GATINEAU — Amid a number of broadcast licence approvals on Tuesday, the CRTC has renewed Northern Lights Entertainment’s broadcasting licences for two Iqaluit radio stations on a short-term basis, and issued accompanying mandatory orders requiring the stations comply with their obligations to file annual returns.
Northern Lights operates the predominantly English-language commercial radio stations CKGC-FM Iqaluit and CKIQ-FM Iqaluit. The two stations have been non-compliant in the past regarding the filing of annual returns, which is a regulatory requirement set out in section 9(2) of the Radio Regulations, 1986.
When considering the licence renewal application for Northern Lights’ stations, the CRTC…
Continue Reading
By Konrad von Finckenstein
IN AUGUST OF 2019, after three years of studying submissions and holding hearings the CRTC delivered a ruling on final rates for wholesale internet access, which are the rates large carriers charge their small competitors to access their networks. Up to that date, the large carriers billed resellers based on CRTC-set interim rates.
The rates released a year ago are lower than the interim rates and retroactive to 2016. Monthly capacity rates are 15% to 43% lower than the interim rates and the access rates are 3% to 77% lower than the interim rates. In addition, by…
Continue Reading
By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – In the lengthy CRTC process reviewing its wireless policies, one player played an unusually central role.
Since it had no economic interest and because of its professed expertise, the Competition Bureau (which falls under the purview of the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development) convinced the Commission to be allowed special access to confidential company data, despite strenuous objections, all of which we have reported on previously.
So, when the Bureau admitted it made a mistake in its final comments and issued corrections, Bell Canada jumped on it and requested that…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
