OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC said Thursday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to fight commercial electronic messages (spam) and telemarketing.
The agreement, signed by CRTC chairman and CEO Jean-Pierre Blais and ACMA acting chairman Richard Bean, allows the two agencies to share information and intelligence, where permitted by the laws of each jurisdiction, regarding spam. In addition, both organizations have agreed to facilitate virtual training opportunities and staff exchanges where mutually beneficial.
“Whether you live in Canada or in Australia, unlawful spam and unwanted calls continue to be bothersome”, said the…
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ACA, ACTRA join appeal of CRTC’s rule
WASHINGTON – The National Football League is urging the U.S. government to “retaliate” against Canada for the CRTC directive setting aside simultaneous substitution during the broadcast of the Super Bowl in Canada.
In comments provided to U.S. Department of Commerce over causes of significant trade deficits for 2016, the NFL accuses Canada of violating copyright protections owed to the United States under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
“Canada's discrimination against the NFL clearly violates NAFTA's intellectual property Protections”, reads the May 10 letter, addressed to Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee Secretariat director Patrick Kirwan. “In particular,…
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TORONTO – Canada’s media unions and associations were united in their criticisms of the CRTC’s broadcast policy changes and licence renewals announced Monday.
Unifor, which represents 12,000 journalists and media workers in television, newspapers, magazines, news websites and film production, said that the decision will allow major broadcasters to make further cuts to local news programming, and called on the federal government to intervene.
"The time for fine speeches from Jean-Pierre Blais about big media's corporate responsibility is over”, said Unifor media director Howard Law, in a statement. “A cabinet directive is needed to do for local TV…
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REGINA – Count SaskTel among those opposed to the CRTC’s proposed plan to phase-out the local service subsidy regime.
The local voice service subsidy was designed to keep wireline voice service affordable in high cost serving areas. The CRTC’s preliminary view is that customers with access to wired Internet at speeds as low as 1.5 Mbps have access to “reliable broadband Internet access service” which can replace traditional voice service and that these customers no longer need the voice subsidy.
SaskTel said that it agrees with the CRTC’s decision to establish a universal fixed broadband service standard for all…
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Will be harder to close stations
GATINEAU – The CRTC has tweaked broadcasting policy in Canada by standardizing Canadian Programming Expenditure (CPE) requirement at 30% for the country’s major private broadcasters. It has also imposed new spending requirements for local reflection news and information programming, commitments to Aboriginal and Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs) as well as established a new process for TV station closures.
On the latter point, Broadcasting Decision 2017-148 highlighted the various opinions from the broadcasters with respect to a formal Commission process for station closures. Bell Media opposed a condition of licence, while Corus Entertainment didn’t object…
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New competitive call and hearing coming
GATINEAU – The CRTC today approved Rogers Media’s request that its OMNI-branded multicultural TV stations be converted to a must-carry, regionalized, specialty service – but only as an interim measure.
OMNI Regional, as of this September, is added to the digital basic service with mandatory carriage, as per section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act, with a wholesale fee to distributors of $0.12 per subscriber per month. It's license is for three years only.
While making sure OMNI lives on (Rogers executives had all but said during the license renewal hearing they would close the stations without this switch) the…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU – The CRTC will announce its decisions on the license renewals for the large French-language ownership groups and large English-language ownership groups on Monday at 4:00 PM ET.
The Commission will also unveil its decision on Rogers Media’s request to approve the mandatory distribution of OMNI Regional on all digital basic TV packages.
Those decisions were originally intended to be released this week, but were postponed due to ongoing flooding in the region, as Cartt.ca reported.
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HALIFAX – The pending arrival of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang is expected to boost the bottom line at DHX Media, which saw third quarter profits and revenues sink, the kids content producer, distributor and broadcaster said Wednesday.
Revenues for Q3 2017 of $78.35 million fell 7% from $84.10 million in the same period last year but slightly ahead of expectations, reads the company’s news release. In absolute dollars, the decrease was due largely to expected declines, in line with quarterly targets, in DHX Television, consumer products-represented revenues, consumer-products owned, proprietary production and producer and service fees, offset…
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DARTMOUTH – Newcap Radio owner Newfoundland Capital Corporation said Wednesday that flagging advertising rates and Alberta’s ongoing economic uncertainty helped to weigh down first quarter revenues and profits.
For the period ended March 31, 2017, revenues of $35.7 million were 3% lower than the same period last year, primarily due to revenue declines in the Alberta markets due to continued economic uncertainty in that region and declines in Ottawa due to downward pressure on advertising rates.
Profit for the period plunged 35% to $3.0 million year-over-year due to lower revenue and a higher provision for income taxes. Earnings before interest, taxes,…
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OTTAWA – Thirty-four campus and community radio stations will receive over $1.4 million from the latest round of funding of the Community Radio Fund of Canada’s (CRFC) Radiometres program.
The CRFC said that the funded projects will enhance local programming, attract and train volunteers, and increase community participation. Several of the projects revolve around local news, various partnerships between stations, schools and local organizations, the creation of a LGBTQ program, an audio art project, and an initiative focused on reconciliation A list of the 34 recipients is available here.
CRFC president Roger Ouellette said that the record number of applications…
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