OTTAWA – The CRTC has denied a request from Bell and Telus to replace the basic international telecommunications services (BITS) licensing regime with a registration system. Instead, the commission has decided to leave the current licensing regime as is, ruling it allows for more effective enforcement than a registration system.
In its year-long review of the BITS licensing regime the commission received submissions from Bell Aliant Regional Communications, Bell Canada, Saskatchewan Telecommunications, Télébec, MTS Allstream Inc., Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Communications.
The BITS licensing regime for telecommunications services providers (TSPs) was put in place a…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC this week called for comments on amending its benefits policy when it comes to transactions involving regulated media companies.
Set out in 1989, the existing policy generally says 10% of the value of any business transaction involving television companies must be set aside for “benefits”, i.e. something the acquiring company might not normally spend on. So, if a broadcaster is purchased for $100 million, the rule of thumb has said that $10 million must go towards Canadian television production or other industry-related initiatives like internships, scholarships or local expression.
“(T)he benefits policy stipulates that a…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Saying it is adapting to the current communications environment, the CRTC has realigned its organizational structure, the federal broadcast and telecom regulator announced today.
This realignment will allow the CRTC to respond more effectively to the convergence that has taken place between different technologies, as well as between the broadcasting and telecommunications industries, according to a memo circulated today.
Effective July 21, 2008, activities that are common to both broadcasting and telecommunications will be grouped in the Policy Development and Research sector. This includes social policy and dispute resolution. The functions of accessibility currently within the Telecommunications…
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OTTAWA – The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) is calling on the Canadian Heritage minister to force the CRTC to re-examine its decision to allow TQS to cut its local news.
The decision illustrates the regulator is not serving the public interest and something must be done, the media union said in a statement.
The CEP is asking the Canadian Heritage minister to send the decision back to the CRTC for reconsideration.
“Having laid off more than half the staff of the TQS network in April, the network’s new owners have told the CRTC they…
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OTTAWA – Suzanne Lamarre, Steve Simpson and Louise Poirier have been appointed to five-year terms as new full-time CRTC commissioners.
Lamarre will represent the Quebec region, Simpson will represent the British Columbia and Yukon region, and Poirier is the new National Capital Region Commissioner.
Poirier begins her five-year term on August 11, while Lamarre starts at the CRTC on June 30.
Since 2006, Lamarre has been senior advisor to CBC/Radio-Canada in Montreal in the sector of national and international strategy, planning, and regulation. She has represented the CBC in front of national and international regulatory bodies.
Previously, she was…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC on Thursday approved with strict conditions the acquisition of TQS Network by Remstar Diffusion inc. The commission renewed the broadcast licences of TQS’ television stations in Montreal, Quebec, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke and Saguenay until 2015, but will re-examine the programming commitments after three years.
“Holding a licence to operate a conventional television station comes with certain responsibilities and obligations, one of which is to provide viewers with a significant amount of local news,” said CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein in a statement. “Remstar’s proposal fell well short of this requirement. In this case, we have taken…
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CAMBRIDGE, ON – CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein has taken a shot at Canadian broadcasters’ slow progress in converting to digital, urging them to invest in digital infrastructure, including for over-the-air transmission, high-definition Canadian programming and public awareness campaigns.
“I am raising this issue with you today because I do not want to get any nasty surprises in 2011. With the few possible exceptions I mentioned , nobody will be getting a licence to broadcast in analog after the cut-off date,” he said during a speech at the 2008 Broadcasting Invitational Summit on June 19. “My great concern is…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has ordered Bell Canada to publicly disclose information about the level of congestion on its network in conjunction with a dispute with ISPs over the company’s traffic throttling practices.
The commission is giving Bell until June 23 to release the data, which it provided to the regulator in a May 29 filing but wanted to keep confidential for competitive reasons.
“…Commission staff has determined, based on all the material before it, that no specific direct harm would likely result from disclosure, or that the public interest in disclosure outweighs any specific direct harm that might…
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OTTAWA – The federal government asked the CRTC on Friday to report on the accessibility and quality of broadcasting services offered to minority French- and English-language communities.
The request is part of a government-wide initiative, called the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-2013, that is aimed at strengthening the vitality of minority official language communities.
The government said in a statement that it was time to re-look at the issue given the proliferation of new technologies that has transformed the broadcast industry in recent years.
“As the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality attests, our government takes very seriously the…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s TV distributors generated $8.95 billion in revenues in 2007, according to the CRTC’s statistical and financial summaries for Canadian broadcasting distribution companies released Wednesday.
The cable companies accounted for $7.1 billion of the total, while direct-to-home satellite and wireless cablecos brought in $1.85 billion.
Cable revenues were up 16.1% to $7.1 billion in 2007 from $6.1 billion a year earlier, according to the data. The number of basic cable subscribers increased 2.3% to 7.65 million from 7.48 million during that period.
This sector’s profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) rose 10% to $1.5 billion in 2007…
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