GATINEAU – The CRTC expedited the release of its decisions on two broadcast transactions, announcing today Bell Media can proceed with its purchase of the V television network and Leclerc Communications can purchase CJPX-FM Montreal.
The specific rationale behind each decision is not ready for release and the announcement notes they will be available at a later date.
First the Bell-Groupe-V approval (which was a deal valued at $20 million, for the five off-air TV stations, when announced):
The conditions on Bell’s acquisition will “guarantee adequate levels of investments in local programming and original French-language Canadian programming,” says the press…
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By David Farnes
GATINEAU – The CRTC Emergency Services Working Group has notified the CRTC the mandated Next Generation 9-1-1 implementation dates are in jeopardy due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The availability of IP Voice service by 9-1-1 service providers (Bell, SaskTel and Telus) is to be made available to 9-1-1 call centres by June 30, 2020. Real-time text functionality is to be made available by December 31, 2020.
The current 9-1-1 service technology is mandated to be decommissioned on June 30, 2023, but all of these dates are in jeopardy as the world scrambles to adapt to the crisis and deadlines…
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TORONTO — The end of the fiscal second quarter for Corus Entertainment “feels like forever ago,” CEO Doug Murphy told financial analysts Wednesday morning during the conference call which was ostensibly to talk about the December 1 – February 29 period, but was really about how the company is handling the Covid-19 crisis.
Company CEO Doug Murphy and CFO John Gossling talked about the measures the company has taken to protect its people, help its clients and cushion impacts on its bottom line, with Murphy adding everyone will “work together to weather this storm.” The company rapidly deployed about 75%…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – On March 24th, Bell Canada filed an application with the CRTC to request permission to block so-called Wangiri fraud calls, until June 1.
Wangiri calls work the following way: one gets a phone call, most often on a cell phone and it rings only once. Wangiri is Japanese for “one ring”.
Then the victim is tempted to call back, thinking it missed a call. When it does, the “bad actor” will try to keep the victim on the phone for as long as possible and when the victim gets its telephone invoice, it will have incurred significant…
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By Konrad von Finckenstein
WITH RESPECT TO CANADIAN content, the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review panel report views the internet through a broadcasting lens.
It works from the basic tenet that everyone involved in electronic media content (from “curators” like broadcasters, streaming services and newspapers, to “aggregators” like BDUs, Stack TV and MSN News, to “sharing” services like Facebook and YouTube) should be subject to CRTC regulation, and contribute to the creation and dissemination of Canadian content.
To that end, it recommended companies providing commercial audio and video content into Canada by way of streaming over the internet (let’s call them “over…
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GATINEAU — In a letter posted March 30 on its website, the CRTC announced it is extending the deadline for wireless service providers to file their 2020 Wireless Code compliance reports to April 30, 2020.
Originally the compliance reports were due by March 31, but Iristel’s Ice Wireless submitted a procedural request March 27 asking the CRTC to give wireless service providers until at least the end of April to submit their respective reports, given the ongoing Covid-19 situation.
On Monday, the CRTC approved the deadline extension to April 30.
“Staff is of the view that the ongoing Covid-19 situation constitutes…
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Move will let broadcasters keep $30 million
OTTAWA – While Canadian broadcasters have been working extraordinarily hard to deliver the news to Canadians during the Covid-19 crisis – and entertain them when they need diversion – this very crisis has caused revenue to bleed away from them as advertisers pull back facing an uncertain economy.
So, the federal government announced today a bit of a break, announcing it is waiving the payment of annual CRTC Part I licence fees for the 2020-21 fiscal year.
“The government knows that our Canadian broadcasters have been working around the clock to deliver news and…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – In the ongoing Bell vs Cloudwifi skirmish, last Thursday, the CRTC rendered a decision that gets Cloudwifi, a Kitchener and Toronto reseller of telecom services, closer to getting CLEC status, which would allow it to offer its services while riding on larger providers fibre networks.
One criterion to fulfil its obligations in order to get CLEC status requires a company to have signed a Special Master Agreement for Local Interconnection (MALI) with all LECs that operate in the exchanges in which it wishes to operate.
Bell Canada was refusing to sign such an…
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Demands deletion by anyone who downloaded it
GATINEAU — The CRTC did a bit of damage-control on Monday saying confidential versions of Northwestel’s 2019 annual price cap model and Télébec’s 2018 price cap model had been posted on the Commission’s website in error. On January 28, 2020, Commission staff became aware of the inadvertent disclosure of the confidential information and removed it.
The Commission made the revelation in a letter publicized on March 30 and addressed to “Persons who viewed the 2019 Price Cap Filings between 17 June 2019 and 28 January 2020.”
After the error was discovered by Commission staff,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
CHATHAM, Ont. – Canada’s largest independent third party internet access ISP TekSavvy said today it will lay-off 130 employees and raise internet prices by $5 per month due to the effects of Covid-19 as well as the uncertainty surrounding the wholesale rate appeal that resulted in reduced prices it has maintained since.
In an email to Cartt.ca, TekSavvy’s vice-president of regulatory affairs Andy Kaplan-Myrth confirmed the layoffs and said the price increase will go into effect in May – all in an effort to “keep things going,” he said.
The 130 people account for a significant chunk of the…
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