OTTAWA – In what’s got to be a first, a Canadian group is actually calling for a bigger CRTC.
The 150,000-member Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada said Wednesday that the CRTC "needs a wider scope and greater resources in order to properly protect the public interest in the rapidly changing world of media and information technology."
The union proposed its new CRTC mandate at the same time as it filed its opposition to by Bell Canada Enterprises plan to cede control of Bell Globemedia (home of CTV and the Globe and Mail, among other assets) to the…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has approved applications for three English-language FMs in Charlottetown. Maritime Broadcasting System and Newcap will convert existing AM stations to the FM band, and Newcap will launch a new FM.
The commission turned down an application for a new station from Coast Broadcasting. The Coast application was to use the same frequency as the Maritime station, playing an adult pop music format targeting listeners 35 to 54.
Maritime will be able to convert its AM station CFCY to the FM band, at 95.1 MHz, maintaining its current country music format and local programming, aimed at…
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FORMER ROGERS EXECUTIVE Len Katz has been overseeing the restructuring and re-organization of the administrative functions of the CRTC.
As reported by www.cartt.ca, the Commission’s processes have been streamlined and the structure from which it works, remodeled. A new "centre pod" of oversight that will examine new technologies, help navigate the paths upon which those technologies lead us, and help bring together the telecom and broadcast portions of this converged industry, has been created. Some in the industry will say it’s long overdue. Others will chafe at the changes because one of those alterations means that…
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OTTAWA – While CRTC chairman Charles Dalfen said little to surprise independent producers in his annual address at the CFTPA’s national conference, he did hint at something that could delight them.
With CBC up for licence renewal this year, followed by the major private ‘casters, and with handheld digital media starting to shift industry revenue streams, Dalfen told producers “a bigger TV policy review might be timely” and he’s welcoming suggestions.
Any re-think of the TV policy, cursed by almost all stakeholders except broadcasters since it took effect in the fall of 2000, would begin after the review of…
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OTTAWA – Some companies want a new TV station to serve Calgary and/or Edmonton.
The CRTC today announced that it has received “applications for broadcasting licenses to carry on television programming undertakings to provide television services to serve Edmonton and Calgary.”
As is its policy, it has now called for additional applicants.
The deadline for submission is April 12, 2006.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Today, the CRTC announced a structural re-organization, aimed at enhancing “our ability to fulfill the objectives of the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act more effectively, and to discharge our regulatory responsibilities more efficiently,” says the Commission.
“This reorganization will place us in a better position to respond to the realities with which the industries we regulate are grappling, as a result of massive and rapid technological change and the blurring of traditional boundaries and lines of business.”
Effective immediately, broadcasting and telecommunications policy and operations will largely be grouped under a converged structure and leadership. A…
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GATINEAU, Que. – Aboriginal Voices Radio Inc. has applied for another extension to the CRTC to begin broadcasting programming in aboriginal languages in Vancouver, Abbortsford, B.C., Calgary, Ottawa, and Montreal.
The broadcaster was granted licences to create stations in 2001 (Vancouver, Calgary, and Ottawa) and in 2003 (Abbotsford and Montreal) but has yet to launch. Aboriginal Voices wants until Sept. 1, 2006 to launch “for primarily technical and logistical reasons,” the commission says.
The application for an extension of the time limit to start operations marks the sixth such request for Ottawa, the fifth request for Vancouver and Calgary,…
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TORONTO – When Maclean’s magazine was able to buy the supposedly confidential phone records of Jennifer Stoddart, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, and publish a cover story last week on what looks like a potentially scary security loophole, the big three wireless carriers – all of whom were mentioned in the article – sprang into action.
And, with each company counting on huge wireless growth in the Christmas season and throughout 2006 and 2007 (all companies saw record levels of subscriber growth in 2005) all moved quickly to try and repair the damage.
First out of the gate was Bell Canada….
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OTTAWA – The CRTC Friday scuttled a bid by broadcasting veteran Wendell Wilks to launch a local TV station for the Niagara region.
The founder of Edmonton’s ITV (which is now Global Edmonton) told the CRTC at a June hearing in Niagara Falls that the area is so poorly served by the existing Canadian TV broadcasters that it needs its own station.
However, perhaps sensing that the southern Ontario market is already pretty well served by TV (not to mention pretty well fragmented), there were no other competing applications.
Besides being HD-ready at launch, TVN (as reported by…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – "The telecommunications landscape has changed considerably since the release of the first report to the Governor in Council in 2001," said Charles Dalfen, chairman of the CRTC in releasing the Commission’s Telecom Monitoring Report to the Governor-in-Council.
(An earlier version of this story contained an mistake, which the Commission corrected today in an additional release. The fixed copy is in boldface below.)
"Our monitoring report indicates that Internet and wireless services continue to be the flagships of growth and innovation for the Canadian telecommunications industry and that technology continues to impact the industry, not only by lowering costs, but…
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