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,…
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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
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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:…
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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…
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TORONTO – Ongoing subscriber growth at SiriusXM Canada helped to buoy third quarter revenues and profits.
For the period ended May 31, 2016, revenue increased 3.5% to $86.02 million, reflecting growth in its self-paying subscriber base partly offset by a decrease in Self-Pay ARPU, which dipped 1.2% to $12.71.
Net income and comprehensive income of $7.22 million was down 9.3% from $7.96 million year-over-year, mainly due to higher operating expenses and depreciation and amortization, partly offset by revenue improvements.
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter grew 3% to $20.8 million from $20.2 million in Q3 FY2015. The improvement was primarily due to revenue…
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Canadian TV industry doesn’t reflect that our values are unique
IN 1983, DORIS ROBERTS and James Coco appeared in an episode of the freshman season of the ground breaking medical drama St. Elsewhere. The episode, “Coco and Arnie,” would eventually net both actors Emmy Awards for their portrayals of an aging homeless couple. But the impact went far beyond the red carpet. Coco and Arnie caused shockwaves, sparked conversations, and helped to launch a shift in how people thought about the problem of homelessness.
It’s no surprise that TV influences social policy. It comes into our homes, and is watched –…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has ruled that Videotron’s proposed rate increase for carriage of French-language sports services RDS and RDS2 is “more reasonable” than that proposed by the channels’ parent Bell Media.
Once their own negotiations stalled, Videotron and Bell Media asked the Commission in April to initiate a final offer arbitration process on the per-subscriber wholesale rate to be paid by Videotron to Bell for distribution of the two services in a linear programming package.
After hearing final offers from both companies, the CRTC said Tuesday that Videotron’s offer is “the better offer”, after taking into account the relevant factors…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s television service providers saw their overall revenues dip 0.1% in 2015 amidst a continuing erosion of subscribers, according to the CRTC’s statistical and financial results for the industry released Tuesday.
Broadcasting Distribution Undertakings – Statistical and Financial Summaries 2011-2015 said that combined revenues remained steady at $8.9 billion, while subscribers fell from 11.4 million in 2014 to 11.2 million for the year ended August 31, 2015. Total expenses increased by 1.3% to $7.2 billion, and as a result, the sector's operating margin decreased to its lowest level in five years, but remained healthy at 19%.
Despite these…
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OTTAWA – The Ontario towns of Aurora and Georgina 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 Monday that it issued the call after receiving an application from Bhupinder Bola, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated, to serve Aurora, plus an application from Renfrew-based My Broadcasting Corporation to serve the Georgina market.
Interventions are due by August 10 and the deadline to file replies is August 22, 2016. …
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OTTAWA – Quebec’s new web-blocking legislation is not only unconstitutional, it directly conflicts with the Telecommunications Act, says the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC).
In a Part 1 application to the CRTC dated July 8, 2016, the consumer organization said that Bill 74, which requires Quebec-based Internet service providers to block certain gambling websites, “frustrates the Canadian telecommunications policy objectives expressed in s. 7 of the Telecommunications Act. Bill 74 also presents a compliance challenge to ISPs operating in Québec. Finally, Bill 74 threatens constitutionally-protected free speech.”
PIAC is calling on the CRTC to declare Bill 74 unconstitutional, ultra vires (beyond…
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