OTTAWA – On the third day of a hearing ostensibly into the CRTC’s Super Bowl simsub decision and the Vavilov spy case, those two individual cases took an even lesser importance than in the prior days. The Justices are mostly interested in developing a framework that would help the Courts, not just the Supreme Court, should rule on issues of administrative law.
On Tuesday, we had heard of the Bell’s appeal of the CRTC Super Bowl decision. Bell had an hour (which is more than the 51.5 minutes of advertising it wishes to once again sell to Canadian clients during…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has decided against issuing a call for new radio stations to serve Quebec City after finding that the market cannot sustain an additional commercial radio station at this time.
The Quebec radio market (or the Numeris central market area of Québec) includes the cities of Québec and Lévis, as well as Saint-François-de-l’Île-d’Orléans to the east, and Neuville to the west. This market is currently served by nine French-language commercial FM radio stations operated by five ownership groups.
The Commission said Thursday that, despite an increase in population in the area over the last six years, “this…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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