A request by Rogers to postpone the completion date for its transport fibre project in Bruce Station, Ont., by 10 and a half months has been approved by the CRTC.
The project, which is receiving funding through the CRTC’s Broadband Fund, was previously granted a six-month extension by the commission in January. Rogers had said the additional time was needed to mitigate the discovery of asbestos at one of the project sites. As a condition of the funding, the project was originally supposed to be completed by February 2024.
In its…
Continue Reading
The CRTC has approved a broadcasting licence for Comité de la radio communautaire Huronne-Wyandot inc. (Radio Huronne-Wyandot) to operate an indigenous (Type B) FM radio station in Wendake, located in the Quebec City region.
The station will operate at 100.3 MHz with an average effective radiated power of 239 watts. Its licence will expire Aug. 31, 2030.
As part of its conditions of service, not-for-profit corporation Radio Huronne-Wyandot each broadcast week must devote at least 35 per cent of its popular music selections to Canadian selections broadcast in their entirety.
In addition, Radio Huronne-Wyandot must adhere to the…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has ordered Iristel to pay amounts it owes Bell and its subsidiary Northwestel after finding the far north provider failed to show sufficient evidence that it was wronged in an interconnection dispute.
Iristel, which admitted to withholding amounts due because of perceived wrongdoing, alleged in a Part 1 application last October that Bell has failed and had no intention to add an interconnection point at Kuujjuaq in northern Quebec for Iristel to carry its call traffic in the region. In the interim, the telecoms voluntarily agreed since 2015 to have the traffic routed…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC wants to know whether it should exempt Google from having to negotiate with news publishers to host content for five years and thereby lock-in an agreement the platform struck with a news collective earlier this month.
Google held an open call, as it’s required under the new Online News Act, between February 28 and April 30 to field prospective eligible news businesses that want a piece of the $100 million it agreed to distribute every year to host news content. The process resulted in Google reaching an agreement with the Canadian Journalism Collective…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC is asking the public Tuesday for how it should go about mandating accessibility features on online streaming platforms as part of the implementation of the Online Streaming Act.
The regulator is bound by the new law to not only regulate online streamers, but to also force them to comply with accessibility rules, namely described video and audio description for Canadians who are blind or partially sighted and closed captioning for those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
While there are closed captioning (CC) rules for traditional broadcasters, the regulator is asking for comments by August 19 to questions…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC is seeking a contractor to analyze the wireline transport market, as it prepares to make a decision on an updated wholesale internet access framework.
According to the procurement document, dated Thursday, the regulator is looking for a contractor to draft a definition of wholesale wireline high-speed transport services market, which should “allow for upcoming technological changes.”
It is also seeking an analysis of the group of products that consumers would consider to be substitutes for the service and an assessment of the geographic area in which a customer purchases a service and “whether or not a customer…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
A new bill that would force the CRTC to “consult” with the provincial governments on matters affecting French-speaking markets is drawing concern from regulatory authorities both in its legal terminology and the precedent it could set for a tribunal freshly saddled with increased responsibilities.
The private member’s bill C-354, which passed second reading in the House and is in the committee stage, would amend the CRTC Act to add to section 12 a paragraph that would require it to “consult with the Government of Quebec or the governments of the other provinces, as the case…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The Canadian Media Producers Association is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to hear an appeal challenging the CRTC’s decision to grant Corus regulatory relief of its Canadian content spending obligations, alleging the media company has been delinquent on its obligations to independent content.
The CRTC in May reduced until the next licence renewal date Corus’s obligations to programs of national interest (PNI) from 8.5 per cent of previous year’s revenues to five per cent, which is exactly what the pure play media company asked for because it was struggling financially against the backdrop of…
Continue Reading
The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) on Wednesday said it is “very disappointed and frankly shocked” by the CRTC’s decision to exclude community television from the base contributions to the Canadian broadcasting system that will be required from online streaming services.
The CRTC announced June 4 that foreign and standalone online streamers that make $25 million or more in annual contributions revenues will be required to contribute five per cent of those revenues into certain funds supporting the broadcasting system in Canada.
In its breakdown of how the base contributions from audio-visual online streaming…
Continue Reading
A group of multicultural, community, local, and national news publishers and trade associations, representing hundreds of publications, is calling on the CRTC to make regulations with respect to the Online News Act “that will ensure consistency and fairness, maximize newsroom investment, enhance transparency and minimize misrepresentation,” says a Tuesday press release.
The news publisher coalition’s call for CRTC regulations follows Google’s announcement Friday that it has chosen the Canadian Journalism Collective-Collectif Canadien de Journalisme (CJC-CCJ) to distribute the digital giant’s annual $100-million contribution to eligible news businesses under the Online News Act.
None of…
Continue Reading
