers, are violating the Wireless Code by how they price devices as well as the charges incurred when consumers want to terminate their contract.
Through its own investigation, Vidéotron says in a letter to the CRTC it has collected the prices of various wireless devices on the websites of the Big Three and the conditions attached to them. The conclusion is clear, says the Quebec company. Compared to the prices offered by manufacturers,…
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OTTAWA – The Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, François Champagne and Minister of Health, Patty Hajdu sent a letter to the CRTC in January asking the Regulator if the telecom industry could come up with a three-digit phone number Canadians could dial for suicide crisis support, similar to how you can dial 911 for emergencies or 411 for information.
The FCC in the United States last year approved 988 as the number for those experiencing a suicide crisis to call. It will begin in 2022.
In a March 9 return letter to the ministers, CRTC chair Ian Scott…
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Some changes look to be permanent
By Steve Faguy
LAST YEAR WAS A bad one for radio.
According to data compiled by Standard Media Index, which tracks national advertising sales in Canada, ad revenue in the industry dropped 35% in 2020, almost three times how much it dropped in 2019 overall. In the second quarter, as lockdowns hammered the economy and closed businesses and events, it was down a staggering 76% from the previous year (see above, and below).
In August, a report released by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters warned 50 radio stations could close in four to six months and…
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Fund announcements could come by spring, documents show
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – It appears the federal government is so serious about opening access to telecom infrastructure to competitors that it is expecting “commitment letters” from executives of companies applying for the Universal Broadband Fund, according to Innovation Canada.
A spokesperson for the department told Cartt.ca as “part of the UBF application process, open access to passive infrastructure is a comparative criteria, assessed via commitment letters submitted by the applicant’s executive management, with details on access practices to be undertaken.”
That’s part of a broader view of how the federal government should utilize…
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By Greg O’Brien
THE PRIOR ITERATIONS OF our Broadcasting Act are carefully written, specific, documents.
The first, passed in 1968, was an Act meant to, among other things, “safeguard, enrich and strengthen the nation of Canada from sea to sea,” as quoted in the History of Canadian Broadcasting. That version of the Act also established the CRTC, empowering it with the responsibility to make sure the system stays under Canadian ownership and control.
American companies who had ownership positions in our broadcasters and then-nascent cable companies were forced to divest (down to a maximum of 20% ownership, but many left completely)….
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By Steve Faguy
“THE SYNDICATION OF LOCALIZED programming is nothing new,” says Troy Reeb, executive vice president broadcast networks at Corus Entertainment. “My career began at 17 years old at CFOK in Westlock, Alta., which was a hub station for a network of rural stations across Alberta and northern B.C., where we had this primitive robot — it was huge, it took an entire room and it looked like something out of Space Odyssey. It had reel-to-reel tapes that turned off and on automatically, and clackity cart machines, and it would deliver differentiated programming and weather forecasts and everything else…
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Two top bureaucrats retiring at Canadian Heritage
By Denis Carmel
NO, BILL C-10 WON’T lead to the sale of Canadian broadcasters to foreign interests, Department of Canadian Heritage officials told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage Monday morning.
The bill, as proposed, contemplates the removal of the portion of the Broadcasting Act which says companies in the system must be majority Canadian-owned and -controlled, which has raised opposition from some quarters. When asked Monday during the committee meeting into C-10, the bill which would amend the Act, by Edmonton-Strathcona MP Heather McPherson if this means Canadian broadcasters could be sold off to…
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VANCOUVER and GATINEAU — Independent service provider Novus Entertainment is asking the CRTC for help to gain timely access to a multi-dwelling unit (MDU) development in Coquitlam, B.C., and other future MDU developments by Beedie Living and related companies.
A member of the Canadian Communications Systems Alliance (CCSA), Novus provides telephone, TV and Internet services exclusively to residents of MDU buildings, primarily in and around Metro Vancouver, and is looking to expand its business.
The Coquitlam development in question in Novus’ Part 1 application, submitted March 1, is The Heights on Austin, to which Novus says it has so far…
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GATINEAU – On January 19, 2021, WildBrain Television, which owns kids and family-focused specialty services aimed at children filed an application with the CRTC against Cogeco Cable, claiming the BDU did not follow the principles of the TV Wholesale Code and the standstill obligations which forbids the discontinuation of service carriage during negotiations.
However, an intervention filed in support of Wildbrain’s complaint explores a deeper issue: The code is broken because large distributors like Cogeco hold too much power over smaller broadcasters like Wildbrain, which owns Family Channel, Family CHRGD, Family Junior and Telemagino.
Wildbrain’s complaint is a central…
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Would speed rights of way access, reduce costs
TORONTO – The Ontario introduced the Supporting Broadband and Infrastructure Expansion Act, 2021 on Thursday – which aims to help connect more communities more quickly to high-speed internet.
The legislation “proposes to reduce costs to broadband providers associated with attaching broadband wirelines to hydro utility poles, and would provide timely access to poles and to municipal rights of way to install broadband on municipal land,” reads the press release.
As many as 700,000 households and businesses in Ontario lack access to adequate broadband speeds, says the province, or have no internet connection at all.
If…
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