LAVAL – “There’s so much discussion of flexibility that you’d think we were at a yoga club,” cracked CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais during day one of the license renewal hearing for Canada’s French-language TV broadcasters.
The broadcasters, as is their wont, called for more flexibility and reduced quotas for Canadian programming – and both Quebecor Media and Groupe V Média took shots at the national public broadcaster, even though it’s not part of the hearing.
“We’re worried about the fact that Radio-Canada continues to stray from its mandate to adopt a resolutely commercial approach,” said TVA president Julie Tremblay (pictured), in…
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Also offers up new best practices: PIAC says not far enough
GATINEAU – While noting Canadian subscription TV carriers are operating within the rules, the CRTC made the unprecedented decision to renew the large carriers' broadcast distribution undertaking licenses for just a single year, as opposed to the usual seven-year term.
To the CRTC, this continues its efforts to put consumers at the centre of the Canadian broadcasting system. In the November 21 decision, the Regulator offered what it sees as the best practices that broadcast distributors should undertake to ensure that Canadians are aware of small basic packages, their limits and offers related to them.
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TORONTO – Bell Media told an Ontario Superior Court of Justice this week that VMedia is in breach of its agreement to distribute Bell Media content, in part because the small company is using the public internet instead of a private managed network to distribute content.
In September, VMedia launched an app on OTT streaming ecosystem Roku that will enable subscribers to stream live over-the-air television stations, like CTV and CTV2, to anyone with an Internet connection and a Roku device.
VMedia, which filed the affidavit with the court in October to avoid a lawsuit, maintains it is not using the public…
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Minister Bains wouldn’t say, except perhaps between the lines
OTTAWA – It’s been nearly seven months since Bell Canada announced an agreement to buy Manitoba Telecom Services for $3.9 billion and still there has been no official word from the federal government on what it thinks of the deal.
The Competition Bureau is the primary regulator Bell has to satisfy with this purchase, but since the Bureau doesn’t do public hearings the way the CRTC does, we really don’t know what it is telling BCE officials about the deal, or the questions it has, but the six-plus…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that will see the two regulators work more collaboratively on the growing threat that unwanted robocalls pose to citizens in Canada and the United States.
This agreement will enable the CRTC and the FCC to facilitate research and education related to robocalls and illegitimate caller ID spoofing, says Thursday's press release. “The organizations have also committed to sharing knowledge and expertise through training programs and staff exchanges, as well as inform each other of legal developments in their respective jurisdictions,” it reads.
The agreement, signed…
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AFTER HIS SPEECH TO IIC Canada Wednesday afternoon in Ottawa, we sat down with CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais for a quick chat about his talk – and a few other things.
What follows is an edited transcript, lightly edited for clarity
Greg O’Brien: That was an aggressive speech, from my point of view. Was that a goodbye?
Jean-Pierre Blais: No, I don’t think it’s a goodbye. I said what we would be doing and I was taking stock of where we were at, four years later.
GOB: Are you looking to be renewed (as CRTC chairman)?
JPB: That’s not my…
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CRTC chair looks back, and ahead, and finds industry is lagging
OTTAWA – “We as a nation have to stop spinning our wheels on legacy issues and embrace where we’re heading,” CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said Wednesday in a strongly worded speech to delegates at the International Institute of Communications Canadian chapter conference.
“We have to get ahead of the curve. I repeat, we have to get ahead of the curve,” he said in a 30-minute address that was, more or less, a self-assessment on his nearly four-and-a-half years at the helm of the Commission. Blais said at this same conference four…
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PHOENIX – Legendary Canadian cable pioneer Israel “Sruki” Switzer died at his home in Phoenix late Wednesday afternoon of a heart attack. He was 87.
Switzer, while perhaps not as well known as some other pioneers, had his fingerprints all over the development of cable and telecom networks built across this country and around the world. Respected as a visionary among those whom he helped build these networks, as well as something of a maverick (and a speech he made in 2010 certainly confirms that), Switzer also earned some fame as the…
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YELLOWKNIFE – SSi Micro is expressing cautious optimism over the CRTC’s plans to review Northwestel’s fibre backbone service rates in the hopes that it may result in greater telecom competition in the Western Arctic.
The company, which is currently building a 4G-LTE and 2G wireless network in Nunavut, claims that Northwestel’s wholesale terrestrial backbone monopoly has allowed it to charge competitors wholesale rates that are up to 30 times higher than in Southern Canada, and several times higher than Northwestel’s own retail Internet pricing.
“For SSi, fair and open access to backbone transport service is essential to develop a dynamic…
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OTTAWA – According to sources close to the process, Judith A. LaRocque, a former long-serving deputy minister of Canadian Heritage, will very soon be announced as the new vice-chair broadcasting at the CRTC by the federal government.
(UPDATE: Since our original report Sunday, the CRTC has since confirmed LaRocque's appointment. See below. Update #2: Click here for the official order-in-council.)
Cartt.ca has learned that LaRocque has been appointed for an initial six-month term – and that she will begin immediately as her hiring was expedited due to the French-language TV license renewal hearing beginning November 22 in Laval….
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