TORONTO — Specialty channel operator Anthem Sports & Entertainment announced Tuesday it is acquiring The GameTV Corporation, currently held by Kilmer Enterprises Inc., for an undisclosed price.
“We are delighted to have GameTV become part of the Anthem organization,” Leonard Asper, CEO of Anthem, said in a news release to announce the proposed acquisition. “We think it’s a terrific fit because in addition to the financial upside, it will provide scale for Anthem, creating greater programming options, new advertising and marketing opportunities, expansion onto digital platforms, as well as operating efficiencies.”
Anthem currently operates the Fight Network and FNTSY Sports Network…
Continue Reading
Too expensive to fix transmitter site
LONDON and GATINEAU – Bell Media will soon shut down London’s CKSL AM, currently operating as comedy station Funny 1410.
The company has turned in the station license to the CRTC because of the costs required to bring its decaying transmitter site up to code outweigh any benefits. “A technical review of the transmitter site was recently completed both by Bell Media and contractors, which has resulted in the determination that the AM array poses an unacceptable risk from a health and safety perspective. The five towers are experiencing serious structural degradation and also require…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The CRTC is asking for feedback from Canadians as it launches a review of its Wireless Code of Conduct.
The Wireless Code, which came into effect December 2, 2013, was designed to make it easier for consumers and small businesses to understand their contracts for cellphones and other mobile devices, plus outline their basic rights. The Commission said then that it would review the Code’s effectiveness within three years of its implementation.
The CRTC on Thursday issued a call for comments on the effectiveness of the Code and how the Code should be updated to reflect the evolution of…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Five years ago, during a surprisingly competitive CRTC process to award new commercial AM radio stations in Montreal, one independent group burst onto the scene with grand promises to revolutionize the industry. Within two years, the three investors had acquired three licences for AM talk stations and the industry was filled with hope of new jobs and new alternatives to incumbent stations owned by major corporations.
But five years later, the group has nothing to show for it. It has already lost one of its three licence authorizations, and in November will lose the other two if it…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC is reminding Canadian businesses and individuals that send commercial electronic messages (CEMs) to keep records of consent consistent with the country’s anti-spam legislation (CASL).
In an enforcement advisory issued Wednesday, the Commission said that it has observed that some businesses and individuals are unable to prove they have obtained consent before sending CEMs, noting that the onus of proving consent always remains with the person(s) sending, causing or permitting the sending of CEMs.
According to the CRTC's guidance on corporate compliance programs and guidance on consent and how to prove consent, senders of commercial…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC’s new policy framework for local and community television is a “crippling blow” to Canada’s community TV industry, says the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
The new policy framework, released June 15, sets new minimum thresholds for local news on the country’s private TV broadcasters plus seeks to establish a new fund for independent stations. But CACTUS, which appeared at the CRTC’s hearings in to local and community TV, was critical of the new Independent Local News Fund which it says “redirects money for community TV to private news production in a…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – In an effort to boost its audiences, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) has asked the CRTC for scheduling and programming flexibility for its national HD feed.
APTN says that the proposed licence amendment would enable its HD service to “provide more value and better meet its mission of building bridges and greater understanding between Aboriginal peoples and the broader Canadian population”. An associated increase in the size of the channel's audience could result “in a projected increase in advertising revenue (all national) of approximately $1 million annually”, continues the application.
In addition to its one national HD feed,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Ottawa’s blues and rock station 101.9 DAWG FM (CIDG-FM) may soon sound a little different.
While renewing the broadcasting licence for the Torres Media Ottawa-owned station through August 31, 2023, the CRTC also deleted CIDG-FM’s condition of licence relating to the broadcast of Canadian jazz and blues selections, noting a requirement in this regard is now set out in the Radio Regulations, 1986.
The Commission also approved the broadcaster’s request to delete a condition of licence relating to the broadcast of special interest music, but denied its request to delete conditions of licence regarding the broadcast of Canadian popular music selections.
www.crtc.gc.ca
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Five Canadian ethnic broadcasters have written a letter to the CRTC saying Rogers Media’s application to make OMNI-TV a national, must-carry specialty service is off-side.
Last month, when the CRTC made public the license renewal applications for the major Canadian broadcasters (which it will hear in November), Rogers had filed an application that caught the industry by surprise: It has asked the CRTC for a new license for a must-carry, multilingual and multicultural specialty channel to be known as OMNI Regional.
The proposed national channel would be comprised of four feeds:…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Telecom service provider Axsit is up for sale despite continuing breach its obligations to customers and to Commissioner of Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS), says the CCTS.
In an update to its warning issued earlier this month, CCTS said that Axsit owner Peter Sliwka is attempting to sell the Mississauga-based company which he claims has 1,000 customers. In an email to prospective purchasers, he writes that “Many of these clients can be up-sold and converted into double and triple play bundles”, according to CCTS.
CCTS says Sliwka was previously the principal of VOIPGO, a telecom service provider against which the…
Continue Reading
