OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Underscoring its support of local content, the CRTC has set new minimum thresholds for local news on the country’s private TV broadcasters plus will establish a new fund for independent stations.
Announced Wednesday, the Commission’s new policy framework for local and community television offers the big private broadcasters flexibility to keep local stations open and fund the production of local news programming, a “rebalancing” that it says could make up to $67 million available for local news.
In addition, the CRTC will create the Independent Local News Fund, providing independent stations in Victoria, Prince George, Kamloops, Medicine Hat, Lloydminster,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC will consider broadcast licence renewal applications from Canada’s big English- and French-language ownership groups at two public hearings this November.
The Commission said Wednesday that it will review applications from French-language ownership groups Bell, Corus, Quebecor and Groupe V starting November 22 in Laval.
The public hearing to review the applications from the English-language ownership groups Bell, Corus and Rogers, plus Shaw Communications and Telelatino Network, will begin on November 28 at the CRTC’s headquarters in Gatineau.
The deadline for the submission of interventions/comments/answers is August 2, 2016.
www.crtc.gc.ca
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC will be recognized with a 2016 Public Service Award of Excellence this fall for its Let’s Talk TV initiative aimed at modernizing the Canadian television system.
The Public Service Award of Excellence recognizes employees who have demonstrated excellence in achieving results for Canadians and who reflect the priorities of the public service, while demonstrating key leadership competencies.
Commission employees will receive 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…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers-owned OMNI Television has filed an application with the CRTC for a new must-carry, multilingual and multicultural channel to be known as OMNI Regional.
The proposed national channel would be comprised of four feeds: Pacific, Prairies, and East, mirroring OMNI’s local stations in those regions, plus ICI Quebec via a strategic partnership with Montreal ethnic television station International Channel/Canal International (ICI) aimed at French-language ethnic communities in that province.
As part of its proposal, OMNI Television is asking for inclusion in basic TV packages (pursuant to section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act). Current local OMNI stations in Toronto, Edmonton,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is continuing its crackdown on telemarketers making robocalls, announcing Tuesday that it has dinged nine individuals and companies in several countries for calling Canadians whose numbers are registered on the National Do Not Call List.
The Commission said that its recent enforcement action has resulted in over $490,000 in penalties and one citation. A citation is a procedural administrative action that alleges violation(s) and notes the specific corrective action to be taken within a certain time frame.
Since January 2015, the CRTC, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office have been…
Continue Reading
Cord cutting intent strengthening, as is skinny basic awareness
TORONTO – According to new research from Toronto’s Solutions Research Group, Netflix now counts more than 5 million subscribing households in Canada, while nascent Canadian efforts CraveTV (owned by Bell Media) and Shomi (owned by Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications) together is estimated to have about one-seventh the number of subscribers.
The figures come from SRG’s ongoing Digital Life Canada syndicated research. For this edition, SRG interviewed 1,000 Canadians online in April 2016 using a professionally managed national online panel, says the release. The company has run Digital Life Canada each quarter…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Carriers, broadcasters, content providers and media companies wonder about what viewers want to consume these days as the digital world expands. So it was appropriate that a Canadian executive of one used food to talk about the future of traditional TV and new media.
“I think there's a lot of 'empty calories' in the televison space right now (with content) that people aren’t passionate about,” David Purdy, chief international growth officer at Vice Media, told the Canadian Telecom Summit on Wednesday (pictured with Corus Entertainment's Maria Hale).
“Ad dollars are going to shift to where people are passionate about…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has scolded Toronto-area telecom Iristel Inc. and American VoIP provider netTALK for their respective roles in a dispute earlier this year that resulted in approximately 75,000 Canadians losing their full phone services.
In a letter dated June 8, 2016 addressed to Iristel president and CEO Samer Bishay and netTALK COO Nicholas Kyriakides, the Commission said that its investigation in to the matter was “inconclusive as to whether one, or both parties, clearly contravened regulatory obligations”, but added that the service disconnection in this case could, and should, have been avoided.
“It does not seem that the parties…
Continue Reading
Sees no way to add video to Unlimited offer
TORONTO – Despite having spent $2 billion so far on spectrum, plus a network build, then an upgrade to LTE all between 2010 and now, Vidéotron sees more spending on the horizon as 5G approaches. So today its CEO called on the federal government to maintain “spectral balance” when formulating the rules around the next auction of low frequency spectrum in the 600 MHz range.
In a keynote speech to the Canadian Telecom Summit on Wednesday morning, Manon Brouillette noted the sheer pace of technological change in our industry, remembering she spoke…
Continue Reading
Commission should also call Quebec government on the carpet
TORONTO – The CRTC should bring back informal closed door meetings with the industry to improve the regulator's knowledge, cool down temperatures at formal hearings and allow some things to be said that are avoided in open hearings, said Mirko Bibic, Bell Canada’s chief legal and regulatory officer.
He made the suggestion Tuesday during the annual regulatory blockbuster panel at the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto, a session where provocative and entertaining arguments are often made.
“The (hearing) process has become ‘overly judicialized’,” Bibic (pictured, right, with PIAC's John Lawford) said. “I think…
Continue Reading
