Telus and Rogers have reached a distribution agreement for the latter’s new Food Network, HGTV, Discovery, Investigation Discovery, Bravo and Magnolia channels.
Telus announced Wednesday its Optik TV customers are now getting an exclusive free preview of Rogers’s premium lifestyle and entertainment channels until April 14.
Starting April 11, Optik TV customers will be able to add the individual channels to their existing plan for $5 each or choose from two theme packs: Food & Home for $10 per month, which includes Food Network, Magnolia Network and HGTV; or Discovery & Reality, also $10 per month, which includes Bravo, Discovery and…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Federal Court of Appeal on Tuesday granted Rogers its request to appeal two decisions of the CRTC that froze its ability to move certain Corus channels in its cable packages.
Rogers had provided notice that it was terminating its carriage agreement with Corus by the end of 2024 and, as part of that, wants to remove Corus’s Slice from certain television packages and replace the media company’s Flavour and Home networks with its own Food Network and HGTV so customers, it says, are not scrambling to find the American programming it…
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Regina’s community radio station, 91.3 FM CJTR, has officially rebranded as AccessNow Community Radio, according to a press release Thursday.
The news follows the CRTC’s approval of the sale of the station to AccessNow in December. AccessNow says, since the approval, it has retained two full-time staff and hired a sales executive. The station generates money through advertising and sponsorship revenues, it says in the release.
Tracey Mucha, Access’s senior manager of community engagement, said the company is “excited to offer businesses new and innovative advertising opportunities, responding to the growing demand for local content and more dynamic advertising solutions as…
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PIAC, Competition Bureau, CCTS push label as important opportunity
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC must take a light-touch regulatory approach when it comes to determining how internet service providers (ISPs) present certain technical plan details, as being too prescriptive risks providing unnecessary information while adding implementation costs, according to several large service providers.
The gist of the ISP argument – both large and regional – can be distilled to some form of the following: they already provide the necessary information they believe an already-informed public should know, and the one example of a mandated “broadband label” – that is the one in…
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By Ahmad Hathout
CRTC commissioners Nirmala Naidoo and Ellen Desmond have been reappointed by Order in Council last week to their respective posts for another five years.
The terms for Naidoo, commissioner for Alberta and the Northwest Territories, and Desmond, commissioner for the Atlantic region and Nunavut, are effective on July 20.
Naidoo and Desmond filled the vacant positions after the departure of commissioners Christopher MacDonald and Linda Vennard, respectively, in June 2020.
Naidoo was an award-winning television anchor, journalist and communications expert in a past life. Desmond is a lawyer by trade and was the director of legal and administration with…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Two of Canada’s largest telecoms are warning the CRTC against implementing a uniform internet subsidy for the far north or risk increasing internet service prices in rest of the country. Others are saying the subsidy contribution would be a negligible amount to support those in need of affordable services.
The CRTC last month proposed a monthly subsidy to be distributed by internet service providers (ISP) to all households in the far north. The contributions would come from the National Contribution Fund (NCF), which subsists on ISP contributions.
The concern, outlined by some providers in submissions to…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has ordered Telus on Wednesday to provide additional monetary compensation to customers in certain remote British Columbia regions who will lose access to landline service dependent on spectrum licenses the telco will lose next month.
The Vancouver-based telecom, which is the dominant provider in the affected region, has been relying on the 3.5 GHz spectrum to provide landline services to 115 customers in the Alexis Creek, North Kamloops, and the Tahsis exchanges. But the telco, which was granted two extensions on the use of the licenses, will lose access to them next month when Industry Canada…
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The Société professionnelle des auteurs, compositeurs du Québec et des artistes entrepreneurs (SPACQ-AE) has launched MUSIQC, a free music listening space dedicated to promoting and showcasing French-language music.
Acting as a discoverability portal, MUSIQC leverages users’ pre-existing subscriptions to online music services to offer them a way to discover, rediscover and listen to French-language works, at no additional cost, by providing a wide selection of playlists curated by a specialized, dedicated and human programming team, a SPACQ-AE press release says.
MUSIQC was created in response to the challenges faced by francophone music in a globalized market dominated…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Bell is laying the blame at the feet of Rogers for why it is not carrying certain channels that utilize American programming rights the cable company obtained in the summer.
The broadcaster alleged to Cartt late last week that it is Rogers that isn’t budging on negotiations with respect to the carriage of Rogers’s Discovery and Investigation Discovery (I.D.) and other channels.
“The assertion that Bell is refusing to carry these channels is incorrect,” a Bell spokesperson told us. “We have offered to carry these channels a la carte and we are open to them making a reasonable offer,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers is accusing Bell of refusing to carry channels crafted out of new American rights it acquired in the summer.
The cable giant alleges its Discovery and Investigation Discovery (I.D.) channels are being subject to a double standard by the rival broadcaster: while Bell, the second-largest broadcaster, complains that Rogers wants to push its new USA Network and Oxygen True Crime channels down the dial, the former allegedly doesn’t even want to carry the channels that are intended to replace them.
“Granting Bell’s requested relief is unquestionably not in the public interest and would perpetuate asymmetrical treatment of Bell…
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