OTTAWA – Communications giant Bell Media was batting .500 Friday after the CRTC awarded it a win, and a loss, in two final offer arbitration disputes between it and the Canadian Independent Distributors Group (CIDG) and Telus.
In its decision on Bell Media versus the CIDG, a group consisting of the CCSA, Cogeco and MTS, the Commission noted that both sides made “significant strides” to resolve the issues between them, and that both offers provided commercially reasonable terms and more consumer choice.
The CIDG final offer affiliation agreement, however, was “inconsistent” with the standstill rule of the Commission’s vertical…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has rejected a proposed code of conduct and best practices for campus and community radio stations due to what it said was a lack of detail.
The Commission said Thursday that the proposed codes, submitted by the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA), included “insufficient detail to provide appropriate guidance on matters of high standard”.
After noting that the codes, in several cases, require each individual station to create its own programming policy on a given matter, the Commission said in its decision that it would be “unable to ensure that stations adhere to the high…
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OTTAWA – The CBC is moving forward with its plan to shut down 620 over-the-air analog television transmitters, a move announced in April as part of its budget reductions.
The national broadcaster received CRTC approval this week to have its broadcasting licences and transmitters revoked for CBIT Sydney, which operates as a re-transmitter of CBHT Halifax, and CBKST Saskatoon, which operates as a re-transmitter of CBKT Regina.
The Commission also agreed to amend the licences for 23 English- and French-language CBC television stations to delete all references to analog transmitters. These amendments are effective August 1st, and the CBC said…
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OTTAWA – Bell’s proposed takeover of Astral Media will undergo regulatory scrutiny at a hearing set for September 10 at the Palais de congrès de Montréal in Montreal, the CRTC announced Tuesday.
The $3.38 billion deal, announced in March, would see Bell acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Montreal-based Astral in addition to its specialty and pay television channels, radio stations, digital media properties and out-of-home advertising platforms. That would mean that Bell, already the country’s largest telecommunications company, would add 22 specialty television channels (13 of which are French-language) and 84 commercial radio stations, including 29…
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MONTREAL – Bell Media has asked the CRTC for permission to flip one of its Montreal radio stations from one official language to the other.
The company said Tuesday that it has filed an application with the Commission asking to convert TSN Radio 990 to RDS Radio 990 as a result of its pending acquisition of Astral Media. The CRTC’s commercial radio policy limits the ownership of multiple radio stations in a given market.
An extension of Bell Media’s French-language sports channel RDS, RDS Radio 990 will air “comprehensive coverage of the Montreal sports scene, along with best-in-class analysis from RDS sports…
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OTTAWA – Following applications from Bell Media and Rogers to end the 5% cap on Canadian programming expenditure (CPE) over-spending, the CRTC is calling for comments on its policy regarding CPE over-expenditures for conventional television and specialty services from large broadcast groups. It is also seeking input on the impact that approval of those applications would have on the commission’s CPE policy. The deadline for the filing of comments is August 7, 2012.
In its submission, Bell Media contends that the current 5% cap on CPE over-expenditures and the obligation to use that over-expenditure in the subsequent broadcast year limits…
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OTTAWA – In order to better process the large amount of applications it receives, the CRTC is seeking comments on a proposal to exempt from licensing pay television and specialty Category B services with a limited subscriber base. It’s also seeking input on proposed amendments to the exemption order respecting third-language television programming undertakings. These would permit services that offer 40% or more of their programming in any one of the Cantonese, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Mandarin or Spanish languages to be eligible for exemption. The deadline for filing comments is August 7, 2012.
The commission contends that the current…
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OTTAWA – As first reported by Cartt.ca this past April, the worst fears of small rural telephone companies operating in Ontario and Quebec have come to pass with today’s announcement that the Harper Government is upholding a CRTC ruling to eliminate monopoly phone services in Canada.
The Ontario Telecommunications Association (OTA) and the Association des Compagnies de Téléphone du Québec Inc. (ACTQ) have maintained that if their markets are fully opened to competition, they would suffer severe financial impacts that could put them out of business (as they noted on Cartt.ca).
Small Incumbent Local Exchange…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC announced today that it has approved the mandatory quality standards for closed captioning set out in the appendix of the regulatory policy. The new standards will come into effect on September 1, 2012.
The commission has informed the English-language Closed Captioning Working Group to submit an updated version of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Closed Captioning Standards Manual by August 4, 2012 that reflects the changes identified in the new regulation.
The CRTC says the first reports from broadcasters subject to the quality standards regarding efforts to improve the accuracy of captioning will be due on August…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has shuttered its investigation into Rogers’ Internet traffic management practices, noting that its concerns over the company’s practice of slowing down certain types of Internet traffic have been satisfied.
The Commission launched an enforcement action late last year after receiving a complaint from the Canadian Gamers Organization alleging that Rogers’ throttling of peer-to-peer traffic created a major impediment to online game playing. After the CRTC found its practices in breach of the net neutrality rules within the Telecommunications Act, Rogers announced that it would phase out its traffic shaping policy for all customers by December…
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