By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Tabled on November 3, 2020, Bill C-10 finally reappeared in the House of Commons on February 5, 2021 in the House of Commons, for discussion on its second reading.
It ended on a motion by the Conservatives that “Bill C-10, be not now read a second time but that the order be discharged, the bill withdrawn and the subject matter thereof referred to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.” The amendment was not voted on.
Also on Friday, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (CHPC) held its second meeting on the bill to amend the Broadcasting Act….
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By Len St-Aubin
DEBATE ABOUT BILL C-10 thus far has focused on Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s goal to make big foreign online audio and video streamers, like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, YouTube and Spotify, contribute to the creation of Canadian content.
But Bill C-10’s scope is vast. It will impact broadcasting and the internet in Canada, and all Canadians
It’s a valid public policy goal to expect big foreign streamers which have significant market share and revenues in Canada to engage with Canadian creators in the production of Canadian stories for Canadian and global audiences. It’s a valid question whether amending the…
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CHATHAM, Ont. — Independent ISP TekSavvy has asked the Competition Bureau for a status update on a complaint it filed almost a year ago alleging Bell and Rogers have engaged in anti-competitive practices by abusing their dominant positions in wholesale and retail markets for broadband Internet services in Ontario and Quebec.
TekSavvy’s 57-page formal complaint was filed February 20, 2020, and the company issued a press release at the time, and made a public version of the complaint available here.
In a letter sent last Friday, TekSavvy is asking what the status is of the Competition Bureau’s investigation…
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GATINEAU — In a letter issued last week by the CRTC, the Commission has confirmed Valley Fiber Ltd., located in Winkler, Manitoba, has met the requirements to register as a proposed competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC).
Valley Fiber will be placed on the Commission’s list of proposed CLECs and is now authorized to: “Proceed with further arrangements as necessary to allow it to provide local switched services as a CLEC. However, you are reminded that you may not offer services to the public as a CLEC until all the conditions of Decision 97-8 and any subsequent relevant decisions have been…
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TORONTO — Organizers of the Banff World Media Festival today announced CRTC chair and CEO Ian Scott will speak on the opening day of the virtual Banff 2021 festival, which starts Monday, June 14.
Scott’s virtual keynote session will kick off the festival’s Marketplace Week (June 14 to 18) and a month of curated online programming (running until July 16).
With delegates from more than 50 countries, the Banff Festival attracts some of the world’s top creators, producers, showrunners, talent, networks, studios, streamers, press and media companies. The 2021 edition of the Festival will build on the success of last year’s…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today approved an application made by WOW! Unlimited Networks to revoke the broadcasting licence for the former specialty channel known as Comedy Gold.
Back in 2017, when WOW agreed to purchase the channel from Bell Media for $6.86 million, the kids content production company (in which Bell took an ownership stake in as part of the deal for Comedy Gold), said it was going to turn the channel which aired old sitcoms into a kids channel. That, of course, never happened and Comedy Gold went dead at midnight, August 31, 2019, still being run by…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – When Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault tabled Bill C-10 in November 2020, his department issued a Q&A which stated: “As the independent regulator, the CRTC will determine whether and how broadcasting services with differing characteristics are required to contribute, and the form of these contributions.
“If the CRTC requires online broadcasters to contribute to Canadian content at a similar rate to traditional broadcasters, online broadcasters’ contributions to Canadian music and stories could amount to as much as $830 million per year by 2023.”
Members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (CHPC), during a meeting held on…
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By Etan Vlessing
OTTAWA – Neil McEneaney, president and CEO of media measurement firm Numeris, was on the hot seat Thursday as he told the virtual CMPA Prime Time conference how the Canadian TV ratings firm collects and measures race-based audience data amid an industry reckoning.
McEneaney told an online panel that while Black Canadians and others from diverse communities were included in Numeris panels for a representative sample of domestic TV viewership, Numeris isn’t “segmenting one race or another” as it focuses on broad Canadian French and English language TV audiences.
He explained Numeris’ “measurement design” for data points is to…
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By Ahmad Hathout
GATINEAU – The CRTC has announced a second round of funding commitment from its $750-million Broadband Fund and it’s going to what the industry has often identified as a serious cost barrier to rural broadband: transport facilities.
On Thursday, the regulator announced five recipients for funds worth a total of $26.7 million, focusing on British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario. Those companies are Rogers, Shaw, BH Telecom Corp., Columbia Basin Broadband Corporation, and Tough Country Communications Ltd., which are expected to connect 41 communities with 550 km of fibre transport.
The first announcement pledged $72 million for satellite and fibre…
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Assuming stability in regs, company to accelerate over $1 billion in capex in 2021 to expand networks
By Greg O’Brien
MONTREAL – While the Covid-19 pandemic shaped Mirko Bibic’s first year as president and CEO of Bell Canada (and the company’s 140th year) in ways no one could have predicted when he took the top job last January, the company’s first 12 months of fiscal results under his leadership look sound, all things considered.
Many other sectors did not weather the pandemic the way telecom companies have (as evidenced by the hit taken by Bell Media).
Fourth quarter operating revenue for the period…
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