WINNIPEG – Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) CEO Jean LaRose praises the CRTC for seeking to “strike a fair middle ground” in its recommendations on how to fix the Canadian Television Fund (CTF).
He added that he’s pleased that the regulator recognized the “special place” that APTN has in meeting the goal of the Broadcasting Act of reflecting the country’s Aboriginal people.
The CRTC recommended that APTN be permitted to tap into both the public sector and private sector streams it is suggesting be created. The CRTC’s suggests APTN get one-third of its funding from the public sector side…
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GATINEAU – On Friday, the CRTC announced it had reviewed and varied its December 2007 decision granting conditional approval to the consumer agency known as the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services.
Some industry members filed, in February 2008, applications requesting modifications to the decision and after reviewing the applications and related submissions, the Commission has decided to maintain the agency’s membership requirements for a period of only three years.
At that time, the Commission will review the need for these mandatory requirements. No extension of the mandatory requirements can take place without a new Commission decision. Membership is…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC on Wednesday approved two Category 2 pay TV licences and two Category 2 specialty TV service licences for Ultimate Indie Productions.
The first national pay TV channel, called Everything Weddings, will offer programming related to weddings and marriage, including planning, fashion, traditions, wedding receptions, entertainment and honeymoon destinations as well as practical advice.
The second national pay TV channel is called Everything Expecting and will focus on pregnancy, maternity and infant care.
Both pay TV channels must limit the amount of drama and comedies they broadcast to no more than 10% of all programming aired…
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OTTAWA – Timothy Denton, a specialist in legal and policy issues related to the Internet and communications, has been appointed as CRTC commissioner, Canadian Heritage announced Friday.
He was involved with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and the governance of the domain name industry and helped introduce long-distance voice competition in Canada as counsel to the Canadian Consumers’ Association.
From 1985 to 1987, Denton was involved with the creation of the Broadcasting Act and later took part in the creation of the Telecommunications Act while working as a policy advisor to the Minister of Communications from 1985…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Broadcasting Corp./Radio-Canada asked the CRTC this week to order satellite TV distributor Star Choice to immediately include RDI in its digital basic to subscribers in Anglophone markets.
It is the second complaint filed this week to the CRTC by the public broadcaster.
“Despite repeated efforts on the part of the CBC/Radio-Canada, the corporation has been unable to secure carriage of RDI on Star Choie’s basic service in Anglophone markets. RDI is not available on the ‘English Essentials package,’” CBC Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs Bev Kirshenblatt writes in a May 14 letter to the CRTC….
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is going to re-examine its decision not to regulate new media, and on Thursday it asked the public to help it determine what issues it should consider at a public hearing to be held in early 2009.
The Commission indicates in a public notice that it wants to narrow the range of issues it will consider at the hearing on broadcasting in the new media environment. The regulator proposes looking at what exactly is broadcasting in new media, the creation and promotion of Canadian broadcasting content for the new media environment, and any barriers to…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC on Wednesday denied a request by the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) to stop Bell from “throttling” Internet traffic of competitor ISPs on an interim basis until it makes a final ruling on the matter.
In its decision, the CRTC denied CAIP’s request for interim relief because the regulator found CAIP did not present sufficient evidence of irreparable harm to its members as a result of Bells “traffic throttling” activities.
This is an unfortunate decision, said CAIP Chair Tom Copeland. “We feel the Commission has misapplied the test for interim relief by deeming the…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will launch a public consultation on new media on Thursday – the same day on which it will release a document entitled Perspectives on Canadian Broadcasting in New Media.
CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on May 13 that the Commission is looking to the public to confirm the CRTC has correctly identified the issues (in the document) and to help it structure a framework for a public hearing to be held in early 2009.
“I would like to be clear on one point. Our interest primarily lies in…
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REGINA – The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is asking the CRTC to force direct-to-home satellite TV distributor Star Choice to pick up the public broadcaster’s over-the-air TV signal that it dropped last week. “CBC/Radio-Canada files this complaint against Star Choice on the basis that Star Choice appears to be in breach of its condition of licence which specifies that the number of CBC English-language owned and operated television stations distributed by the licensee never falls below the number of English-language conventional stations distributed from any other individual broadcast group,” Bev Kirshenblatt, CBC senior director of regulatory affairs, writes in a…
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MONTREAL – BCE announced Monday it has filed with the CRTC all required materials related to its acquisition of BCE by an investor group led by Teachers’ Private Capital, the private investment arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Providence Equity Partners Inc., Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC, and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity.
Under the $51.7 billion agreement, Teachers would own 51.6% of the equity share of BCE. But the CRTC imposed several conditions, including that Canadian investors must at all times nominate six directors on the board, to address its concerns relating to corporate governance and to ensure…
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