OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The first part of the CRTC’s 2016 Communications Monitoring Report, released this morning, says Canadians are consuming more audio and video content on digital media and over devices connected to the Internet. Twenty percent of Canadians report listening to online music streaming services, and 57% of Anglophones and 49% of Francophones report watching online TV, it says.
In general, Canadians are still listening to traditional radio, however, a closer look at the data shows a troubling trend that younger Canadians have far different listening habits than other age groups. In fact, those between 12 and 24 years…
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OTTAWA – In a decision released earlier this month, the Federal Court of Appeal said it would hear an application made by the Attorney General of Canada to set aside the September decision by Justice Russell Zinn who said a finding of workplace harassment against former Ontario CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan was unfair.
Click here for our coverage of the case.
The application for appeal said judge Zinn erred in a number of decisions which led to his ruling and an appeal will be heard in Toronto at a date yet to be determined.
Then, on Monday,…
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GATINEAU – The annual and much-anticipated CRTC Communications Monitoring Report (CMR) will be released this week, according to the Commission.
The report, which will be released over at least two days, provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the communications markets in Canada in 2015.
It provides the industry, stakeholders and the Canadian public with a meaningful tool to help them better understand the communications industry and participate in the CRTC’s proceedings, says the Regulator.
Watch Cartt.ca for news from this year’s report. Link here, here and here…
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GATINEAU – Steven Harroun has been promoted to chief compliance and enforcement officer, the CRTC announced today. He joined the CRTC in 2002 and has held various positions in the former economic analysis and research group and later in the former policy development and research sector.
Since 2012, as director general, strategic policy within CASP, “he has lead the development and implementation of key Commission policy decisions including: the Wireless Code, Video Relay Service, Broadcast Emergency Alerting, and Broadband Performance Measurement,” said CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais in a memo to staff Monday.
He replaces Manon Bombardier, who has held the position…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Eight CRTC employees were honoured at a ceremony Thursday in Ottawa for the Commission’s Let’s Talk TV initiative.
The Commission staffers received an award in the category of Excellence in Policy for their leadership and dedication in engaging and consulting more than 13,000 citizens and stakeholders in a number of innovative ways, including flash conferences, social media, an interactive Choicebook questionnaire and online discussion forums.
Launched in October 2013, the CRTC said that Let’s Talk TV: A Conversation with Canadians was one of its most comprehensive and complex public consultations and broadcasting policy reviews to date. The decisions flowing…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC cracked down on three Vancouver-area radio broadcasters Thursday after determining that they operated radio stations without a broadcast licence and contrary to an exemption.
Surrey Myfm Inc. and 89.3 Surrey City FM Ltd. operate low-power tourist information stations in the Surrey market, while Sur Sagar Radio Inc. operates a low-power house of worship station. All three were called to the Commission’s Vancouver radio hearing in May to defend their current operations and to prove that they were still eligible for exemptions.
The CRTC issued four mandatory orders to Surrey Myfm (Myfm) and Ravinder Singh Pannu,…
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Radio legend Alan Cross to be creative director
TORONTO – Vintage TV announced this morning its entrance to the Canadian market.
Launching today, Vintage TV Canada is available exclusively on Shaw Cable on channel 178 (channel 140 in Winnipeg), Shaw Direct Classic on channel 519, and Shaw Direct Advanced on channel 219.
Vintage TV, which has been a successful brand for six years in the U.K., offers “multiple touch points across a variety of platforms built around strategic partnerships,” says the company’s press release.
“Vintage TV Canada is forging these relationships across different industries in Canada, from music labels, music awards and satellite…
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MONTREAL – There may yet be hope that a group of Montreal-based entrepreneurs will launch a pair of news-talk AM radio stations in Montreal almost five years after the first was approved for a licence by the CRTC. Cartt.ca covered this back in July, saying then a launch looked unlikely.
Nicolas Tétrault, one of the partners in 7954689 Canada Inc. (known as TTP Media), posted (and then deleted) a video to YouTube last week announcing that the company has acquired dormant transmission equipment on the Kahnawake native reserve south of Montreal from Cogeco Media, and that…
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CHATHAM, ON – Canadian consumers understand and support the CRTC’s recent decision to cut wholesale Internet prices in Canada, says a new survey commissioned by independent telecom provider TekSavvy Solutions.
TekSavvy, who along with other independent broadband operators have long said the wholesale rates set by incumbent telco and cablecos are too high, said that it undertook the survey to get a better sense of whether consumers understood that the Commission’s changes to wholesale high-speed access rates would benefit them, too.
The company tapped Twentify Inc. to collect 420 responses in Ontario and Quebec, between October 10 – 12, 2016,…
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OTTAWA – Sudbury, ON won’t have a new radio station anytime soon after the CRTC determined that the market cannot sustain any additional new commercial radio stations at this time.
The Commission said Friday that it will therefore return the application from Larche Communications for a new English-language commercial radio station to serve that market, and will not issue a call for new applications.
Located 65 kilometres north of Lake Huron and 115 kilometres west of North Bay, the city of Sudbury is currently served by six commercial radio stations.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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