OTTAWA – They say you can’t infer an outcome from the line of questioning and the tone of the questions. That goes for the Supreme Court as well as for CRTC Hearings.
But this has never stopped anyone from making predictions.
As reported yesterday, besides the Bell v. CRTC on the Super Bowl case and the Vavilov citizenship issue, what really seemed of interest to the Supreme Court justices today, which was made clear in their questions, is the appropriate standard of review that should apply when reviewing lower administrative tribunal decisions.
Tuesday, we heard the two sides…
Continue Reading
Supreme Court to hear Bell’s Super Bowl appeal starting Tuesday
OTTAWA – This week, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear a case that our readers are familiar with, but there’s a whole lot else going on of which you may not be aware.
Bell Media has, of course, appealed the CRTC decision which prevented the company from demanding simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl, which the Federal Court of Appeal upheld in late 2017. Then-Commission chair Jean-Pierre Blais said back in 2015 that the full game experience was a must for Canadians, and that included the American advertising,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has awarded Golden West Broadcasting Ltd. a license to operate an English-language, commercial FM radio station in Cochrane, AB that will target adults between 25 to 54 years of age with a hybrid Country music format.
The station will operate at 91.5 MHz (channel 218B1) with an average effective radiated power (ERP) of 4,700 watts (maximum ERP of 10,000 watts with an effective height of antenna above average terrain of 118.1 metres). The licence will expire on August 31, 2025.
The CRTC said Monday that it determined that approval of the application would be in the public interest, noting that the primary…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The oral reply phase of a CRTC hearing is the last opportunity for applicants to make their final pleas, respond to comments from competing applicants but also one more opportunity for the Commission to ask questions and, most importantly to raise an issue to ensure it is on the record of the hearing.
Interestingly, in the last phase of this week’s hearing into a mandatory license for an ethnic, multi-language primarily news specialty service, the vice-chair-broadcasting, Caroline Simard, asked each applicant something new: “Could you tell us which are the main steps that you would be doing in…
Continue Reading
Telus, Shaw, say no licence should be granted, and especially not to Bell or Rogers
GATINEAU – On Wednesday, phase II and III of the hearing into a mandatory carriage licence for a national, news oriented multilingual and multi-ethnic television service was the opportunity for the applicants and then outside intervenors to tell commissioners why they believe certain applications are not special enough to warrant a license under section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act.
Four of the eight applicants chose not to make any presentations Wednesday (perhaps keeping their powder dry for Thursday’s final public reply day) but each of Rogers…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Blue Ant Media’s HIFI network has been chastised by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) for failing to keep official copies of broadcasts that were the subject of a complaint.
The CBSC contacted the TV service after receiving a viewer complaint on June 6, 2018 that alleged 22 issues within various shows, including the presence of adult-oriented coarse language, sexuality and violence during daytime hours, that HIFI had incorrectly rated such programming, and that the programming lacked adequate viewer advisories. The complainant also provided detailed times and descriptions for each instance.
In its response to the complainant, HIFI acknowledged that…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Day two of the hearing into the applications for a mandatory carriage licence for a national, multilingual and multi-ethnic television service saw the panel of commissioners pick at the shortcomings of the applications brought forward by the final four applicants for the TV license currently held by Rogers Media’s OMNI.
Here are the highlights we saw:
BELL MEDIA WAS FIRST UP with it’s pitch for OurTV, which promised, among a number of other things, the hiring of 53 new journalists spread across the country and some international sites producing 40 hours a week of news and current affairs content…
Continue Reading
Chair says 9(1)(h) may not go to anyone
GATINEAU – Sometimes the headline for a CRTC hearing day comes mid-morning, or maybe late afternoon during a good Q&A session between an applicant and a commissioner which puts a tight focus on the issues at play.
On Monday, however, that headline came in the first five minutes during CRTC chairman Ian Scott’s short opening speech. While we have surmised here that granting a mandatory carriage licence to a national, multilingual and multi-ethnic television service was a foregone conclusion – and that the only question is which of the…
Continue Reading
CCTS Annual Report shows troubling trends
OTTAWA – Just over a month after the telecom industry was raked over the coals for their sales practices by the CRTC, the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) released its annual report showing such complaints about wireless, broadband, telecom and TV carriers are on the rise.
Today, the CCTS reported a 57% increase in the number of complaints received during its 2017-18 year (ended July 31st) from Canadian telecom and TV customers, following an 11% increase the prior year. Canadians complained most often about non-disclosure of information, which accounts for almost 15%…
Continue Reading
“THE WORST ENEMY of a regulatory lawyer is the marketing guy,” said Willie Grieve to me during a break at a hearing once. Perplexed, as a new CRTC communications person at the time, I said, “How so?”
“At the beginning, marketing guys come to you asking: Can I do this promotion? And we always say no. So, they stop coming and I get in trouble,” he added, and he walked away.
Those were the days when incumbents telephone companies were not allowed to lower their rates, in order to give a chance to competitors, even for promotions (the bread and butter…
Continue Reading
