Household expenditure data from 2013-17 showcased
GATINEAU – Canadian households continued to abandon landline telephone service in favour of mobile service, with almost a third subscribing to mobile service only, the CRTC said in its latest Communications Monitoring Report released today.
The data from 2013-2017 shows how household subscriptions to television distribution services continued their gradual decline, with “about three-quarters of households subscribing, while the percentage of households with Internet service increased slightly to 89%,” reads the report.
As well, adds the research, Canadian households spent an average of $233 per month on their communications services in 2017, an increase of…
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Some numbers truly unexpected as we break down the report on individual specialty services
INDEPENDENT CANADIAN SPECIALTY services are punching well above their weight when it comes to making and delivering Canadian content, despite the fact they live in a far lower margin world than those owned by vertically integrated companies.
Collectively, independent, or non-vertically-integrated specialty channels spent a whopping 59% of their revenue on Canadian content in 2018, far outpacing VI channels, which collectively spent 38% of revenues on Cancon in the 2018 broadcast year, which ended August 31st. These numbers are according to the CRTC’s 2018 Individual Discretionary and…
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Von Finckenstein rebuts Menzies
IN THE JULY 3 EDITION of the Report on Business, former vice-chair of telecom Peter Menzies wrote he believes Ottawa has given the CRTC conflicting directives which will result in a tough road for the current Commission chair, Ian Scott.
I see the issue differently. The federal government has actually issued two helpful directives.
First, the previous government under former Industry Minister Maxime Bernier issued a directive in 2006 putting the emphasis on competition and directing the CRTC, when regulating, to maximize competition in the telecom sector. Now, under ISED Minister Navdeep Bains, today’s…
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Many customers may want it, but is it contrary to the CRTC’s Code?
TORONTO – Rogers Communications today said it will now offer customers the ability to pay for new devices over 24- or 36-month time frames, at $0 down with no interest.
Wireless policy watchers will say immediately, of course, that the CRTC’s 2013 Wireless Code only effectively allows carriers to offer a maximum two-year contract to their customers. Telus wireless chief Jim Senko told Cartt.ca last week he believes the company can’t go any longer than the two-year financing offer it just launched – even though he’d like…
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Slowed speeds after 10 GB might be against the rules
GATINEAU – Who would have thought a routine process of monitoring Internet pricing to make sure Internet Traffic Management Practices (ITMPs) don’t violate consumer rights would bump up against the much ballyhooed new $75 wireless data pricing plans?
The CRTC has long been concerned about some differential pricing practices that could be viewed as unfair, so it decided two years ago to “closely monitor the retail prices and data caps for both wireless and fixed-line Internet services, which will enable it to assess the degree to which…
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ECG, TLN, urge the federal government to intervene
OTTAWA – A total of four companies which had hoped to win a coveted must-carry licence for a national, multi-ethnic, multi-language TV channel have now asked the federal Cabinet to set aside the CRTC’s decision to grant the license to Rogers Communications, which says the vertically integrated company gets to hang onto OMNI for an additional three years.
On Monday, both Ethnic Channels Group (whose proposal was called Voices) and TLN Media Group (whose joint application with Asian Television Network was called CanadaWorld), joined Corriere…
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OTTAWA – Back in May, Videotron asked the CRTC to amend its conditions of licence so that it would not be forced to share its cable set-top box audience measurement with Numeris, and pending the decision, it abandoned the industry group working to bring to market that data as part of the ratings systems.
CRTC responded June 28th saying that the condition of licence still applies and changed the deadline for providing a measurement system to 15 January 2020.
On July 5th, however, Vidéotron announced it intended to challenge in court that CRTC refusal. The company…
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Lawyer Claire Anderson starts next month
GATINEAU – Yukon lawyer Claire Anderson has been hired as CRTC commissioner for British Columbia and Yukon, Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez announced today.
She is the first Indigenous woman and first Yukon resident to be appointed as a CRTC commissioner and will fill a position which has been vacant since June 2018 when former commissioner Stephen Simpson left. While we don’t know her age, judging from her CV, she is likely one of the youngest ever hired, too. She starts August 26th.
Anderson (pictured in a photo from her LinkedIn profile) is a citizen of…
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HASTINGS COUNTY, Ont. – The Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) announced today it will be receiving $71 million from the federal government in order to help pay for a project which will help fill gaps in mobile broadband coverage in the region.
The cash will come from the Rural and Northern Infrastructure Stream of the Investing in Canada Plan.
The funding, combined with the provincial government’s equal commitment of $71 million to the project plus $10 million from the Eastern Ontario Wardens' Caucus, “clears the way for a $213 million public-private partnership to improve both the reach…
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OTTAWA – Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez has mostly been silent on the Canadian TV business since being appointed last July.
We know he’s met with a number of stakeholders during his year on the job (the first anniversary is July 18) and he did make a short appearance on stage at the Canadian Media Producers Association Prime Time gathering in February, but Rodriguez has spent his first year well out of the spotlights which seemed constantly on his predecessor Mélanie Joly.
Wednesday however, Rodriguez issued a statement outlining his thoughts far more definitively on the…
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