TORONTO — Bloomberg TV Canada’s first year of operation has been one of growth and expansion, with distribution and advertising levels increasing monthly, the first of several news bureaus across the country coming online, and an “A-list” of newsmakers having appeared on the channel.
Despite not having carriage on Bell TV nor Bell Fibe, Bloomberg TV Canada executives say it has achieved distribution parity with its main business channel competitor, Bell-owned Business News Network (BNN). “We’re very happy, 12 months in, with the progress that we’ve made and the expansion that we’ve seen,” said Chris Fuoco, vice-president of sales and…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The CRTC will release its decision on basic telecommunications services late next Wednesday.
The Commission confirmed that it will stage a media “lock-up” from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM ET on December 21 at its Central Office, where “subject matter experts” will give an overview of the decision and answer questions. The decision itself will be released at 4 p.m. followed by a short statement by chairman Jean-Pierre Blais.
The main focus of 14 day basic service objective (BSO) public hearing, dubbed #TalkBroadband by the Commission, was determining Canada’s minimum target broadband speed, and to what…
Continue Reading
MARKHAM, ON – Iristel has not only denied Rogers’ allegations of traffic pumping, it says that the claims are “at best a result of recklessly poor due diligence and at worst, a vexatious fiction intended to injure Iristel’s business reputation”.
Rogers’ November 18 application accused Iristel of “being unjustly enriched by gaming the regulatory framework for local competition” by profiting from the higher local termination charges applicable in the Northwest Territories. In its December 2 response, Iristel said that excessive calling by a group of customers leading to correspondingly high call termination charges stem from Rogers’ own business decision…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Wireless upstart TNW Networks last week announced plans to launch a data-only smartphone-over-IP (SoIP) mobile service in Canada, billed as a high quality, low cost alternative to existing mobile services.
The CLEC said Friday that it will utilize Internet Personal Communication System (iPCS), its proprietary, patented, login-based mobile connectivity access technology, that provides Internet connectivity with voice and text services. The mobile service will be operated through its new subsidiary RuralCom Communications, acquired by TNW Networks Corp's parent company Investel Capital Corporation last week. Once that acquisition receives regulatory approved, RuralCom will operate as TNW…
Continue Reading
“Arbitrary and discriminatory”
WASHINGTON – In a letter to the Canadian Ambassador to the United States, the National Football League has taken the unusual step of asking the federal government, through its top diplomat in the U.S., to prevent the CRTC order suspending simultaneous substitution of the Super Bowl broadcast, from coming into effect.
Banning simultaneous substitution of the Super Bowl, annually the most-watched single TV show in Canada, was announced in January of 2015 as one of the first decisions to come out of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV process. Every year, some Canadians complain to the CRTC that they…
Continue Reading
(Notes on a Very Silly CRTC Dustup)
Did you hear the one where a six-figure-earning chair of the CRTC hijacked his own hearing to go after some guy who hurt his feelings on “The Twitter?”
In the world of content creation it wasn’t the most important twist to come out of the group license renewal hearing last week, but it sure was the most surprising.
Here’s what happened at the end of the Writers Guild of Canada executive director Maureen Parker’s thoroughly-researched presentation to CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais, on November 30:
THE CHAIRPERSON: Ms. Parker, we’ve known each other for a while. And,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is overhauling some of its regional office functions as the result of “a significant shift towards digital first”.
An internal memo sent to Commission employees Tuesday said that effective immediately, Client Services will be centralized at CRTC headquarters under web, creative and client services director Shannon Hines. In addition, a new virtual regional administrative support hub has been created for Commissioners, reporting to a secretariat at headquarters, which in turn will report to Dale Moore of the Secretary General’s office.
“This new model will afford the CRTC the opportunity to develop a more integrated approach to Client Services, enhance…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Telus is pulling the plug on its nomadic local VoIP service Telus Extend after the CRTC ordered it to add 9-1-1 emergency service by the end of the year.
“Enabling 9-1-1 on this service in such a short timeframe would be technically unworkable and cost-prohibitive”, a Telus spokesperson told Cartt.ca via email. “As a result, we won’t be able to continue the beta trial of Telus Extend, and customers will no longer have the option of making calls via WiFi on their wireless devices.”
Telus Extend is a downloadable mobile application available to select Telus mobility customers that allows them to…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC received only 30 consumer complaints regarding bandwidth throttling by their Internet service providers (ISPs) in 2016, down from 42 last year.
In its latest status report released Wednesday, the Commission said that it received 7 complaints regarding Internet Traffic Management Practices (ITMPs) in the fourth quarter between October 1 and December 31, 2015. Nine complaints were received in both the first and second quarter of this year, with six recorded in the third quarter ended September 30, 2016.
There are nine active complaints as of June 30, and 10 complaints were closed this quarter. Closed complaints include those where CRTC…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Videotron added two more music streaming services to its controversial Unlimited Music service.
The company said Tuesday that Napster and global music and entertainment platform Tidal have joined Unlimited Music, bringing the total number of supported apps to 17.
Unlimited Music, which allows Videotron Mobile customers to stream music using popular music apps without using up any of their data plan, prompted the CRTC’s recent hearing into differential pricing practices related to Internet and wireless data plans. A decision on that is expected in the first quarter of 2017.
“These additions to Unlimited Music will allow music-lovers to enjoy their…
Continue Reading
