OTTAWA – The CRTC estimates its total broadcasting regulatory costs for the 2009-2010 fiscal year are $28.469 million.
The broadcasting licence fee regulation provides for the payment of Part I licence fees by specific distributors, as set out in section 9(1) of the Broadcasting License Fee Regulations.
The Commission also calculated the annual adjustment for the 2007-2008 fiscal year at $5.018 million, with $4.453 million of this total earmarked for “the recovery of a temporary increase in the Commission’s budget approved by (the) Treasury Board.” The balance of this adjustment, ($0.565 million) recovers increases in salary (e.g. ratified collective agreements)…
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OTTAWA – BCE has asked the federal cabinet to overturn a CRTC decision, saying investment in next-generation communications networks should be encouraged “as a matter of policy”.
At issue is the Commission’s Telecom Decision 2008-117 from December 11, 2008, and its companion order, Telecom Order 2009-111 from March 3, 2009, requiring incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) “to provide speeds for wholesale asymmetric digital subscriber line services that match the speeds made available to their retail Internet service customers”, if a competitor requests it.
The CRTC application was filed by Cybersurf Corporation in June 2008, and was…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will hold a public hearing to determine whether the way that CBC re-branded specialty channel ‘Country Canada’ to ‘bold’ has negatively impacted “the integrity of the licensing process”.
CBC re-launched its category 1 specialty Country Canada as bold on March 27 2008, after telling the Commission that the change could be done without amending the nature of service of Country Canada.
That channel’s description at launch was as follows:
The licensee shall provide a national English-language Category 1 specialty television service for rural Canadian families, with a focus on adults 25-54. The service will provide information,…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given the green light to three new category two channels: one devoted to music, one to travel and world cultures, and one to adult programming.
Glassbox Television Inc., owner of Bite TV, received approval for Aux TV, a national, English-language channel focusing on emerging music and its creation, including programming featuring emerging music and aimed at helping emerging musicians.
The Commission also approved the Glassbox application for Trek TV, a national, English-language service targeted at Canadians between the ages of 17 and 27 devoted to world cultures, travel, geography, exploration and anthropology.
Sex-Shop Television…
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WINDSOR – Windsor City Council is calling on the CRTC and the federal government to “guarantee” local programming, and “protect” markets that are at risk of not having their broadcast licenses renewed by the current license holders.
The resolution, adopted earlier this week, comes in response to CTV’s announcement that it will not seek renewal the broadcast license of the CKNX-TV Wingham and CHWI-TV Wheatley (also known as the Windsor/Essex County station), when its licenses expires in August, 2009.
The station currently operates under CTV’s ‘A’ brand of channels, and will no longer receive local programming. CTV said…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has dismissed a complaint against Canwest Media made by the Communications, Energy and Paperworks Union (CEP), alleging that Canwest breached local programming commitments, and the Commission’s policy on local advertising.
CEP filled its first complaint in November 2007, saying that Canwest’s decision to shift elements of local program production from its television stations to broadcast centres in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto, would “contravene its obligations with respect to the broadcast of local programming”.
Saying the local stations would effectively “operate as rebroadcasting transmitters” and “unlicensed broadcasting distribution undertakings”, it also questioned whether allowing Canwest to…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is asking for comments as it considers revising the current exemption order regarding terrestrial relay distribution network undertakings (TRDUs).
In the hopes of encouraging greater competition in the signal transport sector, the Commission is considering eliminating the requirement that undertakings must be “local or regional” and have an affiliation agreement with the broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs) to which they provide services.
In related news, the CRTC is also considering eliminating comparable requirements from the conditions that apply to the distribution of programming services on the eligible lists. Specifically, the requirement that certain programming signals can only…
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OTTAWA – While stopping short of calling for a wholesale policy overhaul, CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein opened the annual conference of Canada’s film and TV producers with a wide-ranging speech repeatedly acknowledging that the conventional broadcasting industry is “in crisis.”
Von Finckenstein has often recognized the financial stress on the over-the-air (OTA) broadcasting sector in the past, however, in his address at the CFTPA’s Prime Time conference, the chair emphasized that a “systemic solution to the problem” is in order.
The CRTC, he says, is rethinking the system “in light of technological, economic and industrial reality. This requires…
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TORONTO – ACTRA says it’s optimistic about Friday’s CRTC’s decision, saying it “offers a glimmer of hope” that the Commission has heard its pleas that private TV broadcasters in Canada do more to support Canadian programming.
“Today, performers have reason to believe that the CRTC is finally listening to Canadians’ desire to see more Canadian content. Especially on the heels of a record-spending year buying Hollywood shows, it’s good to hear the CRTC suggest that it’s now time for private broadcasters to invest equally in Canadian content as they do on foreign programming,” said Stephen Waddell, ACTRA’s national executive director, in a…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC decided Wednesday to eliminate restrictions on the broadcast of hits by English-language FM radio stations in English-language markets, but to uphold the restrictions in the bilingual markets of Montréal and Ottawa-Gatineau.
And at least one radio broadcaster is unhappy with the Commission’s decision. Calling the policy “insane, inane and asinine”, Chuck McCoy, executive vice president of programming and marketing for Rogers Radio, said that there is “no logical reason” for the decision.
“If you live in Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Winnipeg or Toronto, you can listen to stations that play hits, the music that the consumers…
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