OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canadians tired of receiving telemarketing calls masquerading as legit are being asked to review and weigh in on the protection options currently offered by the telecommunications industry.
The CRTC on Friday published a summary list of features currently available in the Canadian market and has asked for feedback on those options by December 4. The move comes as a result of a public consultation launched last July targeting illegitimate caller ID spoofing. Spoofing occurs when telemarketers hide or misrepresent their identity by displaying fictitious phone numbers when making calls.
The CRTC added that it is also exploring new…
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MONTREAL – Stingray Digital confirmed the rumours circulating in the industry by announcing it has hired former CRTC vice-chair broadcasting Tom Pentefountas as senior vice-president sales, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and Asia.
He will join Stingray on November 30, 2015 and will work from its London office, the company said in its press release this morning.
Pentefountas will oversee international sales development and will “forge relationships with sales agents and TV operators in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia,” reads the press release. “His in-depth understanding of the broadcasting industry, his business and legal acumen…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – Rogers Media shelled out $200,000 as part of a settlement over alleged violations to Canada's anti-spam legislation, plus agreed to improve its internal spam compliance program, the CRTC said Friday.
The Commission investigated Rogers Media for allegedly sending commercial emails containing an unsubscribe mechanism that did not function properly or which could not be readily performed by the recipient between July 2014 and July 2015. In addition, the electronic address used to unsubscribe was not valid for the required minimum of 60 days following the sent message, and the company failed to honour some requests to unsubscribe from receiving…
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MONTREAL and TORONTO – Bell Media will pay Corus Entertainment $211 million in order to gain national access to the pay-TV market.
The two companies made separate announcements today where Corus will wind down pay TV brands Movie Central and Encore Avenue as Bell will take The Movie Network national while also becoming the sole Canadian rights holder for HBO content, across all platforms.
This leaves Allarco’s Super Channel as the only other pay-TV service in the country.
"Bell Media now has the national scale required to create, negotiate and deliver more premium TV programming to Canadian consumers, across more platforms and…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC will issue its first report on the performance of Internet services provided by the country's major Internet service providers (ISPs) next spring.
Data is currently being gathered from ‘Whiteboxes’ installed in the homes of the 4,500 participants who signed up to measure the performance of their broadband Internet services when the Commission unveiled the Measuring Broadband Canada program last May.
The Commission said Wednesday that the data will provide useful insight into network performance, including actual connection speeds, and provide a better understanding of whether certain Internet services from participating ISPs are delivering speeds as advertised….
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MONTREAL – A Superior Court judge has ordered Videotron to pay $7 million for improperly charging its television customers for the now defunct Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF).
According to a report in the Montreal Gazette, Judge Carole Hallée gave cause to a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Videotron’s 1.5 million customers. The suit alleged that Videotron customers who subscribed only to its cable services paid the correct amount for the CRTC-levied fund, but those who bought a bundle of services were deliberately overcharged, violating provincial consumer-protection laws.
She awarded $3.2 million to the class-action plaintiffs to compensate for the fee on…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down an application by Groupe Média TFO seeking must-offer status for its television channel TFO.
The Commission said Thursday that the request is not justified after considering the application “in light of the objectives set out in relevant policies and regulations, as well as the decisions and measures fostering choice for Canadians and flexibility for BDUs resulting from the Let’s Talk TV proceeding”.
The French-language educational media company filed the application in May, accompanied by more than 700 supporting interventions and research indicating that 88% of Canadians living in provinces with little access to…
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THERE CAN BE LITTLE DOUBT that local TV is in a difficult spot. Declining ad revenue, audience fragmentation and erosion, the challenges of digital platforms, a lack of a dual revenue stream and the list goes on. But what to do about it? Some argue for a complete revamp of the local TV funding approach, while others are saying the CRTC only need to give local broadcasters more flexibility to work within existing rules.
The state of local TV is black and white, at least when looking at the revenue picture. As Bell Canada notes in its intervention into the…
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TORONTO – After restructuring and thinning out the executive ranks through the summer and fall, as we’ve reported on extensively, Bell Media is about to eliminate about 380 more employees at the manager level and below.
As is required by the Canada Labour Code, companies which intend to cut 50 or more positions over a four-week period must inform the Minister of Labour, as well as post notices of the impending terminations inside company locations. Last week, Bell Media did just that, informing the new Minister, MaryAnn Mihychuk, on November 5th of the coming cuts. This…
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TORONTO – Despite flat revenues and stagnant listening hours, now is not the time for the radio industry to sound the alarm bells, CRTC Ontario Commissioner Raj Shoan told attendees during the closed portion of the Ontario Association of Broadcasters’ Connection 2015 conference on Tuesday.
Rather, he continued, the industry must do a better job promoting itself while at the same time securing a place on the devices that Canadian audiences are currently using to receive audio content – their smartphones and cars.
The activation of the FM chip in smartphones is “an attractive option” for radio operators, he said, one that…
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