GATINEAU – After four and a half days of a hearing on differential pricing practices, Quebecor Media Inc. took the stand on Friday to defend its Vidéotron Unlimited Music offering. In a nutshell, the company said it’s not acting as a gatekeeper and therefore not contravening the Telecommunications Act, but rather using innovation to offer its customers more services.
Unlimited Music is nothing more than a marketing instrument at aimed at growing its subscribers and targeting a younger demographic, QMI said in its opening remarks. It added the service doesn’t contravene the Internet Traffic Management Practices (ITMP) framework just…
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OTTAWA – Canadians continued to cut the TV cord in record (if still pretty small) numbers since launch of a CRTC-mandated skinny basic TV package on March 1st.
In the two fiscal quarters since phase one of the Commission’s new consumer choice policy came into effect (which mandated a $25 skinny basic package of over-the-air stations and must-carry channels and the launch of smaller, theme packs of channels), Canada’s publicly traded TV service providers combined lost approximately 98,500 TV subscribers, according to new research and analysis from Ottawa-based research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services.
That’s a loss of 11,500…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is calling on the country’s telcos to step up and help clamp down on the number of unwanted telemarketing calls plaguing Canadians.
The Commission told telecommunications service providers (TSPs) on Monday that they have 90 days to develop technical solutions to block blatantly illegitimate nuisance calls within their networks by working the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC). These calls include those that appear to originate from telephone numbers that (i) match the telephone number of the person being called; (ii) are “spoofed” with a number that is local to the person being called, in the…
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OTTAWA – The Ontario city of Brampton and St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador may soon each have a new radio station after the CRTC issued a call for comments on market capacity and on the appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications to serve the two areas.
The Commission said Friday that it issued the calls after receiving applications from Priya Datta, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated, and Antoine Karam, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated, each for a commercial ethnic station to serve Brampton. It also received an application from Andrew Green and Jordan…
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TORONTO and VANCOUVER – South Asian Broadcasting Corporation announced today it has completed the purchase of CIRC Radio Inc., the company which operates the Toronto FM radio station CIRV-FM, 88.9 known as “Toronto’s Multicultural Super Mix”.
Surry, B.C.’s SABC is controlled by Kulwinder Sanghera and also operates CKYE-FM, 93.1, serving the Greater Vancouver Region. Sanghera also controls CKYR-FM, 106.7 Calgary. Both are multicultural radio stations are known to listeners as RED FM.
“I am honored to continue the broadcasting legacy started three decades ago by a Canadian pioneer of ethnic broadcasting, Mr Alvarez,”said Sanghera, in a press release. Financial details were…
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GATINEAU – Differential pricing can benefit a broad range of players in the communications market, Telus told the CRTC on the fourth day of its DPP hearing, but just don’t let the vertically integrated (VI) entities use their “unnatural incentives” to give themselves an advantage.
“Since differential pricing practices increase the size of the market, they allow both carriers and content providers to spread these fixed costs over a larger number of consumers. This process has produced, and should continue to produce, newer and better services at stable or falling prices throughout the Internet ecosystem,” said Dr. Jeffrey Eisenach, managing…
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HALIFAX – DHX Media has received CRTC approval to allow broadcast advertising on Family Channel, effective immediately.
Historically an ad-free pay-TV service, Family offers Canadian and acquired series, movies and specials, and also airs teen-focussed content after 9:00 PM on F2N. Subscribers also have access to the Family Channel app, Family OnDemand and Family Online.
"DHX Media welcomes the CRTC's decision to permit all specialty and pay television services to broadcast advertising," said DHX Television SVP and GM Joe Tedesco, in a statement Thursday. “It represents the next logical step in the implementation of the Let's Talk TV decision, when genre…
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OTTAWA – The Ottawa-Gatineau region may soon have a new radio station after the CRTC issued a call for comments on market capacity and on the appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications in that market.
The Commission said Thursday that it issued the call after receiving an application from Antoine Karam, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated, for a commercial ethnic radio station to serve that region.
Interventions are due by December 5 and the deadline to file replies is December 15, 2016. Following receipt of comments, the CRTC said that it will conduct an assessment of the market’s capacity…
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WINNIPEG – Manitoba Telecom Services reported its Q3 results today, showing increases in revenue, cash flow and EBITDA while it patiently waits to hear from the CRTC and the federal government whether or not the announced $3.9 billion acqusition by BCE can move forward.
"We have made substantial progress on our transformational initiatives in Q3. Having just completed the first year of a three-year program, we have now identified nearly two-thirds of the $100 million in expected free cash flow improvements, and this, combined with our strong operational performance has generated strong year-over-year growth in free cash flow," said Jay…
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OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal said Wednesday it will hear Bell Media’s re-filed appeal of the CRTC’s January 2015 decision to ban the practice of simultaneous signal substitution for the Super Bowl broadcast.
In September, the court rejected the company’s appeal of the decision, saying it had come for an appearance too soon – before the CRTC officially issued the order for the new policy. The Commission took 19 months between the decision and officially issuing the order in August of this year, a delay Bell called “extraordinary.”
The ban on…
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