Eastlink says it is suspending planned upgrades
By Ahmad Hathout
The federal government will not send back the CRTC’s decision to allow the three largest telecommunications companies to ride on the internet networks of others, pointing to competition and lower costs.
“Canada’s new government has a strong mandate to bring costs down and to build one, strong, Canadian economy – one that aligns with our core values as a nation,” Industry Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement late Wednesday.
“According to the policy direction, the CRTC is responsible for considering how its decisions affect all forms of competition and investment, as well…
Continue Reading
The CRTC wants answers from Bell and Rogers about recently reported incidents of misrouted calls and overheard conversations of phone customers in the Niagara Region.
An August 5 letter from the CRTC to the two telecom providers is in response to incidents reported in late July by organizations such as the City of Niagara Falls, which posted on X July 25 that phone lines at its city hall were experiencing issues that, in its case, appeared to be affecting Niagara Regional Broadband Network (NRBN) enterprise voice customers making or receiving…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has put out a contract for a supplier to provide it with broad audience measurement data for radio, television and online services.
The roughly $3-million, four-year contract, published Monday, asks for data on online services, including program and ad-break measurements to the minute (including 15-second granularity); national, provincial and market coverage; daily, weekly and monthly reporting; in- and out-of-home measurement; and comprehensive video/audio consumption for all devices and audiences ages two and up.
The CRTC is currently in the midst of implementing the new Broadcasting Act, which requires the commission regulate online platforms.
It is also asking for…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC conditionally approved Friday a plan of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) to administer a new temporary fund for the production of radio news in smaller markets.
The commission told the CAB – which pitched the plan at the request of the CRTC to fill a void in that space – that the Commercial Radio News Fund (CRNF) must be operational by August 31. The target markets for the fund are those outside of Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa-Gatineau.
To qualify, the CRTC has set the definition of news as outlined in a Continue Reading
Telco previously hinted at a minority sale in its cell tower portfolio
By Ahmad Hathout
Telus announced Friday that it has agreed to sell to a pension fund a minority stake in a separate entity that will carry its wireless infrastructure.
La Caisse, one of the largest pension funds in the country, will spend $1.26 billion on the 49.9 per cent interest in Terrion, a newly created cell tower operator headquartered in Montreal and headed by long-time Telus executive Eros Spadotto.
Terrion will manage about 3,000 tower sites across British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec and will generate money through wholesale rental. Telus…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
WildBrain has lost another undue preference case against a broadcaster it alleged was giving a leg up to its main competitor in the children’s programming space.
The CRTC on Thursday denied the Toronto-based media company’s September application to find Rogers was preferencing Corus’s services – Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and Nickelodeon – and those from Disney+ over its own by the way it marketed the services.
“Rogers as a BDU is carrying services from companies, including companies it competes with in other ways (such as Corus),” the CRTC said in its decision. “BDUs are permitted to make business…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Wednesday granted Cabin Radio an FM licence to serve Yellowknife and the surrounding areas, ending a long battle with a regulator that once said the market could not sustain another commercial station.
Cabin Radio’s licence to operate at 93.9 MHz will expire on August 31, 2031. It will have 24 months to launch.
“Cabin Radio’s proposal, which received broad local support on the public record and at the public hearing, meets the Commission’s requirements concerning commercial radio,” the CRTC said Wednesday. “Approving Cabin Radio’s proposal will add a new voice to the Yellowknife FM radio market…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has found that OneSoccer is owned, operated and controlled by Canadians, turning away a claim by Rogers that the cable giant was effectively negotiating a carry agreement with Spain’s Mediapro.
Rogers filed the complaint with the CRTC last summer, disputing an earlier finding by commission staff that said the OneSoccer service was operated by Canadians. Before that, in March 2023, the commission found that Rogers was giving itself an undue preference by refusing to carry the service in competition with its Sportsnet and Bell’s equivalent channels. Rogers had argued that…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Telus is admitting that it became aware of, but dealt with, a “small and isolated number” of “rogue” third-party representatives who were engaging on its behalf in the promotion of pirate IPTV services to get people to subscribe to its internet services.
In a statement of defense, filed Friday with the Ontario Superior Court and in response to an action commenced by Bell, the Vancouver-based telecom says it received a customer complaint in May about a representative who was promoting the illegal service.
“In accordance with TELUS’s standard escalation processes and before Bell commenced this action, TELUS immediately investigated…
Continue Reading
Media company eyeing 180-day carriage extension
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell is defending itself against a claim made by WildBrain that it improperly terminated its agreement to carry the media company’s services.
The claim in the Ontario Superior Court primarily centers on a notice Bell was contractually obligated to provide WildBrain that laid out that it did not want to auto renew their agreement to carry the Family Channel, Family Jr., WildBrainTV, and Télémagino services at the end of December 2022. That contract stipulated that the terms would otherwise auto renew after that first term of the four-year agreement.
In a statement of claim…
Continue Reading
