OTTAWA – The CRTC wasted no time in replying to the tersely worded letter that it received Thursday from five of Canada’s biggest cable companies.
The Commission’s brief response clarified that only answers to interrogatories not filed with the Commission and served on other parties on or before August 31 may be filed with the CRTC and served by September 8, 2009.
The letter, dated Thursday, was signed by Paul Godin, director general of competition, costing and tariffs.
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will require the owners of Canada’s biggest distributors and broadcasters to publicly disclose aggregate financial data.
Ownership groups such as Astral Media, BCE, Bragg Communications, CBC, Canwest Media, Cogeco, Corus Entertainment, CTVglobemedia, Newcap, Quebecor Media, Remstar Broadcasting, Rogers and Shaw, must file confidential and public aggregated annual return forms with the Commission by November 30 of each year. The filing requirement for the aggregated annual returns, which will begin with the 2007-2008 broadcast year, are due by September 14, 2009.
The public data will be posted on the Commission’s website. The Commission announced in April that the…
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FIVE OF Canada’s biggest cable companies have complained to the CRTC for extending a filing deadline – two days after the deadline had already passed.
Calling it “both unprecedented and unacceptable”, the heads of regulatory affairs from Bragg Communications, Cogeco Cable, Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media on behalf of Videotron, (collectively, the Cable Carriers), sent a sternly worded letter to CRTC Secretary General Robert Morin on Thursday expressing their collective “deep frustration” with Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2009-261-4.
“…The Cable Carriers want the Commission to understand the deep frustration that the companies feel at having made…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC says that the CBC breached provisions of the TV regulations and a condition of licence when it broadcast controversial New Year’s Eve special Bye Bye 2008 on its French-language network.
The Commission said it concurs with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council’s (CBSC) analysis of the complaints and its conclusions, and determined that certain segments of the program violated the television broadcasting regulations, which prohibit the broadcast of abusive comments; breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Equitable Portrayal Code concerning the portrayal of visible minorities; and failed to meet the high-standard provision of the Broadcasting Act…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a request from Bell Canada and Bell Aliant to revoke telephone service providers’ (TSP) authority to cancel local and long-distance services with their existing provider during the customer transfer process.
The Bell companies filed the application on February 11, 2009, proposing a new process that would require customers to contact their existing TSP to cancel services prior to moving to a new TSP.
In its decision released Friday, the CRTC noted that the current customer transfer process, which was developed by the telecom industry, is “competitively neutral” and benefits all competitors equally “by…
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OTTAWA – Channel Zero has received CRTC approval to assume ownership of former Canwest E! stations CHCH TV Hamilton and CJNT TV Montreal.
The independent specialty service operator, which owns short film specialty Movieola, classic movie channel Silver Screen Classics, film distributor Ouat Media and a majority stake in the AOV adult channel brands, agreed to purchase the stations from Canwest Global on June 30.
The Commission also renewed the broadcasting licences for CHCH-TV and CJNT TV through August 31, 2016, and for the transitional digital television station CHCH-DT Hamilton until August 31, 2011.
In its decision on the CHCH…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Three telemarketers have been fined by the CRTC for violating the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) rules.
The Commission has issued a $4,000 fine to Rob Sugar, a $10,000 fine to Roofing by Peerless Mason Ltd. and an additional $10,000 fine to Waterproofing by Peerless Mason Inc.
The telemarketers were given opportunities to come into compliance with the National DNCL Rules, but “failed to change their business practices”, the CRTC said in a press release.
After violation notices were issued in July, the companies were given 30 days to either pay the fine or to contest it before a CRTC panel….
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TORONTO – CRTC Commissioner Rita Cugini has been confirmed as the keynote speaker at the Ontario Association of Broadcasters (OAB) annual general meeting in Toronto on October 28, 2009.
The luncheon, which will showcase Ontario radio and television stations that have made significant contributions to their respective communities over the past year, will also see Jim Sward, former president and CEO of Global Television, receive the OAB’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Member stations of the OAB are also encouraged to submit their nominations for this year’s community service awards which recognize station participation in support of local charities.
For further information and tickets,…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will amend the broadcasting licences of some of CTV’s analog television signals to allow them to provide their high definition signals to BDUs by direct feed.
In Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2009-482 released Wednesday, CTV can offer the upgraded versions of their signals by direct feed until either the applications for digital transitional licences for the services have been approved, or for a one period from the date of this decision.
The Commission did impose a condition of licence relating to undue preference or discrimination.
CTV had also requested that the CRTC revise its policies on simultaneous substitution to…
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GATINEAU – The size of the 2008 Canadian Cartt market (cable, radio, television, telecom, that is) was $54 billion in 2008 according to the CRTC’s Communications Monitoring Report, released this afternoon.
Most Canadians have access to all of these services in one way or another and we spend a ton of time online, on the phone, in front of our TVs and listening to the radio.
We spend scads of dough on subscriptions and companies wanting our attention (advertisers) spend billions too. For the entire 299-page report, click here.
Or wait a bit and surf back to Cartt.ca later after we’ve…
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