By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – “This fall, in addition to extending the wage subsidy, the Government will take further steps to bridge vulnerable businesses to the other side of the pandemic by introducing further support for industries that have been the hardest hit, including travel and tourism, hospitality, and cultural industries like the performing arts,” reads Wednesday’s Speech from the Throne, kicking off the next session of Parliament.
“The Government will also identify additional ways to tax extreme wealth inequality… by addressing corporate tax avoidance by digital giants. Web giants are taking Canadians’ money while imposing their own priorities. Things must…
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TORONTO — Declaring itself as a full mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), Toronto’s dotmobile announced today it has landed its first wholesale network agreement with Iristel.
With both companies focused on providing more competition in Canada’s wireless market (Iristel owns and operates the far north’s Ice Wireless), perhaps it was inevitable the two would team up in an attempt to further that.
Owned by Data On Tap Inc., dotmobile is an independent wireless service provider hoping for access to multiple Canadian incumbent networks to complement its own cloud-based core network (designed and built by Norway’s Working Group Two). Along with…
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Minister raises, and tamps down, expectations
By Greg O’Brien
HERITAGE MINISTER STEVEN Guilbeault gave precious little away last Wednesday afternoon during a CMPA- and AQPM-sponsored town hall meeting.
As is well known by now in the TV and production communities, after five years of study and work through three different Heritage ministers, the federal government will finally have something concrete to announce sometime during the next session of Parliament this fall. It is expected Wednesday’s Throne Speech will have something to say about new broadcasting legislation.
While Minister Guilbeault was asked a few different ways during the interactive virtual session (he’s pictured…
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CREATIVE ORGANIZATIONS across the country reminded the Canadian government about its commitment to new legislation to force web giants to pay their fair share when it comes to Canadian content, a commitment which they hope to see represented in Wednesday’s speech from the throne, which will kick off the next session of Parliament.
In a press release issued Monday morning, leaders of ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists), AQPM (Association Québécoise de la production médiatique), ARRQ (Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec), CMPA (Canada Media Producers Association), DGC (Directors Guild of Canada), SARTEC (Société des…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today called for comments on a Canadian Association of Broadcasters application submitted in July which predicts dire consequences for Canadian radio and TV broadcasters if they don’t get relief from certain regulatory requirements.
“March saw overall advertising revenue declines of 14.6% in private TV and 17.5% in radio, as advertising began plummeting mid-month; Private TV saw 46.4% advertising declines in April and 50.4% declines in May; Private radio saw declines of 65.5% in April, 67.3% in May and 56.9% in June; and pacing for the remainder of the summer projects revenue declines of 40-50% through…
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SDI Telecom says Bell is trying to force it out of the payphone business
GATINEAU — Bell Canada says it has evidence illegitimate toll-free calls are being made over SDI Telecom payphones and has filed a request with the CRTC to be allowed to withhold payment of disputed charges to SDI for toll-free compensation per call.
SDI is a competitive pay telephone service provider (CPTSP), and owns and operates approximately 115 pay telephones over the Bell network, mostly in the greater Toronto area. In a decision last December, the Commission determined CPTSPs are entitled to compensation for toll-free calls originating…
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By Greg O’Brien
MONTREAL – Calling the wireless market in Quebec “crazy” and saying the company will have good news to report when it announces its next quarterly results, Videotron president and CEO Jean-Francois Pruneau (above) insisted all competitive options remain on the table for the Quebecor-owned ISP/cableco/wireless operator.
He believes the company is emerging well from the pandemic and capturing most of the pent-up demand that was tamped down in the province during the lockdowns where Quebecers couldn’t go out and shop for a new wireless provider.
“We were able to capture that pent up demand, I would say better than…
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Cogeco, meanwhile, awaits CRTC’s new wireless policies
By Greg O’Brien
TORONTO – Rogers Communications CEO Joe Natale on Tuesday explained a little more about why his company is pursuing the purchase of Cogeco Cable so hard (and why he’s not intending to back off), while a senior executive of its intended target insisted that pursuit will be fruitless.
“The bid is really about answering some basic questions as we look at our investment into the future,” Natale told BMO telecom and media analyst Tim Casey at the bank’s annual Media and Telecom conference, held virtually. The $10.3 billion bid for the company,…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC announced today it has agreed to a nine-month extension of the deadline for the implementation of the STIR/SHAKEN framework for authenticating caller ID information for IP-based voice calls. The implementation deadline is now June 30, 2021.
STIR/SHAKEN stands for Secure Telephony Identity Revisited/Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs. The framework provides a suite of protocols and procedures intended to combat fraudulent caller ID spoofing by authenticating and verifying the caller ID information. It’s something upon which the federal government is focused.
In December 2019, the Commission mandated Canadian telecommunications service providers (TSPs) implement the security…
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By Denis Carmel
MONTREAL – Since January 2019, Bell Media has been offering a “one-day subscription” to its TSN and RDS services on their website, allowing viewers to therefore bypass buying a Videotron cable package (even if they are already a Videotron internet subscriber) for a day, for $5, perhaps as a test drive, or to see one particular big game.
Videotron claimed in a court filing this is a breach of its contract with Bell and further claimed this type of offering could jeopardize the Canadian broadcasting system by content producers offering their services over-the-top.
In a decision last week, the…
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