TORONTO — Bell Media announced Wednesday it plans to acquire four FM radio stations in Ontario from Larche Communications Inc., bringing the total number of stations in Bell’s iHeartRadio network to 109.
Larche’s The Dock- and KICX Country-branded stations in Ontario operate in Sudbury, Midland, Orillia and Owen Sound. Subject to CRTC approval, Bell Media will acquire the following four stations from Larche:
104.1 The Dock (CICZ-FM) — Classic hits format in Midland
92.3 The Dock (CJOS-FM) — Classic hits format in Owen Sound
KICX Country 91.7 (CICS-FM) — Country format in Sudbury
KICX Country 106 (CICX-FM) — Country format in Orillia
“We look forward to welcoming these award-winning…
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OTTAWA — After repeated requests for information have been ignored for two years by an air duct cleaning company alleged to have violated the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules, the CRTC announced Wednesday it has initiated a show cause proceeding against Topline Air Duct Cleaning Inc.
According to the CRTC’s Compliance and Enforcement Notice of Consultation CRTC 2017-281, Topline Air Duct Cleaning and its owner and president, Naveed Raza, failed to respond to a request for information (RFI) letter sent by the Commission on July 31, 2015. The RFI letter requested confirmation from Topline that it was registered with the National…
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Hearing panel make-up “procedurally unfair”, VMS argues
CALGARY, EDMONTON and OTTAWA — VMS Media Group Ltd., whose applications to operate urban Indigenous radio stations in Edmonton and Calgary were previously denied by the CRTC in June, is petitioning the Governor-in-Council to set aside the decision or refer it back to the Commission for reconsideration.
In its Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2017-198, the CRTC approved the licence applications of three broadcasters to operate Type B Native FM radio stations serving urban Indigenous communities in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto. In the same decision, the CRTC denied VMS Media Group’s applications…
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Bidding starts at $1.54 billion
OTTAWA – The auction of 600 MHz wireless spectrum, when it happens, will favour the smaller newcomers like Freedom Mobile and Vidéotron and looks to offer no payments to TV broadcasters which will be forced off the band.
While the Canadian bandwidth plan is to be harmonized with the United States (something we’ve known for a while), our auction for the valuable low frequency spectrum sure won’t be the same. In its consultation paper released late Friday (Ed note: right before the long weekend, so no questions, media!) Innovation, Science and…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU — The CRTC is getting a new partner in its fight against spammers and telemarketing pests with the announcement the Commission has signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office to combat commercial electronic messages and unwanted telemarketing calls.
The partnership between the two countries will promote close cooperation and a coordinated approach to enforcing spam and telemarketing laws in both jurisdictions to limit the amount of unsolicited emails and nuisance calls received by Canadian and U.K. residents, the CRTC said in a news release on Thursday.
As part of the agreement, both agencies agree to…
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TORONTO — The Writers Guild of Canada has joined the ongoing debate regarding the funding of programs of national interest (PNI) that has Canada’s creative community pitted against the country’s three largest broadcasters ever since the CRTC reduced minimum PNI spending requirements in its May broadcasting decision on group licence renewals.
Following on the heels of the Canadian Media Producers Association’s (CMPA) response earlier today to yesterday’s open letter to the CRTC by Bell Media, Corus Entertainment and Rogers Media, the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) released its own press release regarding PNI funding this afternoon.
Saying that…
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OTTAWA — The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) shot back at Canada’s English-language private broadcasters today after Bell Media, Corus Entertainment and Rogers Media released an open letter to the CRTC yesterday in which they asked the Commission to maintain status quo on recent broadcasting decisions.
In their letter, the big three broadcasters urged the Commission to stand firm on its recent decisions regarding reduced minimum spending requirements on programs of national interest (PNI) as part of the CRTC’s group licence renewal decision in May.
Bell, Corus and Rogers were responding yesterday to a joint open letter released…
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OTTAWA – While not mentioning the CRTC’s decision on programs of national interest (PNI) specifically, the three largest Canadian broadcasters have sent a letter to Canadian MPs (also printing it as a full page ad in the Parliament Hill newspaper The Hill Times), asking them to ignore the complaints of the creative community and let recent CRTC decisions stand.
The letter, signed by Bell Media president Randy Lennox, Corus Entertainment EVP and chief operating officer Barbara Williams and Rogers Media president Rick Brace says the CRTC undertook a years-long process to overhaul its TV regulations to try and prepare for…
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MONTREAL — As Bell Canada continues its appeal of the CRTC’s simultaneous substitution (simsub) ban for Super Bowl games, its chorus of supporters is growing even louder.
In a press release issued August 1, The National Football League, national union Unifor, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA) and the Canadian Media Directors’ Council (CMDC) all reaffirmed their support of Bell’s new application to the CRTC to suspend its simsub ban for Super Bowl LII in 2018 and permanently rescind the ban going forward.
As the new NFL season approaches, Bell…
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THE CORD-CUTTING ANALYSIS in Friday’s Summer Numbers: CRTC TV data dump highlights, lowlights says that 11.12 million households subscribed to cable, satellite or IPTV service in Canada in 2016, down only slightly – 3.5% – from 11.5 million in 2016.
I agree this doesn’t seem like a big drop over four years especially given the market changes in that period.
But when we look at the numbers relative to the total number of households in Canada, we see a different story emerge.
In 2011, there were 13.32 million occupied households in Canada per the census and 11.5 million…
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