By Ahmad Hathout
OUTtv is arguing that Rogers cannot have a choice in how it distributes its service if that choice means putting the channel in a television package with less penetration.
The LGBTQ+ service, which must be offered by broadcasters, said in a response filing provided to Cartt that Rogers’s interpretation of section 9 of the Wholesale Code – which appears to offer the cable giant the option of putting the discretionary service in either the “best available pre-assembled or theme package” – cannot be read without the full scope of the CRTC’s objectives when it comes to independent services,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers executives said Wednesday that the cable giant has been getting “substantial interest” from institutional investors about a stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE).
“We’re in discussions with folks who are interested in the assets we own and are soon to acquire,” Rogers CFO Glenn Brandt said during the company’s first quarter earnings conference call with analysts. “It’s premature for me to start speculating on when that might result in a transaction. I would say we are engaged in those conversations in earnest. We are more aware than the market is reflecting right now of the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Federal Court of Appeal on Tuesday set a date for next month to hear an appeal challenging the CRTC’s decision to choose Quebecor’s rate to access Rogers’s wireless network.
The hearing will begin at 9:30 am on May 28 in Ottawa and will centre on Rogers’s contention that the regulator, in July 2023, chose a rate to access its wireless network during final offer arbitration that was “materially lower” than the rate it proposed, running offside of the “just and reasonable” provision of the Telecommunications Act.
The result, Rogers argues, is that the lower rate will not allow…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers says if OUTtv wants to be placed in a cable package with broader distribution, it must come to the negotiating table instead of asking the CRTC to intervene in what it says are squarely commercial matters.
Otherwise, the LGBTQ+ streamer is currently slotted in the best available theme pack that Rogers offers, which the cable giant argues is precisely what is contemplated for services that are designated as “must offer.”
Rogers is responding to an application by OUTtv that alleges the cable giant is violating Wholesale Code rules after it pushed the service out of its eastern Canadian…
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Follows CRTC’s rejection of WildBrain’s ‘undue disadvantage’ claim against Bell
WildBrain announced Monday it has begun renegotiations with Halifax-based children’s studio IoM Media Ventures on certain commercial aspects of their previously announced agreement whereby IoM is to acquire a majority stake in WildBrain’s TV broadcast business.
When announced in December 2024, the transaction was valued at more than $40 million. Under the terms of the agreement, IoM was to acquire 66 2/3 per cent of WildBrain’s TV business, including Family Channel, Family Jr., WildBrainTV and Télémagino.
While the deal itself is still subject to CRTC approval,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Small landline service providers are asking the CRTC to forbear from regulating the wireline voice service in their operating territories because they say it is getting harder for them to compete on regulated rates when alternatives exist.
The Independent Telecommunications Providers Association (ITPA), a trade group representing those providers, filed an application published last week that argues the market for those services has changed since the commission last made a major change to the forbearance framework on landline service in 2009.
The ITPA argues that a combination of declining landline subscribers over the years and the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Federal Court of Appeal has set June 9 as the starting date for a hearing on several consolidated appeals from foreign streamers against a CRTC decision to impose a five per cent base financial contribution toward Canadian content funds.
The hearing will be held in Toronto and run for three or four days starting at 9:30 am, the court announced late last week.
The court consolidated four separate appeal applications from the Motion Picture Association of Canada (MPA) – representing the interests of Netflix, Paramount, Pluto, and Crunchyroll – as well as…
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Follows Pascale St-Onge pledge
By Ahmad Hathout
Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday pledged $150 million to shore up the CBC/Radio-Canada and enshrine funding for the public broadcaster in the law if elected.
“Canada’s institutions and identity are under attack from foreign interference,” Carney said during a campaign stop in Montreal. “If elected, my government will take action to enshrine and protect and strengthen CBC/Radio-Canada for generations to come.
“We will not only increase CBC/Radio-Canada’s funding by $150 million, but we will also make this funding statutory, meaning Parliament as a whole will need to approve any future changes to its funding, not…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers says it has been forced to plow millions of dollars to carry Corus channels it no longer sees as useful, and asked for assurances that, if it wins its case at the Federal Court of Appeal, it will be made whole.
The cable giant allegedly asked Corus in December whether it will reimburse Rogers if it wins its case challenging how the CRTC is applying the standstill rule to both parties in a commercial dispute wherein Rogers wants to remove at least one Corus service and move two others down the dial on cable.
Corus allegedly didn’t respond…
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Bell Media on Wednesday announced Vista Radio’s 51 radio stations are now available to stream through the iHeartRadio Canada platform.
The new agreement will also see the 21 Bell Media radio stations purchased by Vista in February 2024 continue to be available on iHeartRadio Canada after the transaction is closed, a Bell Media press release said Wednesday. The CRTC approved the sale of those stations earlier this year.
With stations across eight regions in Alberta, the Northwest Territories, British Columbia and Ontario, the Vista stations and brands joining iHeartRadio Canada include The…
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