OTTAWA – The CRTC has tweaked the conditions of licence for mainstream sports and national news channels as it pertains to the broadcast day.
On Friday, the Commission said that its revisions will permit specialty Category C services operating in either of the two genres to choose between an 18 or a 24 hour broadcast day, replacing conditions it set out in 2010.
The changes come at the behest of Bell Media which asked the CRTC to provide Category C channels the same flexibility as Category B services. Noting that sports services such as RDS and TSN offer “a high level of…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has created a special committee to address the predicted telephone number shortage for areas of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island served by area code 902.
According to the Canadian Numbering Administrator (CNA), which administers the distribution of phone numbers in Canada on behalf of the CRTC, the region is expected to run out of telephone numbers by April 2015.
The Commission said Thursday that it will set up a relief planning committee to evaluate various options and make recommendations. As some options could require customers to change their telephone numbers, members of the public and the telecommunications…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is seeking feedback on proposed amendments to BDU regulations relating to local expression.
The Commission said Monday that the revisions are necessary in order to implement amendments that it made back in March.
Comments are due by June 11, 2012.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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TORONTO – After listening to most of the nine applicants who have asked the CRTC for the 88.1 FM slot on the Toronto radio dial (of 17 in total) over the past three days, I can’t imagine how the Commission is any closer to making a decision on who will get the license.
It’s not the best signal, down at 88.1 FM and 8,000 watts, but goodness, lots of people sure want it (except for the big Toronto radio companies – Astral, Bell, Rogers and Corus – who weren’t about to challenge the Regulator’s radio station ownership policy based on…
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STOP US IF you’ve heard this before: “Psst, I hear (insert name here) is going to be the next CRTC chair.”
Today it’s Jean-Pierre Blais, a former executive director, broadcasting at the CRTC (during CRTC chair Francoise Bertrand’s tenure), former assistant deputy minister of international and intergovernmental affairs and former ADM of cultural affairs both at the Department of Canadian Heritage – and current assistant secretary of the government operations sector at the Treasury Board. He was the senior bureaucrat in charge of the federal government’s pre-budget strategic and operating review, so he is quite familiar now to the Conservative…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has greenlit a new Canadian TV channel to be known as Bulb Televsion.
The specialty Category B service, headed by Evan Kosiner, is described as a national, English-language service that would offer programming consisting of innovative conferences, speakers and lectures from top Canadian and international presenters.
The channel’s licence will expire on August 31, 2018. Click here for more details.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Led by specialty TV, Canada’s pay, pay-per-view (PPV) and video-on-demand (VOD) television services generated $3.7 billion in revenues in 2011, a 7.9% jump over the previous year.
According to CRTC data released Tuesday, the increase comes as a result of a 10.9% growth in advertising revenues totaling $1.2 billion, and a 7% increase in subscriber revenues that exceeded $2.4 billion. Expenses grew from $2.5 billion in 2010 to $2.7 billion in 2011.
As a result, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) improved to $930.5 million, with a PBIT margin of 24.9%, up from $873.9 million in 2010 when the PBIT margin was…
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OTTAWA – While the media and telecom world grows exponentially in the digital age, some believe the CRTC may soon become a redundant organization attempting to adapt two Acts written more than 20 years ago while faced with the drumbeat of deregulation in favour of market forces.
However, others believe the CRTC is instead growing in influence, inefficiently expanding its powers in ways it shouldn’t be, hindering the telecom and broadcasting businesses and investment in Canada.
In presenting a paper to the Law Society of Upper Canada’s New Developments in Communications Law and Policy conference on Thursday,…
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TORONTO – Independent producers who attended a special Banff Media Festival preview event and reception in Toronto on Wednesday were likely very encouraged to hear top Canadian media executives speak about the value they place on high-quality original programming.
During a special media leader panel discussion, David Purdy, senior vice-president of content for Rogers Communications, cited several examples of successful TV channels – all of which feature a high percentage of original TV series content in their daily broadcast schedules. “If you look at A&E, they used to carry Murder She Wrote and CSI,” Purdy said. “A&E is now going…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC on Thursday renewed the licences of the French-language television services operated by TVA Group, Astral Media, and Canal Évasion, plus maintained the existing conditions of licence for V.
Noting that TVA has invested an average of 45% of its gross annual revenues in the production of Canadian programming over the last three years, the Commission approved its request to remove all requirements related to the type of programming it broadcasts.
The CRTC directed it to continue to provide the same quantity of dramas, musicals and documentaries that it currently broadcasts, plus devote 80% of its programming…
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