SALMON ARM, B.C. – Independent cableco Mascon has launched a new skinny basic package, called the Digital Starter, for just $20-a-month.
Based on the CRTC’s new rules mandating a new small basic TV package (which came out of its Let’s Talk TV policy hearing), Mascon is one of the first to launch such a package, months ahead of the March 2016 deadline where all carriers must offer a so-called skinny package of Canadian channels and the 9(1)(h) Commission-mandated must-carries. The CRTC’s mandated price, however, is $25/month.
Mascon’s Digital Starter package offers 25 different video channels,…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC will stage a four day public hearing beginning Tuesday to review the structure and mandate of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS).
Established in 2007, the CCTS is Canada’s telecommunications ombudsman, helping consumers with complaints about their phone, wireless, and Internet services. The independent organization handles over 10,000 complaints each year and can require telecommunications service providers to provide up to $5,000 in compensation per customer in addition to any amount to be refunded in correction of a billing error.
Last June, the CRTC called for input on whether the CCTS should expand its…
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GATINEAU – CRTC vice-chair broadcasting Tom Pentefountas announced today he is resigning from the Commission effective November 20th.
His five-year term was due to expire April 3rd, 2016.
“After almost five years at the Commission and as the end of my term nears, it is with mixed emotions that I must announce to you today that I will be leaving the Commission on November 20,” he wrote in an e-mail to CRTC staffers this afternoon. (He is pictured here with his predecessor as vice-chair broadcasting, Michel Arpin.)
“I would like to thank each and every one of you for this great journey,…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will kick off the first part of its Discoverability Summit on December 1st in Vancouver.
Co-hosted by CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais and NFB Commissioner Claude Joli-Coeur, attendance at ‘En route to the Discoverability Summit: Content in the Age of Abundance’ is by invitation only, but the event will be live streamed on the CRTC’s YouTube channel.
The confab promises to feature international experts, thought leaders and high-profile innovators to explore how new tools and techniques can be used to help viewers find the content they want and help solve the global challenge of audiovisual content discoverability. CBC Radio Spark host…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Despite a spike in mobile and Internet TV viewing, the time that Canadians spent viewing traditional television in 2014 held steady, says the third and final installment of the CRTC’s 2015 Communications Monitoring Report.
The report, released Thursday, provides an overview of the Canadian broadcasting industry for the year ended August 31, 2014. The Commission previously released reports on the communication system and the telecom sector.
While the time spent watching conventional television declined slightly across all age groups in 2014, the overall average remained stable at 27.4 hours each week compared to 27.9 hours in…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a request by Ontario’s Bruce Power that it order wireless service providers to carry and deliver emergency public alerts to all Canadians with mobile phones starting this fall.
As Cartt.ca reported in June, Bruce Power submitted that because the vast majority of Canadians own mobile devices and carry them throughout the day, the distribution of alerts via these devices would be a practical way to notify Canadians of imminent threats to life and property. It wanted the system in place by September 30, 2015.
The Commission said Wednesday that Bruce Power’s four month…
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OTTAWA – Bell Mobility, Rogers and Telus must disclose their interim wholesale wireless rates within the next week after the CRTC found in favour of a disclosure of information request from Vaxination Informatique.
Vaxination filed a request for disclosure of all the confidential information in the wholesale wireless roaming interim tariffs issued on June 4, 2015 by the national wireless carriers, part of the Commission’s decision on wholesale mobile wireless services issued last May.
In a letter to the big three wireless carriers dated October 27, the CRTC said that it rejected submissions opposing the request, saying that the disclosure is…
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OTTAWA – A coalition of media stakeholders has published a draft report calling for a more coherent approach to community media in the digital environment.
The report, Community Media in the Digital Era: Relic or Renewal, is based on an online survey and focus groups that were conducted in August and September of this year. There were 419 respondents to the survey from 152 communities in all ten provinces, the Yukon and NWT, and over half were from urban centres.
Highlights from the report include:
– Most respondents were aware of a community media organization in their communities. Community newspapers had the…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – Some two thirds of Canadians own a smartphone, and nearly half of Canadians use tablets, according to the 2015 edition of the CRTC’s Communications Monitoring Report.
The report, released Tuesday, is an overview of the six sectors of the telecommunications industry including local, long distance, Internet, wireless, data, and private line. It is the second of three parts in the Communications Monitoring Report.
The adoption of smartphones and tablets continues to grow, with 67% of Canadians owning a smartphone in 2014 compared to 62% in 2013. Tablet ownership increased to 49% compared to 39% year-over-year. The percentage of Canadians…
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PEOPLE ARE ALREADY CALLING Justin Trudeau our first “selfie” Prime Minister. Images of him on the campaign trail – and the day after the election – mugging with various Canadians who have one arm outstretched and the other around our PM-to-be number in the hundreds of thousands. He’ll apparently even click it for you, if you like.
Of course, those snapshots are then uploaded to the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other sharing platform to display to followers around the country and the world. Just Google “Justin Trudeau selfie”.
Invariably, those images ride…
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