By Konrad von Finckenstein
THE BROADCAST AND Telecom Legislative Review panel’s lengthy report is divided into institutional recommendations, telecom recommendations, broadcasting recommendations and others.
It made 46 regarding the Broadcasting Act. Apart from the recommendations on the CBC about which I express no comment, some are well thought out and would improve the present system substantially. The extension of the Broadcasting Act to “electronic communications services” on the internet is the area of greatest concern.
The Panel recommended:
… the Telecommunications Act be amended to establish explicit jurisdiction over all persons and entities providing, or offering to provide, electronic…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has denied Bell’s application against a decision by the CRTC that said the company had unduly disadvantaged Quebecor’s TVA Sports in favour of its own, RDS.
The March 12 decision came after Bell requested a judicial review in January of a CRTC decision that said the company had packaged its own RDS channel differently than Quebecor’s TVA Sports, its competitor, thus muting the reach of its rival and causing a “material adverse impact on TVA Group,” the CRTC said in the December ruling.
Quebecor filed the original complaint in February…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – As part of its argument before the Federal Court of Appeal against a decision by the CRTC to slash the wholesale rate internet resellers pay to use incumbents’ networks, Bell Canada said forcing the big telecoms to give back the price difference over three years is effectively a tax that only Parliament can impose.
“The Telecommunications Act does not empower the CRTC to levy taxes,” Bell said in its official argument, filed Thursday. “Therefore, if the Retroactive Payments are a tax, they are unconstitutional” and outside the jurisdiction of the CRTC.
Last summer, in a decision…
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By Steve Faguy
TORONTO – In what it describes as “unprecedented times,” CBC has decided to cancel local English TV newscasts in all markets except CBC North, replacing them with broadcasts from CBC News Network.
In a memo to staff sent Wednesday signed by CBC executives Susan Marjetti (general manager of news, current affairs and local), Brodie Fenlon (editor-in-chief of CBC News) and Cathy Perry (executive director of current affairs, investigative and long-form journalism), CBC cites “fewer staff in the Toronto Broadcast Centre and much stricter newsgathering protocols” as the reason for the change, which will be temporary.
CBC North newscasts are…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU — As a knock-on effect of the current government and industry response to the COVID-19 outbreak, requiring many people to work from home, the CRTC has suspended all deadlines between now and April 10 for open proceedings.
This includes the deadline to file applications for the Broadband Fund and the final replies in the wireless policy review, a Commission spokesperson informed Cartt.ca in an email on Tuesday.
New deadlines will be announced in the coming days. The Commission has two public hearings scheduled for May, including the proceeding for the renewal of broadcasting licences for the CBC which…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Internet service provider TekSavvy said in court documents filed on Friday that the big broadcasters which were successful in bringing about the first court-ordered site-blocking decision did not put the effort in to use other methods to squash those it accused of peddling unlicensed content on the internet – making it harder to justify the use of site-blocking for that purpose.
In July, Bell, Rogers and Quebecor’s Groupe TVA Inc. brought a motion to ban alleged pirate IPTV provider GoldTV from operating until the outcome of a trial, which was granted by the court in August….
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – On February 20th, the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology “adopted a motion to study the influx of fraud calls in Canada, including robocalls, ghost calls, and spam calls. The Committee will also examine the successes and failures of the National Do-Not-Call List, and the STIR/SHAKEN measures that will be implemented in September 2020.”
The first meeting, held on Tuesday, March 10th, when Parliament was still running and COVID-19 wasn’t all the news, saw committee members hear two panels discuss the issue.
The first had representatives of the CRTC and the RCMP.
In their opening remarks, both…
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WHITEHORSE – As part of its COVID-19 response, Northwestel said Monday it submitted an urgent application to the CRTC for temporary relief on residential Internet usage to facilitate increased telework in the north.
Northwestel has proposed waiving any overage charges for customers exceeding their Internet usage caps during March and April in terrestrially-served communities (most communities in Yukon, NWT, northern Alberta and northern B.C.). The company has already begun augmenting capacity to accommodate the expected increase in usage on its terrestrial network, says its press release.
All Northwestel’s terrestrial Internet packages and rates are regulated, and the proposed changes can only…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – The CRTC’s CBC licence renewal hearing will be held in May and the deadline for interventions was on February 20th.
In perusing the various submissions and their attached commentaries, we felt a serious sense of déjà vu, since most comments fell into the very-much-expected category.
However, one intervention, by Canadian Media Research Inc. (CMRI) tweaked our curiosity because it very much runs contrary to conventional wisdom. CMRI is headed by Barry Kiefl, who was the CBC’s director of research from 1970-2000.
His submission’s thesis is the shift towards digital is overrated, prompted by faulty measurements and wrong assumptions….
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OTTAWA — In a decision issued Wednesday, the CRTC has denied an application by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the National Pensioners Federation (NPF) in which they argued Rogers Communications’ proposed balance limit policy for prepaid wireless services violated the Wireless Code.
PIAC-NPF’s Part 1 application, filed with the Commission in February 2018, was seeking clarification and enforcement of rules in the Wireless Code regarding prepaid wireless balances. In December 2017, Rogers began notifying prepaid customers who had unused balances and consumed minimal usage on a monthly basis that Rogers intended to apply a maximum amount of carry-over…
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