THE CRTC WILL SOON make a decision on Bell’s bid to get its hands on Séries+ and Historia again.
Bell had been forced to sell off the two specialty channels in 2013 when it took over Astral. It’s high time for the CRTC to start promoting innovation instead of shoring up Bell’s dominance.
Does the CRTC realize that its decisions are helping to increase TV ownership concentration and giving Bell enormous bargaining power, enabling it to crush the competition by snapping up the most coveted content in both languages? The CRTC is also allowing channels that were…
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Bell and Telus propose 500MB for $30; Rogers 400MB for $25
GATINEAU – Rogers, Bell and Telus have given the CRTC what it asked for – new data only wireless plans meant to fill a gap the Regulator sees in the market.
A multifaceted wireless decision last month included decreases in wholesale wireless rates, a “no” to Wi-Fi first models, and an early review of the wholesale wireless framework that will again reconsider MVNO rules. However, as part of that, the Commission directed the big three to immediately come up new data-only wireless plans which: must not…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Inc. is buying 10 regional radio stations in Quebec and Ontario for $18.5 million from RNC Média.
Cogeco Media already owns and operates 13 radio stations, including talk network stations 98.5 FM in Montreal, 106.9 FM in Mauricie, 107.7 FM in Estrie and 104.7 FM in Outaouais; Rhythm FM network stations 105.7 in Montreal, 100.1 in Mauricie and 93.7 in Estrie, CIME 103.9 in the Laurentians, 96.9 CKOI, The Beat 92.5 and Radio Circulation 730 AM in Montreal, as well as FM93 and M102.9 in Quebec City.
The new stations are located in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean (Planète 104.5 in…
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OTTAWA – The federal government has put out the call for a new CRTC commissioner for British Columbia and the Yukon, with current commissioner Stephen Simpson’s term scheduled to expire on June 22.
According to the posting, the full-time position will be based in Vancouver. The incumbents' duties will include participating in processes to establish rules, policies, and guidelines for licences and carriers; participating in public hearings and consultations; developing regulations; and participating in making Commission decisions.
The salary range is $142,800 – $168,000 and the application deadline is May 17th.
Candidates must apply online by May 17, 2018 via the…
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BELLEVILLE, ON, – The Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus and Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) is applauding $71 million in funding from the Ontario Government to improve cell service in Eastern Ontario, calling mobile broadband “critical to regional growth”.
EORN pitched a $213 million plan to the federal and provincial governments last May seeking to improve the reach and quality of cellular data services in the region.
According to an engineering study commissioned by EORN, about one quarter of the area where there are homes, businesses or major roads in the region cannot access any cellular services, and, depending on the cell…
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MONTREAL – English-language film and TV production in Quebec for 2015-2016 fell to its lowest level in twenty years, says a new report from the Quebec English-language Production Council (QEPC).
The Canadian Regional Audiovisual Production Report, 1996-97 to 2015-16, bills itself as the most complete source of information on official language minority production (OLMC) in Quebec. This study tracks Canadian regional and linguistic independent audiovisual production trends in three general categories: domestic production, audiovisual treaty co-productions, and foreign location and service production. In addition, production is broken down by majority and minority language in English and French, mostly OLMC…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has extended the deadline to receive feedback on next-generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) network design efficiencies.
The Commission said Thursday that it will now accept interventions until May 23, and that the new deadline for replies is June 7, 2018.
The extension comes at the behest of the Independent Telecommunications Providers Association (ITPA) and TbayTel who said that the small incumbent local exchange carriers need more time to review the ramifications of NG9-1-1 on their operations.
The CRTC said in March that it will hold a proceeding to examine recommendations made in a recent report from from NG9-1-1 stakeholders,…
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$7 billion needed to get to everyone, everywhere
OTTAWA – The federal government must adopt policies and alter regulatory frameworks and wireless spectrum allocation rules in order to clear a path for smaller, independent telecom service providers to expand the reach of broadband networks in rural and remote regions of the country, according to a Parliamentary committee.
Tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday by the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, Broadband Connectivity in Rural Canada: Overcoming the Digital Divide recommends a number of actions the Liberals could take to improve broadband deployment in Canada’s underserved communities.
The…
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REGINA – The communities of Nekaneet First Nation, Poundmaker Cree Nation, and Sweetgrass First Nation now have access to faster internet having been upgraded to SaskTel’s interNET Extended 5 service with download speeds of up to 5 Megabits per second (Mbps), which is more than triple what had been available.
“These upgrades further illustrate SaskTel’s commitment to provide modern communication services to all residents of our province,” said Doug Burnett, Acting SaskTel President and CEO. “Since June 2017, we’ve brought faster internet service to 27 Indigenous communities in our province and plan to upgrade more communities before the end…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today invited Canadians “to share their opinions on applications received to operate a multilingual, multi-ethnic channel with mandatory distribution across Canada.”
In May of last year, the Commission approved a request by Rogers Media to turn its struggling OMNI local OTA stations into regional, must carry specialty channels, complete with a subscriber fee of $0.12 per subscriber per month.
The Commission granted OMNI that status under the provisions of section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act (Rogers had all but said it would close the multilingual, multi-ethnic OMNI stations without that Commission decision), but…
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