Indigenous broadcaster APTN announced Monday it is teaming up again with Rogers’s Sportsnet to bring a third season of Hockey Night in Canada in Cree to its viewers as well as three NHL games broadcast in Inuktitut for the first time.
Available on the APTN and APTN Languages channels, Hockey Night in Canada in Cree features play-by-play commentary from Clarence Iron, joined by analysts Earl Wood, John Chabot and Jason Chamakese. Hockey Night in Canada in Inuktitut will be hosted by Pujjuut Kusugak and David Ningeongan.
The games to be broadcast in Plains Cree will feature the Winnipeg Jets vs. the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Competition Bureau is suing Rogers at the Competition Tribunal for allegedly misleading customers by marketing its mobile wireless data as “unlimited” when speeds are throttled after the data cap has been exceeded.
“Rogers has made, and continues to make, representations to the public that convey the materially false or misleading general impression that Rogers Infinite Unlimited Plans offer unlimited and infinite data, allowing consumers to use as much data as they want, free from data limits,” the bureau claims in its tribunal application, filed Monday. “In fact, Rogers is providing plans whose high-speed data is limited to…
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By Connie Thiessen
WildBrain is selling its majority stake in its TV channels in a deal valued at $40 million.
The company announced Wednesday that independent, Halifax-based children’s studio IoM Media Ventures – led by former DHX Media CEO Dana Landry – will acquire 66 2/3 per cent of its television broadcast business, including Family Channel, Family Jr., WildBrainTV and Télémagino, pending CRTC approval.
Under terms of the agreement, WildBrain says it expects to receive more than $40 million over the next four years from the transaction. The deal is expected to close in three to six months, with WildBrain intending to…
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By Connie Thiessen
Total TV and film production volume was down by 18.5 per cent in Canada compared to last year, according to data released by the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA).
The report, Profile 2024: An Economic Report on the Screen-based Media Production Industry in Canada, indicates that between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, the media production sector in Canada created 179,130 jobs, and generated $9.58 billion in production volume, contributing $11.04 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2023/24.
Despite pandemic growth in 2021/22 and 2022/23, total production volume declined by 18.5 per cent in 2023/24, which the CMPA says…
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Application comes after CRTC also said Rogers can’t change Corus channel numbers
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC ruled in a confidential decision last month that Rogers must continue carrying certain Corus channels and refrain from altering their channel numbers, even after the cable giant obtained an Ontario court opinion allowing it to make unilateral changes under its carriage agreements, according to new documents filed by Rogers at the Federal Court of Appeal Thursday.
The CRTC’s rulings on November 18 and 29 resulted from a confidential application filed by Rogers earlier this year that sought to have the CRTC lift a standstill and…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The House committee on Industry is calling on the CRTC to launch a “full review of the matter of price certainty and the issue of surprise fees increasing during fixed term contracts” and to take regulatory action on it, according to a report that was delivered to the House floor last week.
The report also urges Industry Minister Francois Philippe-Champagne to “use his available powers in the interim to correct these unfair practices,” expresses “disappointment in Rogers Communications Inc. for not proactively disclosing the true costs of their products and services to consumers,” and “notes the detrimental impact…
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Rogers Communications last week announced it has received clearance from the Competition Bureau to proceed with its acquisition of Bell’s 37.5-per-cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE).
Rogers said the two telecom giants received a “no-action letter” on Dec. 12 from the Bureau, indicating the Commissioner of Competition will not challenge Rogers’s acquisition of Bell’s interest in MLSE, a deal announced in September and valued at $4.7 billion. The acquisition is still subject to league approvals and approval from the CRTC.
MLSE owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC and Toronto…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Federal Court of Appeal ruled Monday that the major foreign streamers may have a legitimate grievance against the imposition by the CRTC of a base financial contribution levied on them to support Canadian content.
The high court granted a hearing to Apple, Amazon, Spotify, and the Canadian affiliate of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) – which represents Netflix, Paramount, Pluto, and Crunchyroll – after the parties filed their own applications against the proposed June decision, which was finalized in August. The court consolidated all the leave applications before making the decision.
In approving the applications,…
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By Connie Thiessen
The CRTC has issued an order prohibiting Gill Broadcasting from illegally operating a South Asian radio station in Winnipeg.
The decision follows numerous complaints from Winnipeg multi-ethnic station CKJS-FM, owned by Evanov Communications, over the past eight years that a tourist information station was carrying on programming without a broadcast licence. Gill Broadcasting, helmed by Gill and Baldev Gill, had been operating CKYG-FM Winnipeg at 90.5 MHz as an exempt low-power tourist information radio station.
Following a hearing last month, the commission has barred the Gills from having any involvement with any broadcast undertaking that isn’t in full compliance…
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By Connie Thiessen
The CRTC has released the mandatory bargaining framework that will apply when major online platforms and eligible Canadian news organizations negotiate agreements under the Online News Act.
The Act sets out a mandatory bargaining process that stipulates that if the two sides cannot come to an agreement during a 90-day bargaining period and 120-day mediation period, a final 45-day arbitration period would follow where a panel of independent arbitrators will select the final offer made by one of the parties. The commission will serve in an oversight role to ensure parties participate in good faith.
To allow…
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