OTTAWA – Stakeholders wishing to weigh in on the new production report set to replace the programs of national interest (PNI) report completed by the large English- and French-language ownership groups now have an extra month to prepare their comments.
The CRTC said Monday that comments will now due by March 6, 2019, and not February 6 as it said last month.
The move comes in response to a joint procedural request from the Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada, the Quebec English-Language Production Council, the English-Language Arts Network and On Screen Manitoba, as well as a joint procedural request from…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC needs more information from Iristel and Telus as it inches towards a final ruling in the dispute between the two telcos over failed calls to the North.
In a January 29 letter addressed to the respective regulatory heads, the Commission laid out four steps as part of the process for the review of the dueling final relief requests:
– Step 1. Iristel and Telus are to file responses to the relevant requests for information listed in the letter’s appendix 1 with the Commission by February 19, 2019.
– Step 2. Any interested parties may file submissions with…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – CRTC submissions are sometimes entertaining when issues are significant, potentially polarizing and wildly debated.
However, and as we indicated previously, this new proceeding into the establishment of an Internet Code of Conduct is mostly incremental in its scope, since a lot of issues have been dealt with in prior proceedings (and in other codes).
Maybe that’s why Bell, the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, provincial governments, unions and consumer groups have not bothered at this stage.
No reply phase is complete without an incumbent taking a swipe at the Competition Bureau, though. In this case…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The cities of Vernon, BC, Grande Prairie, AB and Toronto’s Scarborough region may soon have new radio stations after the CRTC issued separate calls for comments on the market capacity and on the appropriateness of calling for radio applications in the three markets.
The Commission said Wednesday that it issued the calls after receiving applications for new radio stations in those markets as follows:
– an application by Vernon Community Radio Society for a community radio station to serve greater Vernon;
– an application by Vista Radio for a new commercial radio station to serve Grande Prairie; and
– an…
Continue Reading
MOST OF THE arguments we found in the Bell Canada Enterprises submission to the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review panel we’ve heard before, which is not surprising since the largest telecom and media company has of course been front and centre when it comes to the issues at play under the Acts.
That said, it wants fee for carriage back, too.
Telecom
The 1993 Telecommunications Act was drafted to move from almost a century of near-monopoly provision of traditional wireline home phone telephony to competitive markets, reminds the Bell document.
So the company has asked the panel to implement measures to illustrate that…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – "Viewing of Canadian content by anyone under 50 is just nose-diving,” due to the growth of Netflix which is now the top channel for prime time viewing according to researcher Peter Lyman, senior partner at Nordicity Group.
That means the federal government and CRTC must respond now to the disruptive impacts of OTT providers if the creation of Canadian content is to rebound.
Lyman made the comments at the DM@X conference on digital media held at the University of Toronto where he presented his findings on the state of digital media in Canada. The report, The Digital Media Universe…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has denied a request from Telus to amend that company's regional broadcasting licences for various terrestrial broadcasting distribution undertakings in British Columbia and Alberta by deleting six licensed areas.
In its application, Telus asked to drop the areas of Prince George, Terrace, Vernon and Penticton in BC, and Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray in Alberta, citing the carve-out criteria required to remove a service area as a separate, exempt undertaking from a regional licence.
But the Commission said that Telus did not meet the exemption criteria and that the community programming that Telus distributes in these six licensed areas did…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has waded in to an ongoing dispute between the city of Calgary and a group of big telco carriers over a municipal rights-of-way bylaw and a proposed municipal consent and access agreement (MCAA).
The Commission said Friday that it was turning down an application by the city seeking a declaration and determination that certain telecommunications carriers may rely upon Calgary’s rights-of-way bylaw for the performance of their obligations under section 43 of the Telecommunications Act, which deals with access to infrastructure.
The decision also approved certain terms and conditions of an MCAA between Calgary and…
Continue Reading
TWO WEEKS AFTER THE DEADLINE for filing comments with the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review panel – and on the eve of this week’s CMPA Prime Time conference in Ottawa, Netflix made its submission public.
Stephane Cardin, Netflix’s director of public policy, Canada, told the Canadian Press that since he was going to be on a panel with other stakeholders which had made their positions public, it was appropriate to do so. Bell Media, Corus Entertainment, CBC, CMPA and BTLR panel chair Janet Yale will be with him on the panel on the first day.
(That said, neither Bell nor…
Continue Reading
It’s the oligopsony, of course
THE CANADIAN MEDIA Producers Association’s mission is to defend it members, so of course it is the focus of its submission to the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review (BTLR) panel.
A main concern is the concentration of ownership in the English TV market: “Given the substantial vertical integration and consolidation of broadcasters in Canada, the oligopsonistic nature of our domestic market, the information asymmetry between producers and broadcasters, and the resulting significant buying power yielded by broadcasters, there is a real risk that ownership concentration will reduce the programming options and the number of distinct creative…
Continue Reading
