OTTAWA – The CRTC has ordered a bevy of broadcasters to get it the information that it asked for so that it may move forward with its plan to update the policy on Canadian programming expenditures (CPE).
The Commission on Friday issued a direction to comply with a request for information to 14 broadcasters for their data on revenues and expenditures associated with their digital media broadcasting activities, specifically in the context of CPE. While some of the 20 broadcasters who received the request for information letter in March have complied, the Regulator received joint reply from 14…
Continue Reading
The union representing local TV news staff across the CTV chain has made it clear to Bell Media that its restructuring plans cannot leave media workers out in the cold.
“Today’s announcement from CTV of its shift to ‘digital-first’ airing of local news stories on the Internet was inevitable,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias. “Retooling local news for digital is necessary and, hopefully, a successful business plan because local TV is being starved for advertising revenues and anything that brings in a bigger audience and more ad revenue is welcome.”
The stations affected by restructuring include the CTV1 stations in…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA–GATINEAU – The CRTC is once again seeking volunteers to help it measure the performance of home wireline broadband Internet services provided by the country’s major Internet service providers.
Under the Measuring Broadband Canada program, the Commission will work in collaboration with ISPs and broadband testing firm SamKnows to measure broadband performance and test parameters associated with the broadband Internet connection, including download and upload speeds.
While some providers offer advertised speeds of 1Gbps or faster, services above 940Mbps cannot be measured with a conventional speed test, meaning that speed tiers of 1Gbps or faster are excluded from the 2019 Measuring…
Continue Reading
Company asks CRTC to step into toll free dispute with Bell
GATINEAU – Frustrated with stalled negotiations with Bell Canada on how toll-free calls should be handled going forward, Rogers Communications last week filed a Part 1 application with the CRTC asking the Commission to settle the dispute.
Rogers contends Bell is profiting twice from certain toll-free calls because it won’t change the historic way it has handled them, despite changes Rogers has made and this inaction means Bell is providing itself with an undue preference. The impasse has dragged on for seven months, says Rogers.
While this sounds like a bit…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The Bell vs. Quebecor saga continues, but this time it’s not about Bell the carrier and Quebecor the sports channel provider.
This time Bell Media is complaining to the CRTC that its Super Écran is being poorly treated by Quebecor’s Vidéotron in violation of Commission rules.
Long the primary French-language premium pay-TV channel, Super Écran airs Canadian movies and series as well as dubbed popular English content from the likes of HBO and Showtime for French language viewers. However, a packaging change made by Vidéotron in November of 2018 which saw the Bell Media channel relocated from a “Premium…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Canada’s three big private broadcasters, Bell Media, Corus Entertainment, and Rogers Media, have petitioned the CRTC to exempt them from providing described video to non-Canadian programs received less than 72 hours prior to broadcast without described video.
The Canadian National Institute for the Blind is not happy.
This would be contrary to a mandate from the CRTC where broadcasters were told to provide described video for all shows during prime-time hours starting in September 2019.
TVA has asked the CRTC to relax their conditions, too.
In 2015, the CRTC announced plans to increase the availability of described video and mandated that…
Continue Reading
Needs local data for a proper analysis
OTTAWA – It’s rare for a bureaucratic back-and-forth to be quite so public, but with so much at stake, the Commissioner for Competition doesn’t want to take no for an answer when it comes to the granular market data he wants from Canadian wireless companies.
As part of its submission to the CRTC’s review of mobile wireless services, the Competition Bureau wants to do a detailed study on what happened in regions and cities (not just in provinces and nationally) when new wireless competitors to the Big Three (Rogers, Bell and Telus) were introduced….
Continue Reading
QUISPAMSIS, NB – The Canadian Communication Systems Alliance said Monday voting is now open for the 2019 edition of the Tuned-in Canada: the CCSA Awards.
The awards are a nationwide, annual competition highlighting the excellent work performed by CCSA members – independent, local providers of internet, television and telephone services across Canada.
Canadians are invited to visit Tuned-in Canada 2019 to cast a vote for nominees in the following three categories:
1. Best people: on-camera community channel personality2. Best story: giving back3. Best photo: connecting Canadians
Voting takes place on the Tuned-in Canada website, and voters can cast…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – New area codes are coming to Alberta and Saskatchewan in 2021.
The CRTC said Friday that area code 368 will be rolled out across the region currently served by 403, 587, 780, and 825 in Alberta starting May 15, 2021 by implementing a distributed overlay of the new area code, meaning that the area codes will coexist and will cover the same geographic area.
The Commission also approved the 403/587/780/825 relief planning committee’s report, including the proposed planning document and relief implementation plan.
In Saskatchewan, the CRTC determined that relief for area…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Super Channel will have some explaining to do before the CRTC will renew its broadcasting licence.
The channel’s parent, Allarco Entertainment Limited Partnership, is one of seven entities whose applications will be considered at hearing at CRTC headquarters scheduled for July 11, 2019.
Since Allarco’s renewal application was published for comment, the CRTC said that it has received interventions that raised issues regarding instances of apparent non-compliance, ranging from the distribution of Canadian programs, the eligibility and late payment of certain Canadian programming expenditures, to the eligibility of certain expenditures devoted to regional outreach programs.
“The Commission is particularly…
Continue Reading
