MONTREAL – Two weeks ago, Cartt.ca reported Québecor had complained to the CRTC alleging undue preference in Bell TV’s treatment of TVA Sports.
Tuesday, Bell filed its answer, saying it was not a valid complaint since, among other things, negotiations were under way to set affiliation agreements for the next few years.
Most complaints would not warrant coverage such as this but it comes at a time of heightened tension between Québecor and Bell that has resulted in Québecor pulling TVA Sports from Bell TV (despite repeated CRTC warnings not to do so), depriving Bell’s subscribers of French-language NHL…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Nascent wireless provider dotmobile is one step closer to launch after receiving its first telecommunications license from the CRTC.
“The first license issued to us is called BITS – Basic International Telecommunications Services – which is needed to provide calling to the US. So, now we’ve got the go-ahead to connect our members to the rest of the world. Cart before the horse as far as licenses go, but hey – we’re one step closer!” reads a post by CXO Alex Bauman.
Bauman added that the company has registered for several licenses, including Wireless Service Provider and Proposed Full MVNO,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Senior lawyer and public policy professional Deborah Smith-Webber has joined Hall Webber LLP as the Toronto entertainment law firm looks to expand its practice.
Smith-Webber most recently served for ten years as senior specialist/advisor on culture policy with the Ontario government, where she led strategy and policy development on a legislative and regulatory portfolio that included free trade agreement negotiations, CRTC broadcasting proceedings, copyright reform, and Canadian culture policy toolkit modernization.
In her new role as strategic policy counsel, she will help organizations devise and execute effective policy, legislative, and regulatory advocacy strategies and initiatives at the intersection of…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL — Quebecor’s TVA is so fed up with how its all-sports channel is being treated by Bell that an executive confirmed it will defy a CRTC demand and pull TVA Sports from all Bell TV distribution systems at 7 p.m. Wednesday, just as the National Hockey League playoffs begin.
"We don't have confidence" in the CRTC process, said Groupe TVA COO Martin Picard in an interview. "We've already waited too long."
While the Commission has a dispute resolution process that uses final offer arbitration to impose new carriage contracts when asked to do so by one of the parties,…
Continue Reading
QUISPAMSIS, NB – Nominations are now closed and judging is underway for Tuned-in Canada: The CCSA Awards 2019.
Judges Greg O’Brien (president of FindTV, and editor & publisher of Cartt.ca), Suzanne Lamarre (lawyer, former CRTC commissioner, member of the Disciplinary Council of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec and Télé-Québec's Board of Directors), Matthew Polka (president and CEO of the American Cable Association), and Joely Collins (producer, director and founder of Vancouver-based Million Faces Productions) are currently combining a shortlist of nominees in the public voting categories of:
– Best people: on-camera community channel personality– Best…
Continue Reading
SHOULD QUEBECOR FOLLOW through on its threat to take TVA Sports away from Bell TV customers (which seems sure to happen, given this tweet from Quebecor’s SVP, corporate and institutional affairs Serge Sasseville), what exactly might happen then? We talked to a broadcast policy legal expert (one with no skin in this game).
Such a move, for a licence holder to openly defy CRTC regulations like this, is pretty much unprecedented, to begin with.
According to Québecor, it will stop providing the TVA Sports signal to Bell TV at 7 p.m. on Wednesday April 10th (the first…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Shaw Communications CEO Brad Shaw today affirmed his company’s stance against the federal government’s and CRTC’s desire to see new, non facilities-based wireless competition in Canada.
In February, as readers will recall, the CRTC launched a new review into the wireless market and noted its view was to mandate mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs – or third party carriers who lease space on incumbent networks) to operate in Canada since few have launched under the existing regs. Those who would like to launch an MVNO in Canada have said the wholesale rates proposed by…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – During the final regular season game of the NHL season aired on TVA Sports this past weekend, the Quebecor-owned broadcaster warned viewers they were going to lose access to the channel when the NHL playoffs begin – and that it’s all Bell’s fault.
Currently, Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau is leading a one-man public campaign decrying the state of affairs when it comes to specialty TV and the wholesale rates his TVA channels receive from carriers (please see our feature interview published here), since they are so much lower than Bell Media channels…
Continue Reading
Shortliffe to become ED, broadcasting
GATINEAU – CRTC chair Ian Scott announced today it has filled a newly created position with Scott Hutton, who will leave his long-time post as executive director, broadcasting, to become the Commission’s new chief of consumer, research and communications.
Hutton “brings to the role 27 years of experience at the CRTC and has extensive experience in both the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors. He is a seasoned expert of the communications industry and the regulatory environment,” reads the chair’s memo.
“Scott will lead the CRTC’s work as we engage in a conversation with Canadians, key stakeholders and industry…
Continue Reading
Reiterates push for “granular data”
GATINEAU – The Canadian wireless market reaps $24.5 billion in annual retail sales, accounts for 155,000 jobs and 31.7 million subscribers (2017 figures*) so the stakes are rather high when it comes to another regulatory review of that market.
Old ways (facilities-based competition) may be thrown out with new ones mandated (MVNOs). The questions surrounding the CRTC’s latest review of the wireless market has created much unease and uncertainty inside Canada’s wireless carriers (and a glimmer of hope among those who want to launch new MVNO-based brands and…
Continue Reading
