By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – a 14-day hearing is rather long in normal circumstances but in a virtual context it is a Guinness-like feat and it did go smoothly. Kudos to the CRTC hearings team, and everyone’s local internet connections.
Thursday morning was Phase IV, the final reply portion of the CRTC hearing into the renewal of the CBC’s broadcasting licences. This is where the CBC had its opportunity to reply to the concerns raised by the 70 intervenors who appeared in front of the Commission in the last two weeks.
It’s usually used to celebrate successes with a little dash of…
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SSi Micro says northern broadband won’t grow if everything is given to incumbents
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Last week, outgoing Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai said a chunk of the United States’ historic C-band spectrum proceeds should go toward a fund intended to help bring basic telecommunications services to all Americans.
North of the border, NDP Member of Parliament Brian Masse (and many others) has long been calling for spectrum proceeds to fund rural broadband investments — even creating a proposal to connect the entirety of the country to universal objective speeds (50 Mbps download/10 Mbps upload) much sooner than…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Like other organizations who appeared during this multi-day hearing, the Canadian Media Producers Association took a narrow view, arguing other discussions should be allowed to take place first.
“We think it’s important to ask questions about how CBC will ensure discoverability, success, and relevance for programming available online, but before thinking of substituting any current requirements for new metrics, we need to engage in the kind of wider industry consultation that will be possible in a major policy proceeding once Bill C-10 is passed,” said Reynolds Mastin, president and CEO of the CMPA during its appearance…
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Day 12…
By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – On day 12 of the hearing into the renewal of the CBC’s broadcasting licences, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Canadian Media Guild (CMG) appearances grabbed our attention.
While PIAC has no real skin in this game (beyond representing Canadian consumers who pay for and watch the CBC), the Guild and the various unions are there to defend its members now and in the future.
From the get-go, John Lawford, PIAC’s executive director and general counsel, proposed the CBC’s licences be reviewed in two years “to line up with implementation of changes outlined in…
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LONGUEUIL, Que. —Third party internet access provider EBOX (we told you last year about its expansion into northwestern Quebec using Cablevision’s infrastructure) today announced it has launched a petition aimed at federal members of parliament, asking them to support the implementation of the CRTC’s August 2019 ruling on the final rates for wholesale high-speed access services.
“EBOX wishes to start the year with the resolution to put an end to the regulatory holiday of major providers in the telecommunications industry. We advocate for fair and reasonable telecommunications prices and wish to ask Honorable François-Philippe Champagne, the new minister…
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Department has a contract out for hyper-precision measurements
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry has a contract for more detailed broadband mapping methods that, if successful, may inform future program decisions that will go beyond the existing — yet still new — 250-metre increments that underpins the Universal Broadband Fund (UBF).
That’s according to an ISED spokesperson in response to questions from Cartt.ca about what a new contract on the government’s buy-and-sell website Friday will do for the future of accurate broadband mapping. The ministry has already pre-selected a Toronto artificial intelligence company for the…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – In the world of broadcast regulation, it’s thought to be good form to requote what the CRTC chair has said in the hope it will earn you a favourable decision. Ian Scott’s quote in our headline seems to be central to the proceeding into the renewal of the CBC’s broadcasting licences, which completed day 11 on Monday.
CBC leadership have repeated our headline (which was uttered on day one), most intervenors have said it, and today it was even re-cast in the following way, when the Directors Guild of Canada president Warren Sonoda said: “What get…
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HALIFAX — Develop Nova Scotia, a Crown corporation responsible for advancing high-speed Internet access projects across the province, today announced several existing contracts for Internet for Nova Scotia Initiative projects have been expanded, which will result in an additional 5,600 homes and businesses having access to high-speed Internet connections.
(This is the second time in recent months that Develop Nova Scotia has announced scope expansions to existing project contracts, having made a similar announcement in November.)
The projects associated with the new scope expansions announced today are in western Nova Scotia and the South Shore and Annapolis/Hants areas. The contracts…
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GATINEAU and TORONTO – The CRTC officially revoked, at Bell Media’s request, the broadcasting licences of Book Television and Fashion Television Channel on Thursday.
Both will cease operations at 11:59 p.m. on February 21.
Fashion Television Channel and Book Television were launched in 2000 by CHUM Ltd. at a time when specialty television was exploding in Canada and around the world. Book TV was a place to, well, learn about the written word and featured author and broadcaster Daniel Richler as a host and editor in chief when it launched.
Fashion Television Channel built on the extraordinary international success of the CHUM…
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Advanced service joins all-in-one-video push
By Greg O’Brien
MONTREAL – This week, Cogeco Connexion became the latest company to tell consumers if they want all of their video in one place, epico is the best place to find it.
After an extended trial period with employees (1,200 of the company’s 2,000 Canadian employees have it in their homes) and a handful of customers (over 12,000 customers now have epico), the company took the wrapper off the newest, and for now the most advanced, pay-TV system in Canada. We’re calling it that because its Android TV operator tier operating system from MediaKind gives…
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