LEST YOU BE IN DOUBT that the CRTC believes it has authority over video delivered across the Internet, I refer you to the transcript of the hearing currently underway in Hull regarding the policy framework for local and community television.
In this portion the Chairman took issue with the way the counsel for Cogeco, Yves Mayrand, was speaking about the "unlicensed" portion of the broadcasting system, but this term includes the Internet, as I will explain. Yves Mayrand had referred to it as "unregulated" during the company’s appearance last Tuesday.
Mayrand said:
Now with respect to the notion that…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC’s National Do Not Call List continued to grow last year though Canadians lodged fewer complaints, according to the annual report released Monday.
During the 2014-2015 reporting period, from April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015, Canadians registered 589,286 numbers, adding an average of 1,600 new numbers to the list every day, to bring the list’s total to 12,773,208 numbers.
Last year, Canadians filed 115,135 complaints via the National DNCL toll-free line and website, a decrease of over 11% from the year before. These complaints were related to each part of the Rules, including those related to…
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OTTAWA – Alberta-based telecom service provider VOIS is continuing to ignore its obligations to its customers, the CRTC, and the Commissioner of Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS), says the CCTS.
In October 2015, CCTS announced that VOIS had failed to refund $640 in fees it had improperly charged to a customer. CCTS had instructed VOIS to refund this money following an investigation of the customer’s complaint.
The CCTS then issued a decision in the investigation of another complaint from a VOIS customer in November. In that case, the customer was contacted by a collections agency demanding payment of $208 allegedly…
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GATINEAU – CBC told the CRTC on Friday that if it decides there should be a fund dedicated to supporting local news production in the Canada, then it should only open it to broadcasters which commit to produce additional news programming.
The Commission has been exploring the concept of a Local News Incentive Fund (LNIF) during local and community TV hearing and the idea has been endorsed in various forms by many intervenors.
“The purpose of the LNIF would be to provide incentive funding for incremental expenditure on and exhibition of local news programming beyond a specified threshold,” Bev Kirshenblatt (pictured),…
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GATINEAU – Many parties to the CRTC’s local and community TV consultation have proposed funding approaches (each with their own acronyms we’re having trouble keep track of) which could financially support these struggling services. Rogers Communications Inc. has now joined them, unveiling its own approach to a local programming fund.
In its appearance before the Commission on Thursday, the media and communications giant argued while it still prefers its original proposal calling for greater flexibility to move local programming funds from larger to smaller markets, it offered up another model that it says is workable and would provide financial benefits…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Using its anti-spam powers, the CRTC said Wednesday that it has executed a warrant under Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL) at two locations in Ontario's Niagara region.
The warrant was obtained as part of an ongoing investigation further to a lead from FireEye Inc., a vendor specializing in cyber threat protection and forensics. The CRTC does not comment on active investigations, nor does it name the individuals or companies under investigation. It did say, however, that the investigation related to the installation of malicious software (malware) and the alteration of transmission data.
The warrant was granted by a Justice of the…
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Commission is told small TV stations are living on borrowed time
GATINEAU – The local TV environment is so bad for some small independent over the air broadcasters that they risk shutting their doors in the coming months if they don’t get financial assistance from the CRTC. A case in point is Dougall Media’s Thunder Bay Electronics, the owner of two stations in the northwestern Ontario city.
VP and GM Don Caron explained during a closing statement to the Small Market Independent Television Stations Coalition (SMITs) appearance that his two stations (a CTV and Global affiliate) have remained open…
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OTTAWA – A CRTC decision allowing Corus Entertainment’s OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network to rescind a terms of trade agreement with the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) has been allowed to stand.
An order in council dated January 26, 2016 declined to set aside or return the decision to the CRTC, as an appeal by the CMPA had requested. After considering the CMPA’s petition, the Governor in Council said in the order that it “is not satisfied that decision derogates from the attainment of the objectives of the broadcasting policy for Canada set out in subsection 3(1) of the Broadcasting…
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GATINEAU – The second day of the CRTC hearing into local and community TV delved more into the details of how alternative financing and community TV could be help fix the local TV problem. Some argued that more money is needed to fund local TV and others said that community TV has the wherewithal to take the financial reins from their broadcast distributor masters and control much more of their own content creation.
The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) noted in its opening remarks that its $150-million Community Media Access Fund (CAMF) proposal could team community…
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Vice, Eastlink, Channel Zero and Bell offer new ideas to the CRTC Monday
GATINEAU – With major and independent broadcasters cutting newsrooms because of high costs and low revenue, there can be little doubt that local news and TV programming is in trouble. This means the industry may need to rethink how local programming is made and funded, the CRTC heard during the first day of an eight-day hearing on local and community TV. (pictured is a screen cap from CPAC.ca of Bell Media chief Mary Ann Turcke.)
Lee Bragg, chief executive at Bragg Communications (Eastlink) made some pointed comments about…
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