A BRIDGE IS A musical term meaning a bit of a song which gets you from the verse back to the chorus. We thought the term was a good one to characterize Peter Bissonnette, an accomplished musician, as well as the outgoing president of Shaw Communications (his official last day was yesterday).
Bissonnette has worked in cable for more than 30 years, the last 25 of which for Shaw Communications. He’s been president of the company since 2000, working under company founder JR, and then both his sons, Jim and Brad Shaw – and has much prior experience working for…
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TORONTO – A union representing some employees at TV stations operated by Rogers Media is using the upcoming federal election to help push forward its demand that the CRTC “hold Rogers to account” for cutting news on its OMNI TV stations earlier this year.
In a letter to the CRTC dated August 29, 2015, Unifor Local 723M says that “ethnic communities across Canada have been denied access to free television news about the election in their languages since the election was called” earlier this month. This, continues the letter, is why the Commission should expedite Unifor’s request filed in…
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TORONTO – Groupe Média TFO has received a seven-year renewal of its broadcast license for French-language educational television service TFO, a move that it describes as a “vote of confidence from the CRTC and the Francophone community”.
The CRTC issued the license renewal, for the period September 1, 2015 to August 31, 2022, on Friday.
The company is still waiting to hear, however, if the Commission will grant its application for must-offer status by TV service providers outside of Ontario. Groupe Média TFO said Monday in a news release that it believes that decision will be announced soon.
"Groupe Média…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor Media’s Vidéotron announced it as a first in Canada on Thursday, but its plan to exempt music streaming from mobile data caps has already raised alarms from net neutrality activists and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
The Quebec mobile provider announced Thursday morning its Unlimited Music service, which exempts a series of streaming services (Stingray, Rdio, Google Play, Deezer and Spotify) from counting toward mobile data usage for customers with Canada-wide plans with at least 2GB data (a plan that costs about $65/month).
But the company argues this move doesn't go against CRTC regulations because it doesn't offer…
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OTTAWA – Broadcasters looking at the likelihood of being forced to move to new over the air channels are still quietly digesting last week’s 600 MHz spectrum decision by Industry Canada, but at least two interest groups are less than enthused about it.
Both the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) believe the ruling tilts too much towards wireless carriers — who are hungry for the digital spectrum over the air (OTA) stations have in the 600 MHz band — and not enough for broadcasters who will have to pay up…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has kicked off a call for new radio licences to serve the urban Aboriginal communities in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, despite the fact that Aboriginal Voices Radio (AVR) is appealing the decision to revoke the licences that it holds in those markets.
The Commission said Wednesday that it is "seeking innovative applications that focus on serving Aboriginal Canadians, regardless of the type of service proposed”, though also noted that in making this call “the Commission has not reached any conclusion regarding the licensing of any service at this time.”
The Federal Court of Appeal last week granted…
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TORONTO — A growing number of voices in the music industry are raising concerns about proposed changes to the broadcast licences for Bell Media’s Much and M3 specialty channels as well as Corus Entertainment’s Country Music Television (CMT) channel.
In both cases, Bell Media and Corus seem to be trying to get a jump on the reduced Canadian content requirements that will result from the Let’s Talk TV proceeding, but which were not expected to be fully implemented until the next licence renewal for the services (the CRTC has set a group licence renewal deadline of August 31, 2017). And…
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ELLIOT LAKE, ON – Two consumer groups want the CRTC to overturn a previous decision that they say “sanctioned” a Telus policy, one that in turn highlights “a major flaw” in the Wireless Code.
The DiversityCanada Foundation and the National Pensioners Federation filed an application with the Commission this week that seeks to review and vary Telecom Decision CRTC 2015-211, which denied a previous application by the groups claiming that Telus made a material change to customer contracts without consent when applying its Large Prepaid Balance Policy.
Under that policy, a Telus prepaid customer who has accumulated an account balance…
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IF THE CRTC DOESN’T step in and put a stop to a repackaging set to begin for Bell Satellite TV subscribers on September 1st, two independent broadcasters say this might be the end of the road for them.
OUTtv Network (an independent specialty aimed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities) filed a complaint with the CRTC last week saying the planned changes to its packaging on Bell TV violate section 9 of the BDU regulations, in that Bell is granting itself an undue preference for its own services by shifting OUTtv (along with some…
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TORONTO TELECOM LAWYER Mark Lewis thinks he knows a thing or two about the CRTC's rules for automated phone calls by political parties during elections.
So when he recently got two calls on his personal office phone line from the New Democratic Party – one from a candidate in a nearby riding neither his office nor his residence is in — he was outraged.
"It's just not right," he fumed in an interview, for two reasons: First, after the initial call he emailed the NDP to be put on the party's do not call list, apparently in vain. Second,…
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