OTTAWA – Bracebridge and Gravenhurst , ON could soon have a new radio station after the CRTC issued a call for comments on market capacity and on the appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications to serve those areas.
The Commission said Tuesday that it issued the call after receiving an application from Owen Sound-based Bayshore Broadcasting Corporation for a new commercial mainstream music station in that market. The Bracebridge and Gravenhurst area is currently served by CFBG-FM Bracebridge, an English-language commercial radio station operated by Vista Radio Ltd.
Interventions are due by March 26 and the deadline to file replies…
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OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal is being asked to weigh in on an issue that seems to combine a bunch of hot-button issues facing the CRTC: vertical integration, consumer rights, net neutrality, wireless service billing and the blurring line between telecommunications and broadcasting.
And all because of a student from Manitoba.
Bell Mobility has filed for leave to appeal CRTC Broadcasting and Telecom Decision 2015-26, rendered Jan. 29, which orders Bell and Quebecor’s Vidéotron to cease providing mobile video applications that are exempt from counting toward the cap on their wireless data plans….
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TORONTO – As part of a media tour in Toronto last week, SaskTel president and CEO Ron Styles sat down with Cartt.ca to discuss the telecom company’s most recent financial year and its upcoming projects. However, he declined to comment on this spring’s upcoming AWS-3 spectrum auction, of which SaskTel is one of the applicants planning to bid on licences in Saskatchewan.
“We’re prohibited by the federal government to discuss that, while the auction is getting ready to kick off,” Styles (pictured) explained. “I can’t really comment on AWS-3 at all, otherwise I’ll be getting a call.”
As…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has directed all incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) that have support structure services to revise the definition of subscriber drop wire in their respective tariffs.
The decision comes as a result of a show cause proceeding initiated by the Commission last November that urged ILECs to be consistent with the revised definition of subscriber drop wire established for Bell Aliant in a billing dispute between that company and Eastlink over payments for service poles.
As Cartt.ca reported, the Regulator clarified in the Bell Aliant/Eastlink matter that a “service pole” is to include all poles on…
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OTTAWA – Despite assertions from Bell Media and Telus to the contrary, there is nothing “frivolous or vexatious” about its complaint over the tied selling of Bell’s CraveTV streaming service to existing TV subscription services, says the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC).
In a response to the CRTC dated February 17, PIAC-CAC asked the CRTC to both reject requests by Bell and Telus to dismiss its application, and to deny Bell’s alternative request for an extension of time to file an answer. The seven page document goes on to refute Bell’s allegation that the…
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OTTAWA — Bell Media has asked the CRTC to dismiss a complaint filed last week by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC) that called into question the tied selling of Bell’s CraveTV streaming service to existing TV subscription services.
And in a separate procedural request submitted to the CRTC today, Telus (one of CraveTV’s distributors) asked the Commission “to either return the CraveTV application to PIAC-CAC in order for deficiencies to be remedied or to close the file.”
As reported last week, in one of two applications submitted to the CRTC on February 6,…
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TORONTO – At 5 a.m. this morning, Sun News was closed by Quebecor Media.
“After attempting to establish Sun News as a viable news channel in the Canadian broadcasting landscape and encountering a series of barriers to carriage, Sun Media Corporation regrets to announce today that it is closing the station. At the time of this release, Sun News Network is already off the air,” reads a release issued right after a repeat showing of Byline with Brian Lilley was the final program to air.
Cartt.ca was the first to report the station would close today after…
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OTTAWA — The CRTC announced Thursday it is closing the file on a complaint from the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) regarding various cable carriers’ wholesale high-speed access (HSA) services, and directed CNOC and the cable carriers to address outstanding issues through bilateral discussions or the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC).
In Telecom Decision CRTC 2015-40, the CRTC further directed CNOC and the cable carriers in question to submit a report, within 90 days, on the state of progress in resolving these issues. The cable carriers who were specifically included in CNOC’s original complaint, first submitted to the CRTC…
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OTTAWA – A number of independent ISPs are telling the CRTC that Shaw Communications’ proposed wholesale broadband rate increases are out of whack with economic reality. They say if the Commission adopts these rates, they may in fact have to choose not to compete in Shaw territory.
In its January 6 Tariff Notice 22 filing, the Calgary-based media and communications giant is seeking approval for new Third Party Internet Access (TPIA) service speeds and rates. The increases in TPIA rates range from a low of 21.8% to a high of 127.7%. For example, the 7.5 Mbps service…
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OTTAWA — The CRTC’s decision last week that Vidéotron’s Montreal MAtv community channel is in violation of community television policy and thus must rectify the situation before its cable licence renewal in August 2015 does not go far enough, according to the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
As reported last week, after a complaint was filed in January 2014 by Independent Community TV (ICTV) of Montreal, the CRTC reviewed program logs submitted by Vidéotron for MAtv. In its Broadcasting Decision 2015-31, the CRTC concluded Vidéotron’s operation of MAtv “is in non-compliance with the requirements…
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