The Société professionnelle des auteurs, compositeurs du Québec et des artistes entrepreneurs (SPACQ-AE) has launched MUSIQC, a free music listening space dedicated to promoting and showcasing French-language music.
Acting as a discoverability portal, MUSIQC leverages users’ pre-existing subscriptions to online music services to offer them a way to discover, rediscover and listen to French-language works, at no additional cost, by providing a wide selection of playlists curated by a specialized, dedicated and human programming team, a SPACQ-AE press release says.
MUSIQC was created in response to the challenges faced by francophone music in a globalized market dominated…
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The CRTC on Tuesday opened a proceeding to review Rogers Communications’ acquisition of NBA TV (Canada) as part of the cable giant’s larger acquisition of Bell Canada’s 37.5-per-cent ownership stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE).
After announcing its proposed $4.7-billion deal with Bell in September, Rogers applied in November for authority to acquire control of Toronto Raptors Network Ltd. (TRNL), licensee of the English-language NBA TV (Canada) discretionary service, according to the CRTC’s broadcasting notice of consultation posted to its website Feb. 18.
The proposed change in ownership and effective control of NBA…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Bell is laying the blame at the feet of Rogers for why it is not carrying certain channels that utilize American programming rights the cable company obtained in the summer.
The broadcaster alleged to Cartt late last week that it is Rogers that isn’t budging on negotiations with respect to the carriage of Rogers’s Discovery and Investigation Discovery (I.D.) and other channels.
“The assertion that Bell is refusing to carry these channels is incorrect,” a Bell spokesperson told us. “We have offered to carry these channels a la carte and we are open to them making a reasonable offer,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Thursday approved the transfer of 21 English-language commercial radio stations in British Columbia to Vista Radio.
“The Commission finds that approving this transaction is in the public interest, as it will help ensure that the stations continue to serve the various communities in British Columbia,” the commission said in its decision. “These stations will be operated by a new commercial licensee who is committed to showcasing a diversity of voices and emerging Canadian musical artists and providing local programming to the communities.”
The regulator also approved licences, until August 31, 2030, for Vista to operate these…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Telus CEO Darren Entwistle said in many words Thursday he expects the CRTC to reaffirm its decision to allow the three largest telecoms in the country to have access to the wholesale internet regime, and that some of the company’s decisions in the east will depend on it.
“We’re going to make the bold assumption,” Entwistle began during a fourth-quarter conference call with analysts, “that regulatory decisions pronounced by the CRTC after a comprehensive and rigorous and exhaustive process, where the diversity of voices was consulted in terms of all stakeholder constituency groups, where the documentation of the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers is accusing Bell of refusing to carry channels crafted out of new American rights it acquired in the summer.
The cable giant alleges its Discovery and Investigation Discovery (I.D.) channels are being subject to a double standard by the rival broadcaster: while Bell, the second-largest broadcaster, complains that Rogers wants to push its new USA Network and Oxygen True Crime channels down the dial, the former allegedly doesn’t even want to carry the channels that are intended to replace them.
“Granting Bell’s requested relief is unquestionably not in the public interest and would perpetuate asymmetrical treatment of Bell…
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The CRTC has asked LGBTQ+ TV broadcaster and streamer OUTtv for additional information as the commission considers an October 2024 application to grant OUTtv must-carry status with a guaranteed wholesale rate of 12 cents per subscriber per month.
In a letter dated Jan. 29, the CRTC asks OUTtv CEO Brad Danks if the company would find it acceptable if the commission were to grant OUTtv mandatory distribution on digital basic service by all BDUs with more than 2,000 subscribers in English markets, but without the option to negotiate package and rates with the BDUs.
The…
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Freedom Mobile announced Tuesday it is expanding its selection of wireless rate plans in Manitoba to include larger data buckets at affordable prices.
Freedom said it has added three new 60 GB rate plans along with new Roam Beyond features on existing in-market plans in the province. Manitoba customers can now choose Freedom’s $39/mo. (with Digital Discount) 60 GB plan, which includes a one-time 5 GB Roam Beyond data allotment that can be used while travelling in more than 100 destinations worldwide. The other new 60 GB plans, priced at $49 and $59 per month (after Digital…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Competition Bureau’s deceptive marketing practices lawsuit against Rogers unfairly singles out the cable company’s “unlimited” wireless plans, cherry-picks out-of-context material, and doesn’t square with the fact that the plans have followed CRTC rules since they launched in the summer of 2019, according to the company’s reply submission to the Competition Tribunal.
The competition watchdog late last year filed a suit alleging Rogers has for years been misleading Canadians with its ‘Infinite’ mobile wireless plans, which it claims gave customers the impression that they were getting unlimited high-speed data when the speed of the data…
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CNOC calls move “disappointing” but not surprising
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell CEO Mirko Bibic announced Thursday the telco is again cutting its fibre buildout target after the CRTC earlier this week refused to ban the largest internet service providers from using its last-mile fibre network in Ontario and Quebec.
Bibic said the company is now targeting less than 8.3 million homes for direct fibre by the end of this year.
“This decrease in our fibre buildout is a direct result of the CRTC’s refusal to ban Telus and other large carriers from reselling the FTTP network we’ve built,” Bibic said in a fourth-quarter…
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