Search Results for: crtc

Radio / Television News

ANALYSIS: Why more mergers may not be the answer for the Canadian broadcasting system (part one)

FIRST DISNEY BUYS FOX’S MEDIA LIBRARY, so then maybe Corus buys Bell Media – or the other way around? If so, is this a good idea or a bad one for our system? A Scotiabank report from December 2017 entitled “Converging Networks” and reported by Cartt.ca has suggested that Corus and Bell Media should merge in order to “make them more competitive.” It’s hard to know if this report is a trial balloon or just mere speculation, but we’ve seen support in other quarters for this point of view. The research also says Facebook and Google now… Continue Reading

Investigates

Cartt.ca Enquête: Réécrire les Lois, Partie I. Doivent-elles toutes être modifiées?

CELA FAIT PLUS DE 25 ans que la législation qui régit le secteur des communications a été promulguée. Malgré des changements mineurs, la Loi sur les télécommunications et la Loi sur la radiodiffusion sont essentiellement restées inchangées, leurs objectifs demeurant les mêmes. Elles ont résisté à l’épreuve du temps selon certains. D’autres, en revanche, exposent l’impact phénoménal de l’Internet pour demander des changements significatifs à ces Lois. "L’Internet est devenu le mode de communication principal dans nos vies et pourtant nous demeurons avec des lois qui font encore une distinction entre la radiodiffusion et les télécommunications et aussi entre les communications… Continue Reading

Investigates

Cartt.ca INVESTIGATES: Rewriting the Acts, Part I. Should they be touched at all?

IT’S BEEN MORE THAN 25 years since legislation guiding the communications sector came into force. There have some minor changes, but both the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act have remained largely the same – their objectives essentially left untouched. They have stood the test of time, some say. Others, however, point to the enormous impact of the Internet in arguing for big changes to these laws. “The Internet has really become the central communication mode in our life now, and yet we have legislation that makes a distinction between telecom and broadcasting and also between wireless and wireline. It… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Choose words wisely when asking for government support for Canadian content creators

TORONTO – Winning the struggle to get Canadians to pay attention to the financial problems of content producers hammered by the digital revolution will depend on how the debate is framed, experts told a digital media conference Saturday in Toronto. “Words matter and how we frame our thoughts matter, and how one frames an issue has a huge impact on the outcome,” Michael MacMillan, CEO of Blue Ant Media, a Toronto-based international content producer, distributor and channel operator, told the fourth annual Digital Media at the Crossroads conference. “We’ve been attacking the CRTC for 40 years,” he said, and try to… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Why the Canadian broadcast industry is “in a death spiral”

TORONTO – The Canadian film, television and print production industry “is in a death spiral” that only government action can halt, several experts agreed at a digital media conference held Saturday in Toronto. The former Harper government, current Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly, the CRTC and private broadcasters came in for heated criticism for failing to give content producers the tools to fight the falling advertising which print publications have been seeing – and the flight of viewers from conventional television to Netflix, Facebook, Google and others. There were no shortage of solutions offered, but speakers on a film and TV panel… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Industry pays tribute to Jay Switzer

THERE WAS NO PROUDER champion of Canadian television, Canadian creativity, and all the people working in it than Jay Switzer – and the industry is poorer today without him in it. Switzer, 61, former CEO of CHUM Limited, founder of movie service Hollywood Suite and launcher of an untold number of careers, died Monday surrounded by family after a several months long bout with brain cancer. He really was born to be in TV. Jay’s late mom Phyllis was a journalist who covered the Canadian broadcasting industry and then later was a co-founder of CityTV, while his late dad Israel (“Sruki”)… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

COMMENTARY: It’s time to block pirate websites in Canada

IF YOU’RE AGAINST THINGS like theft and plagiarism, then support of the FairPlay Coalition is a no-brainer. Over 25 companies, unions, associations and other groups have banded together to file an application to the CRTC to try to curb blatant content piracy in Canada. The group (a list of organizations who are often at each other’s throats) is calling themselves the FairPlay Canada Coalition and the application (to which Cartt.ca was granted early access) calls for the creation of the Independent Piracy Review Agency, an independent, third party organization with a strong mandate to protect both net neutrality as well… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

New coalition says CRTC, with help, needs to lead the fight against online piracy

Proposes new agency to battle billion-dollar problem OTTAWA – FairPlay Canada, a new coalition of Canadian artists, content creators, unions, guilds, producers, performers, broadcasters, distributors, and exhibitors is has filed an application with the CRTC urging the Regulator to have Canadian ISPs shut down access to websites which enable content piracy. According to the coalition, the jobs of hundreds of thousands of Canadians who work in the creative sector (songwriters, set builders, TV writers, makeup artists, reporters, as well as cable technicians, engineers and customer service reps) are at risk as a result of increasing online piracy… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

CRTC sets deadline for caller ID for VoIP calls as ongoing fight wages on against unwanted calls

OTTAWA – Canada’s telcos have until March 31, 2019 to implement caller ID technology for calls made over Internet Protocol (IP), the CRTC said Thursday. The Commission also ordered the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC) to submit an industry report card twice a year, beginning six months from the January 25th date of this decision, to help track the progress being made on caller identification authentication. The telcos were also directed to develop a call traceback process for VoIP nuisance calls, and the CISC was also asked to file a progress report on this process within the next nine months. The CRTC… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

CRTC denies consumer groups’ call for affordability fund

OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a request from three consumer advocacy groups to review and vary its basic service objective decision over the affordability of telecommunications services. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now Canada (ACORN), the National Pensioners Federation (NPF), and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), collectively known as ACORN-NPF-PIAC, filed a review and vary request last April over the decision, decrying its lack of an affordability funding mechanism for low-income telecommunications users. The Commission dismissed the request Thursday after determining that it did not err in fact or in law, and that there has… Continue Reading