GATINEAU – CRTC chairman and CEO Jean-Pierre Blais will deliver a speech to the Canadian Club of Ottawa on Thursday at lunch, announcing the Commission's next decisions stemming from the Let’s Talk TV proceeding.
Blais is scheduled to speak at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa starting at 12:00 noon ET. The speech will be webcast by CPAC starting at 12:45 PM and will be available on the CRTC website at 1:00 PM, in junction with the release of the official decisions.
As Cartt.ca reported two weeks ago, Thursday’s announcement is expected to be focused on Canadian content…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – A group representing distributors of Canadian feature films believes Canada’s broadcast regulator should do more to help foster the growth of Canada’s movie industry.
The Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters (CAFDE) and one of its members, Elevation Pictures, told a House of Commons committee Monday that there is a role for the CRTC to play to spur demand for Canadian feature films, possibly through a quota system imposed on broadcasters or by bringing so-called over-the-top (OTT) content providers under the regulator’s jurisdiction.
“One of the most difficult challenges we face is that these OTT services…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Unintended consequences and potentially devilish details described potential outcomes of the CRTC’s TV Policy Review during panel sessions at the CMPA’s annual Prime Time conference last week in Ottawa.
In a panel titled Focus on Let’s Talk TV, independent broadcaster and content creator Blue Ant Media spoke about the problems that will come as a result of a pick and pay channel regime. Asha Daniere, executive VP of business and legal affairs at the company, noted that in a pick and pay environment, “discoverability” significantly increases in importance and difficulty. And, under a regime where consumers…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Kevin Crull, president of Bell Media, took to the pulpit at the Canadian Media Production Association’s annual Prime Time conference on Friday to criticize the CRTC for creating a regulatory environment that in fact hurts the Canadian system and to call for the banning of American OTA TV signals from Canadian cable, satellite and IPTV carriers.
During his nearly 25-minute speech, Crull spoke about a number of problems facing Canadian broadcasters, rights owners and distributors as a result of the commission’s current trajectory. This ranges from the advantage U.S. specialty channels enjoy, subscriber fees, geographic rights…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – More flexible deal making, predictable and long-term funding for CBC/Radio-Canada and a light hand from the broadcast regulator are key to ensure Canadian content can be successful, achieve scale and make it on the international market, according to a panel of broadcast industry executives at the Canadian Media Production Association’s annual Prime Time conference.
In the opening panel session called Getting Ahead of Change, Bell Media president Kevin Crull noted that getting international success for Canadian content and the financing of big expensive projects will only come from having a solid domestic market, which is being destabilized by…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC issued its first fine under the country’s new anti-spam laws Thursday, handing out a whopping $1.1 million penalty to Quebec-based Compu-Finder.
The Commission said that its investigation found that Compu-Finder sent commercial electronic messages without the recipient’s consent, as well as emails in which the unsubscribe mechanisms did not function properly. The four alleged violations occurred between July 2, 2014 and September 16, 2014, and included emails promoting training courses to businesses, often related to topics such as management, social media and professional development.
The CRTC added that it conducted a number of information sessions across the…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – While radio stations in general face many of the same issues thanks to burgeoning competition from streaming audio services, the separate AM and FM bands have their own unique challenges to overcome, as was apparent during the North American Broadcasters Association’s Future of Radio & Audio Symposium, held last week at the Glenn Gould Studio in downtown Toronto.
In his keynote address to the symposium held 10 days ago, Ajit Pai, commissioner of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, outlined two issues for AM/FM radio: the revitalization of the AM band and the activation of FM chips in smartphones.
In…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Some of Northwestel’s Internet customers will see their monthly bills drop this spring after the CRTC ordered the telecom provider to cut its rates for certain residential Internet services.
The Commission said Wednesday that Northwestel must reduce rates for residential low-speed Internet connections over a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), named ‘DSL Internet Lite’ and ‘DSL Internet 2’, by 10%, and that its rates for residential DSL Internet services with download speeds of 5 and 15 megabits per second, known as ‘DSL Internet 5’ and ‘DSL Internet 15’, must come down by 30%. In addition, Northwestel will not be able to increase…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Broadcast radio’s primary sustainable advantages over streaming audio services will continue to be its live and local content for the foreseeable future, according to industry experts who spoke at last week’s Future of Radio & Audio Symposium, held by the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) at the Glenn Gould Studio in downtown Toronto.
“If we look to the future, how can radio best sustain its competitive advantage — and it still has a huge one — it’s really around ‘local’, and ‘live’, and ‘personal’,” said Jeff Vidler, president of market research firm Audience Insights in Toronto,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO and OTTAWA – The XLIX Super Bowl may have been decided over a month ago, but the matter of American Super Bowl ads coming to Canadian television is still front and centre for Bell Media, the current Canadian rightsholder of the big game.
On Monday, the broadcaster filed a motion with the Federal Court of Appeal seeking to appeal BRP CRTC 2015-25, the CRTC’s January 29th decision prohibiting the practice of simultaneous substitution in Super Bowl games starting in 2017. Bell Media spokesperson Scott Henderson said in a statement that in making that decision, “the CRTC erred in…
Continue Reading
