GATINEAU – It looks as though a portion of a CRTC decision that flew under the radar for many people has wrecked what was an excellent promotional outlet for Canadian specialty services and charities.
In decision CRTC 2015-86, part of the Let’s Talk TV process, the Commission surprised the industry by tightening the rules surrounding how the two minutes of local advertising time made available each hour by U.S. channels such as CNN, A&E, Golf Channel and TLC could be used.
Dubbed “local avail” time, American cablecos and other pay TV carriers have turned the sales of…
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TORONTO – Corus Entertainment today announced it will sell French-language specialty channels Historia and Séries+ to Bell Media for approximately $200 million.
The sale is pending approval by the CRTC and the Competition Bureau and the two companies expect it to close mid-2018.
"In the 18 months since Corus acquired Shaw Media, we have demonstrated a resolute commitment to de-lever our balance sheet to 3.5 times net debt to segment profit by the end of fiscal 2017 and 3 times by the end of fiscal 2018," said Doug Murphy, president and CEO of Corus, in the company’s press release.
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GATINEAU – The CRTC will review applications for channels wishing to renew their places in the basic programming package of the country’s television service providers at a hearing starting April 30.
Currently, programming services that must be carried within the basic package include 9(1)(h) services, all local television stations, provincial educational services, community channels and provincial legislature channels, if available.
The Commission said Tuesday that it will examine applications by Cable Public Affairs Channel Inc. (CPAC), Accessible Media Inc., Pelmorex Weather Networks (Television) Inc., TV5 Quebec Canada, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Inc., Vues & Voix and The Legislative Assemblies of Nunavut and…
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GATINEAU – CRTC commisioner Christopher MacDonald’s persistent questioning on day one of the hearing into license renewals for several BDUs roughly translated to: “What’s taking so long with the set top box viewership data?”
Quebecor, Rogers, Shaw and Eastlink, all members of the Set Top box working group (check), each had very similar answers to MacDonald’s line of questions. Essentially the answers boiled down to: “What we’re doing is hard, pioneering, and with an uncertain business model, so yes, it’s a slow process.”
The group first met more than two years ago.
During the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV process,…
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LOS GATOS, Calif. – Global streamer Netflix continues its growth track, reporting in its Q3 results Monday that it is on track to earn more than US$11 million in revenue this year.
The company, which now boasts over 115 million worldwide customers, saw global streaming revenue in Q3 rise 33% year over year, driven by a 24% increase in average paid memberships. Operating income nearly doubled year-over-year to US$209 million. (All $ in USD.)
Thanks to its spending on original content (which company executives said yesterday will top $7 billion in 2018 alone while the press release notes Netflix has deals…
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TORONTO – New CRTC broadcasting vice-chair Caroline Simard (pictured) will make her first public address next month at the Ontario Association of Broadcasters (OAB) Connection 2017 annual conference and awards gala.
Before joining CRTC, Simard was a legal advisor for the Department of Justice with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's legal services since 2007. She worked in domestic law, notably on the Telecommunications Act, the Radiocommunication Act, Canada's anti-spam law, and on international telecommunications law.
Simard will be the keynote luncheon speaker at Connection '17, which will take place on Thursday, November 9 at the Marriott Toronto Airport Hotel.
www.oab.ca
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – The CRTC kicked off its part in the Broadcasting and Telecom Acts review Thursday by asking Canadians how they will access audio and video content in the coming years and its impact on the Canadian market.
The call for comments, the first phase of the proceeding, comes on the heels of the Governor-in-Council’s directive for a report due June 1st on future distribution models for Canadian programming, as well as its continued creation, production and distribution.
The Commission added that it intends to publish further documents and details on the second phase, based on the comments received in…
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GATINEAU – New CRTC chairman Ian Scott will preside over his first hearing in his new post beginning Monday morning – the second phase of the licence renewal process for terrestrial broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs).
Last year’s phase one was the Commission calling the carriers on the carpet to answer complaints that they were not properly marketing the CRTC-mandated skinny basic package or correctly selling channels a-la-carte, as told.
That hearing found that the carriers were operating within the rules as written and renewed their licenses for just one more year, so that an additional hearing…
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OTTAWA – Bell Canada and Rogers Communications showed off some different philosophies when it came to the federal government’s NAFTA negotiations when they appeared recently in front of a recent meeting of the Standing Committee on International Trade.
Rogers Cable vice-president, regulatory, Pam Dinsmore said in her opening remarks on September 20th that her company is concerned the trade talks will wander too far from its prior mandate and into copyright, which includes such issues as retransmitting U.S. over-the-air TV signals, Canada’s notice-and-notice regime for pirated online content, and our Copyright Modernization Act’s provisions for personal use and its…
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WHILE WE’VE MENTIONED it a couple of times during the 12 days (only 12!?) since Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly announced her Creative Canada vision, it seems the news that the federal government has decided to see if it can levy a tax on Internet service providers in order to help fund the production of Canadian content has been overlooked.
The initial proof of this came when the Governor-in-Council directed the CRTC to get cracking on a new report that will reveal: “a) the distribution model or models of programming that are likely…
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