By Jay Thomson
THE CCSA WAS FORMED in the early 1990s, around the same time as the current Broadcasting Act came into force. Like the Act back then, our members at the time did not contemplate the growth in size and influence of the “foreign digital giants”.
But also like the Act back then, our members did not contemplate the massive consolidation that would take place in the Canadian broadcasting industry.
Neither the Act nor our members contemplated that just three domestic companies – Bell, Rogers and Quebecor – would come to dominate Canada’s communications marketplace; that, through ownership of most of…
Continue Reading
By Steve Faguy
IS TERRESTRIAL RADIO dead?
Well, no. The Canadian commercial radio industry brought in $1.45 billion in total revenues in 2018-19, according to CRTC data. But that’s a steady decline from $1.6 billion in 2014-15, and even without the effects of Covid-19, it looks like the only way forward is down as both advertisers and audience increasingly migrate toward digital services.
Faced with this decline, broadcasters are taking various strategic approaches to the future. Some are embracing new platforms, launching podcasts and streaming services of their own.
“I think there’s still a place for…
Continue Reading
Telus asks for more subsidies
By Ahmad Hathout
GATINEAU – If the CRTC wants to encourage more investment in rural broadband and not have to shell out more subsidies, it should not impose additional regulatory obligations, such as open access to their networks, the big telecoms are arguing.
In final submissions to the CRTC’s consultation on barriers to deploying broadband in rural Canada, launched in late 2019, the big telecoms took the opportunity to reemphasize fewer regulations will mean more private investment in their networks – and then the government can save money on programs, too.
Should “the investment climate worsen due to…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU — The CRTC last week announced seven transport projects will receive up to $57.7 million in funding from the Commission’s Broadband Fund to improve broadband connectivity in 15 underserved communities in northern Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.
Approximately 1,400 kilometres of fibre transport networks will be built in the 15 rural and remote communities representing almost 6,500 households, including five communities that are both Indigenous and official-language minority communities. In addition to providing improved transport connectivity for households in the targeted communities, the networks will collectively connect up to 55 public institutions, such as schools, medical facilities and libraries.
A…
Continue Reading
QUISPAMSIS – Nationwide voting is now open for Tuned-In Canada: the CCSA Awards.
The Canadian Communication Systems Alliance awards is a long-standing annual initiative which celebrates the contributions its independent communications company members make to their communities and customers.
Canadians are invited to visit www.tunedincanada.com/vote/ to cast a vote for nominees in the following three contest categories:
Best people: on-camera community channel personality
Best story: giving back
Best photo: connecting Canadians (short-listed pictures shown above)
Voting takes place using SMS authentication and Canadians can cast their votes until April 1st. Winners will be announced April 12th and each will receive $1,000 to donate to…
Continue Reading
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – On Friday, March 19, during a break week(!), the members of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (INDU) of the House of Commons held a meeting at the request of four of its Conservative members to examine the proposed $26-billion acquisition of Shaw Communications by Rogers Communications.
The very busy committee – which has already undertaken studies on competitiveness in Canada, Investment Canada Act, development and support of the Aerospace Industry, front-line grocery store workers, affordable telecom, and domestic manufacturing capacity for a Covid-19 vaccine – agreed the Rogers/Shaw transaction must be looked…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Bell Canada today launched an exclusive new app available only to customers with a 5G phone – and who are in a Bell 5G coverage area.
The new TSN 5G View/Vision 5G RDS launched Friday night as the Montreal Canadiens hosted the Vancouver Canucks at the Bell Centre.
The Bell announcement says 5G tech allows it to use the app to take “fans into the rink on their smartphones, rotating around the action supported by 80-plus in-game cameras broadcast live within the TSN/RDS App.”
This is the first Bell Canada-Bell Media co-production under new Bell Media senior vice-president, product platforms…
Continue Reading
By Greg O’Brien
TORONTO – Rogers president and CEO Joe Natale surprised more than a few observers on Monday with the announcement his company would purchase Shaw Communications. Not with the deal itself since that had been a rumour for two decades, but with the level confidence he displayed when saying he believes Canadian regulators will, in the end, approve.
That confidence hadn’t wavered when Cartt.ca spoke with him on Wednesday.
The company went out of its way to offer major incentives to Canadians as sweeteners to the deal: A $1 billion broadband fund to deliver broadband to 600,000 un- or…
Continue Reading
By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – Rogers Communications’ proposed $26-billion purchase of Shaw Communications will reduce competition in Canada’s broadband and wireless sector at a time when the industry’s top players are enjoying record profits, and therefore needs to be opposed by the federal government, according to Windsor, Ontario Member of Parliament Brian Masse, the New Democrat critic for telecommunications.
“We need to have strong direction for the industry that buying each other out is not a solution for lowering prices, increasing access for Canadians and bringing greater accountability to consumers,” he told Cartt.ca in an interview.
The federal government should use…
Continue Reading
CityWest wanted to mitigate Connected Coast risk; ISED sliced $1.5M from “served” communities
By Ahmad Hathout
WHEN THIS PUBLICATION reported Innovation Canada reduced the scope of the Connected Coast project, it couldn’t get the precise details from any of the federal or British Columbia governments or the builders as to how much funding was cut and which communities were axed – until now.
That story reported ISED had reduced a number of communities from Connect to Innovate funding because the federal government considered them already served, but with an outdated guideline of 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. (The project,…
Continue Reading
