OTTAWA – The merging of the statutes governing the communications industry has been addressed a number of times in the past. The first panel session at this year’s Communications Law and Policy Conference attempted to put some meat to the bones of whether having unified communications legislation would be good, or bad, for the sector and even if it’s doable at all.
Former CRTC commissioner Tim Denton provided a pretty succinct argument as to why the Broadcasting Act and Telecommunications Act are essentially incompatible, can’t be unified and be effective at the same time. On one hand, the Telecom Act…
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TORONTO – CRTC vice-chair broadcasting Tom Pentefountas told Toronto’s broadcasting and advertising community this week to stop leaving money on the table and get on with addressable, targeted advertising already.
A big fan of shows like Mad Men (the vice-chairman said Thursday morning he was still dejected the series had concluded), Pentefountas noted both the massive amount of quality TV out there, and that the viewers are now in the driver’s seat when it comes to viewing options – something to which the industry has not yet fully responded, he added.
Pentefountas gave the sold-out audience of 200 at the inaugural Future…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s television service providers saw their overall revenues increase 1.5% in 2014 despite a dip in subscribers, according to the CRTC’s statistical and financial results for the industry released Thursday.
Broadcast Distribution 2009–2013: Cable, Multipoint Distribution Systems and Direct-to-Home said that combined revenues grew from $8.8 billion in 2013 to $8.9 billion in 2014, while subscribers remained relatively flat over the period, decreasing from 11.5 million to 11.4 million for the year ended August 31, 2014.
The revenues of cable and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service providers increased by a combined 3% from $6.3 billion in 2013 to $6.5 billion…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – The CRTC is calling for volunteers to help it measure the performance of Internet services provided by major Internet service providers (ISPs) across the country.
The Measuring Broadband Canada program, announced Thursday, will see the Commission work in collaboration with ISPs and broadband testing firm SamKnows to measure broadband performance and test parameters associated with the broadband Internet connection, including download and upload speeds.
The CRTC is recruiting up to 6,200 Canadians who will receive a device known as a 'Whitebox' that they will connect to their modem or router. The Whitebox will periodically run measurement tests when users…
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OVERLAND PARK, Kansas – Kevin Crull wasn’t out of work for long. The former Bell Media president was named chief marketing officer for Sprint, the third largest U.S. wireless operator (with about 56 million customers), it was announced today.
In his new role, Crull will be responsible for all products and services, brand and advertising, customer acquisition and retention, and all digital and social efforts. Crull will report to President and CEO Marcelo Claure, says the company’s press release.
Crull was fired from Bell Media in April after the company found he improperly influenced CTV News coverage of…
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OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected a complaint lodged by some of Canada’s biggest wireless service providers over a deadline date in the CRTC’s Wireless Code of Conduct.
In a decision issued Tuesday, Justice Denis Pelletier dismissed a challenge filed by Bell, Rogers, Telus, MTS and SaskTel over the June 3, 2015 final implementation date of the Code, referred to as “the drop-dead date”, whereby all existing wireless contracts fall subject to the Code.
Noting the high number of three-year wireless contracts that would not yet have matured by that date, the telcos claimed that they would be…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU – The CRTC issued a warning Tuesday about illegal calls from individuals who claim that they are calling on behalf of the national Do Not Call List (DNCL) operator.
The Commission said in a statement that the originators of these calls are falsely displaying (spoofing) the national DNCL toll-free phone number, and are claiming that the call recipient's telephone number is about to expire from the national DNCL and must be re-registered over the phone.
“Neither the CRTC nor the National DNCL operator contact Canadians regarding the status of their telephone numbers on the National DNCL”, reads the…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a demand by Rogers Communications to revise the Wireless Code and exclude certain wireless service contracts for corporate individual plans and employee purchase plans.
The Commission said Friday that it is denying Rogers’ application to review and vary Telecom Decision 2014-528 (referred to as the Corporate Plans decision), as the big media company “failed to demonstrate” that there is substantial doubt as to the correctness of that decision. In that decision, the Regulator (a) reiterated that the Wireless Code applies to retail mobile wireless voice and data services provided to individuals and small…
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TORONTO – Some 88% of Canadians living in provinces with little access to French-language television programing say that they want more content in that language, while 56% say that they would watch a French educational television channel if it was offered by their TV service provider, according to an Ipsos Marketing survey for Groupe Média TFO.
The French-language educational media company recently applied to the CRTC to both renew its existing broadcasting licence for its TFO television channel, and to ask for “must-offer status” to make TFO a mandatory offering by TV providers across Canada. (A previous version of this…
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GATINEAU – With a reminder that “a broadcasting licence is a privilege”, CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais opened a radio hearing Wednesday that will examine whether to renew the licences of three radio stations that appear to be in non-compliance with the CRTC’s regulations, as well as with certain conditions of licence and mandatory orders.
Aboriginal Voices Radio, CFSI-FM Salt Spring Island and CIHS-FM Wetaskiwin were summoned to the two-day public hearing “given the severity and frequency of the instances of apparent non-compliance observed in their current licence terms”, Blais continued.
The broadcasters are expected to show cause why mandatory orders…
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