MONTREAL – Music service Stingray today announced that it has reached a new long-term agreement with Rogers Communications which will offer more flexibility and choice for viewers with options to choose services based on music preferences.
As part of the agreement, says the Stingray release, Rogers television customers (cable and IPTV) will have access to Stingray Music audio channels and also enjoy the Stingray Music mobile app and web player for free. Stingray 4K channels will continue to be available including Stingray Festival 4K, and Stingray Now 4K. The deal also provides Rogers with rights to distribute new Stingray products,…
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TORONTO – TLN Media Group (some of you still might readily identify it as Telelatino), is asking its friends and supporters to get behind its petition to cabinet which asks the government to overturn the CRTC’s decision to grant a must-carry ethnic TV channel licence to Rogers Media.
As readers will recall, there was much competition for the 9(1)(h) TV licence which the CRTC decided to grant to Rogers to keep OMNI Television alive. Click here for our extensive prior coverage.
“Recently, the CRTC granted Rogers over 100 million dollars and a monopoly licence to operate a…
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GATINEAU – Canada’s three largest wireless carriers aren’t going to meekly back away from the CRTC on this issue.
While they often grit their teeth and accept the cards the Commission deals, it seems Rogers, Telus and Bell are going to double down when it comes to 36-month device financing plans.
Friday, the Regulator told the carriers to pull those offers from the market and Rogers and Telus have told us they will comply for now (and also that it’s going to take a couple of days at least to do so). However, they are spoiling for…
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GATINEAU – A program Shaw Communications offered a decade ago to grease the wheels of its acquisition of Canwest's television assets will end before the CRTC makes an official final decision on demands that it be renewed.
It's called the Local Television Satellite Solution, a free basic satellite subscription that was provided to people in areas that would have lost over-the-air TV service as a result of the digital television transition in 2011. It was funded with $15 million from the $180 million in tangible benefits Shaw proposed as part of its $2 billion acquisition of Canwest back in 2010.
The…
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GATINEAU – While saying it acknowledges some Canadian consumers might want to pay for a new smartphone over three years instead of two, making their monthly payments lower, the CRTC told Canadian wireless carriers this afternoon to stop offering 36-month payment plans.
The CRTC today said that the new 36-month device financing plans first launched by Rogers (since followed in a more limited way by Telus and Bell) “may not be compliant with the Wireless Code since customers may have to pay fees to switch service providers, even after 24 months,” reads the CRTC press release today.
“The Wireless Code was…
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GATINEAU – All large internet service providers will have to abide by the CRTC’s new Internet Code of conduct as of January 31, 2020.
The new code, which will apply to Bell, Cogeco, Eastlink, Northwestel, Rogers, Shaw, Sasktel, Telus, Vidéotron, and Xplornet has been created to try to ensure consumers receive easier-to-understand contracts, documentation and policies surrounding service calls, outages, security deposits and disconnections, reads the release. It’s worth noting here this new code does not apply to mobile wireless internet providers. (Correction: An earlier version of this story mentioned the code will apply to small…
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GATINEAU – Bell Media can go ahead and decommission 28 over-the-air TV transmitters after receiving CRTC approval today.
In its application, Bell noted the transmitters (at right), all in rural regions, rebroadcast the signals of various CTV or CTV2 stations “and none offer programming that differs from that which is offered by the originating stations,” reads the CRTC decision. “The applicant stated that these transmitters do not generate any incremental revenue and generally attract little to no added viewership.”
For example, the company’s Huntsville, Ontario transmitter rebroadcasts the feed from CTV Sudbury – which means it’s likely…
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GATINEAU – Bell Canada has asked the CRTC for permission to conduct a 90-day test this fall where it will block verified, known scam calls “received or transmitted from, to, or over our networks.”
Blocking fraud calls on the network level is something the CRTC has demanded of Canadian carriers, with a deadline of December 18th this year, but this new application asks for a step forward from what the CRTC has demanded.
The abridged application on the public file is light on details on how the calls will be identified and blocked, for obvious reasons. “As always, the challenge is…
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GATINEAU – Last summer Cloudwifi, a Kitchener-based ISP that operates mostly in the apartment and condo space, filed an application with the CRTC requesting an order stating Bell Canada can’t interfere with a customer’s use of the inside wire.
The CRTC agreed with the independent ISP but Bell appealed saying because Cloudwifi was not a local exchange carrier (LEC) or a BDU, it had no legal, regulatory, or other rights of use or access to the facilities at issue. On July 17, 2019, the Commission asked interested parties for applications on the review of CRTC decision…
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MONTREAL – As predicted, Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau hates the proposed purchase of the V network and Noovo.ca by Bell Media.
The acquisition of the network and its digital assets by Bell “will further undermine an already precarious ecosystem by allowing a dominant player to become still more so,” reads a Quebecor press release sent out about 24 hours after Bell’s announcement Wednesday.
“The transaction will significantly alter the balance of power between media companies and have major consequences,” adds the statement.
The company worres that Bell, with its power in “conventional television, specialty channel, pay TV,…
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