OTTAWA – The CRTC has agreed to fast track Bell’s request to reconsider parts of its deferral accounts decision.
Bell asked the Commission last week to review, rescind and vary its determination regarding its DSL technology directive, and its calculation of the recurring amount and interest in Bell’s accumulated deferral account balance. It suggested that the DSL technology application be subject to a 30 day comment and 10 day reply period, while the deferral account balance application be subject to an accelerated process with a 20 day comment and 5 day reply period.
The Commission responded Friday that comments on either…
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CALGARY – When the CRTC dives into the proposed purchase of Canwest Global’s TV assets by Shaw Communications next week, many industry stakeholders are asking for asking for safeguards and urging the Commission to be prudent.
(Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien will be in Calgary next week covering the hearing. For live updates, follow him on Twitter via @gregobr and surf back to Cartt.ca regularly.)
The $2 billion deal, which would make Shaw the largest vertically integrated media company in Canada, for now, appears to have the cautious support of many, as long as certain conditions – often described as “competitive safeguards” – are attached.
Shaw’s primary…
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GATINEAU – Canada’s major cable companies and telcos are squaring off against MTS Allstream and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre over the CRTC’s authority to mandate broadband as an essential service.
Comments filed with the CRTC in late August show that Bell Canada, Telus and all of the large cablecos are, not surprisingly, opposed to any Commission intervention on this matter, while PIAC and MTS firmly believe that the CRTC can make broadband essential.
The issue has become a central theme in an ongoing proceeding on a broad variety of telecom matters, generally referred to as the obligation to…
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OTTAWA and MONTREAL – Should the CRTC be able to dictate which technology Bell Canada uses to provide broadband to rural and remote communities in communities in Ontario and Quebec?
Absolutely not, says Bell. And it appears to have at least one CRTC commissioner on its side.
After agreeing in 2008 that Bell could use its deferral account funds to build broadband out to 112 underserved communities in Ontario and Quebec, Bell applied for permission the following year to deploy the latest HSPA+ broadband technology. But in Tuesday’s deferral accounts decision, the CRTC told Bell that it must instead bring…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s largest telephone companies must rebate $310.8 million to their urban home telephone customers plus bring broadband Internet to 287 rural and remote communities across the country, the CRTC said Tuesday.
Widely referred to as the deferral accounts decision, the CRTC has ordered that the initiatives be funded using the deferral accounts of Bell Canada, Bell Aliant, Telus and MTS Allstream, which, as of May 31, 2010, held $770 million (including interest). Of this amount, $310.8 million will be rebated to customers, while $421.9 million will be spent on broadband services in communities across five provinces by 2014. The…
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OTTAWA – Specialty television networks Mystery TV, TVtropolis, Food Network Canada, HGTV Canada, History Television, The Independent Film Channel, Discovery Health Channel and Slice received CRTC approval to amend their broadcasting licences to add to the list of program categories from which they may draw, and to remove limitations on certain program categories.
The applicants said that the intent of their respective applications was to provide “additional programming flexibility”, consistent with the Commission’s policy set out in the regulatory framework.
Click here for more on Wednesday’s decision.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – Media de Novo was denied CRTC approval for its plan to sell ad time on U.S. specialty channels’ local avails in Canada.
In its decision on Thursday, the Commission said that Media de Novo failed to demonstrate “that its proposal would provide sufficient benefits to warrant departure from the Commission’s current policy on local availabilities, or that its service should be licensed as a Category A programming service”.
It also expressed concern that Media de Novo’s proposal could result in “an unacceptable negative impact on the advertising revenues of Canadian broadcasters”, particularly “given the severe financial constraints…
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OTTAWA – Breathe E-Z Homes Ltd. has been slapped with a $2,000 fine for violating the country’s national do not call list (DNCL).
The Commission said that it received “numerous complaints” in relation to telemarketing telecommunications made by the company between September 5 and November 11, 2009. After receiving a notice of violation on January 7, 2010, Breathe E-Z argued that it had not committed any of the violations set out in the notice. It claimed that all of the calls it made during the period covered by the notice were to persons with whom Breathe E-Z had an existing…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has extended various Canadian broadcasting licenses in order to carry them through next year’s digital transition deadline.
CBC, Canwest, CTV, and Rogers received license extensions for their respective conventional, over-the-air stations from September 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011 so that they may be considered as trial markets for the upcoming transition.
Many category 1 and 2 specialty stations and radio networks were renewed through August 31, 2011, while others – such as The Score, ATN, Teletoon and some pay TV channels – received an extension through August 31, 2012.
“The Commission intends to administratively renew the…
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OTTAWA – Rogers Communications must make its share of payments in to the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), the CRTC has ruled.
After sending preliminary invoices to Rogers that excluded its regionally licensed systems with fewer than 20,000 subscribers, the LPIF administrator sent a revised invoice to Rogers on April 1, 2010 that included those systems. Rogers refused to pay the contributions for the regionally licensed systems with fewer than 20,000 subscribers, arguing that it met the exception for contributions, and asked for a Commission decision on the issue.
The CRTC determined that payment exceptions provided applied only at the licensee…
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