CAB says up to 50 radio stations may close
By Denis Carmel
TO NO ONE’S SURPRISE, Covid-19 has taken a grim toll on Canadian broadcasters. In that context, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, acting on behalf of its members, sent an emergency application to the CRTC on July 13th seeking temporary relief from several regulatory obligations.
The Commission has not yet responded, despite the letter’s expressed desire to see action taken prior to the first week of August. The letter was sent to Cartt.ca on Friday (August 21) morning. The CAB’s membership includes all big broadcasters and a large number of smaller…
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TORONTO – Calling it “a vote against fairness,” independent ISP Distributel decried the cabinet decision five days ago which encouraged the CRTC to change the wholesale third party internet access rates it set a year ago.
That Order-in-Council, which we covered this week with a handful of stories, has now caused Distributel to join others and increase what it charges customers, too. However, the company has stopped short of calling it a rate increase and instead will add a $5-$10 surcharge to its customers’ bills to cover costs while awaiting the CRTC’s new final decision on wholesale…
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By Greg O’Brien
OTTAWA – Even though Parliament was prorogued this week, the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, which has been studying the influx of fraud calls in Canada, including robocalls, ghost calls, and spam calls, all of which have increased during the Covid-19 crisis, had just enough time to send Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains a letter.
In that letter, the committee told the minister a full report on what it found this spring will be coming, but in the meantime, he and the CRTC need to take more immediate action. The RCMP…
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GATINEAU — Reading around the gaps in a heavily redacted copy of a complaint filed with the CRTC on August 12, this much is clear — the Canadian Communication Systems Alliance (CCSA) and several of its member BDUs are accusing Bell Media of “unreasonably denying or delaying access” to some of its programming services.
In doing so, the CCSA claims in its Part 1 application posted to the CRTC web site Wednesday, Bell Media has breached its “competitive safeguards” conditions of licence and/or the wholesale code for discretionary services.
What isn’t clear, due to the redactions in the application posted…
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As much as $10 a month more
CHATHAM and LONDON – Two independent ISPs announced this week retail rates are on their way up, thanks to the direction the federal government gave the CRTC on Saturday.
The Governor-on-Council issued an order on Saturday which did not strike down last August’s Commission decision that set new wholesale rates incumbents were to charge broadband resellers like TekSavvy and Start.ca, as well as demanding retroactive payments to the independents, but did say federal cabinet didn’t like those rates “in all instances.” The order effectively told the CRTC to come up with…
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By Greg O’Brien
OTTAWA – We at Cartt.ca didn’t quite understand a part of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains’ announcement Saturday the government didn’t like the third party internet access wholesale rates set by the CRTC (even though the government declined to send the decision back to the Commission):
Bains’s statement said: “the Governor in Council considers that the rates do not, in all instances, appropriately balance the policy objectives of the wholesale services framework and is concerned that these rates may undermine investment in high-quality networks, particularly in rural and remote areas.”
We asked ISED Monday what “in…
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GATINEAU — As administrator of the Independent Local News Fund (ILNF), the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) this month asked the CRTC to raise the fund’s current 10% market cap to 12% in a Part 1 application filed August 10.
The CAB application makes the request in order to preserve the status quo following Bell Media’s acquisition of V Interactions (licensee of the V television network and five French-language television stations in Quebec) from Groupe V Media in May 2020.
The ILNF supports the production of local news and information by private, independent television stations. As it stands now, the funding…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU –Toronto-based internet, TV, home phone, and home security service company VMedia is also an IPTV technology company.
As such, it recently launched new applications which are capable of distributing VMedia TV services on Roku, Apple TV and iOS, Amazon Fire TV Stick and Android TV devices, under its BDU licence, as Cartt.ca has reported.
In preparation to launch their new apps, which are also wholesaled to other ISPs, VMedia sought approval from programmers, whose channels would be delivered by the new apps. “All of those programmers, with the exception of Bell, approved the apps for launch within…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC is putting on hold a recent application by Rogers asking the Commission to provide relief in an ongoing dispute with Bell over access to utility poles in New Brunswick owned by NB Power because the larger issue of joint-use pole arrangements is likely to be addressed during another proceeding already underway, the Commission said in a recent letter.
The issue of access to poles and other infrastructure is an age-old issue and continues to be a major challenge for the industry and will only grow when 5G gains real traction when it is rolled out…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – At 9 a.m. Saturday, the federal government released its ruling on the cabinet appeal of the CRTC’s August 15, 2019 decision on new wholesale rates third party internet access ISPs must pay incumbent network operators.
It required a few readings to understand.
A year ago today, the CRTC issued an order setting the final rates for wholesale internet access (including over $300 million in retroactive payments) and the large ISPs did not like it one bit. They appealed it to cabinet, consistent with section 12 of the Telecommunications Act. The Act also says that Cabinet…
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