LAST WEEK WE SPECULATED that the big, vertically integrated Canadian telecom, cable, wireless and media companies could get out of media.
We talked to a few broadcasters who spoke on condition of anonymity who angrily wondered – with the CRTC apparently not listening to their concerns about costs, nor about being able to use their content as a point of differentiation with wireless or broadband customers while also taking simsub away, at least for the Super Bowl – why should carriers continue to own broadcasters?
The answer is cash flow, capex and a lack of available suitors.
Bell…
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OTTAWA — Consumers who want to sign up for CraveTV or shomi without first being Bell or Rogers/Shaw customers could be the potential beneficiaries of applications filed with the CRTC on Friday by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC).
PIAC-CAC submitted two applications to the CRTC, challenging the tied selling of the two online streaming services linked to the consumption of the service providers’ other telecom or broadcasting services.
In the application regarding CraveTV, PIAC-CAC are challenging whether Bell can restrict access to its subscription video-on-demand service to customers who already have a TV…
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OTTAWA — Drumheller, Alta.’s CHOO-FM must continue to include folk and folk-oriented music in its weekly playlist rotation after the CRTC denied the radio station’s application to amend its broadcasting licence.
Announcing its decision on Friday, the CRTC had determined previously that CHOO-FM (operated by Golden West Broadcasting Ltd.) was in non-compliance with the condition of its licence requiring the radio station to devote 10% of its musical selections each broadcast week to music content subcategory 32 (folk and folk-oriented).
Golden West submitted an application in September 2014 to the CRTC, requesting the broadcasting licence for CHOO-FM Drumheller be amended…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU — Hamel Système d’Information 2000 Inc., also known as Telelisting, has been ordered by the CRTC to pay a $260,000 fine for violating the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules.
Acting on information received from Canadians, the CRTC investigated Telelisting and concluded the company had divulged contents of the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) to its clients in violation of the Rules. Telelisting provides telephone directory services for online lead generation.
According to a CRTC news release, during the period from July 10, 2012 to July 10, 2014, Telelisting shared contents of the DNCL with clients who had not…
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THERE WAS TOO MUCH symbolism to ignore with the choice of London, Ont., as the place where CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais chose to begin dismantling simultaneous substitution and to shift the ground under Canadian TV companies, forcing the vertically integrated behemoths to ask themselves this question: “Why do we need to own media companies?”
Blais spoke in London a week ago to make three announcements, two of which were decisions from the Commission’s Let’s Talk TV hearing held in September 2014.
London is generally acknowledged as the first city in Canada to get cable over 60 years…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Videotron’s French-language community channel MAtv is not serving the diverse cultural communities in Greater Montreal, the CRTC told the Quebec broadcaster Wednesday, before approving its request for an English community channel.
MAtv is available to approximately 1.8 million homes in Montreal, Québec-Lévis, Sherbrooke, Cap-de -la- Madeleine, Sorel-Tracy, Granby, Netherlands St. Lawrence, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and Ottawa. After a complaint in January 2014 by a group calling itself Independent Community TV, the Commission reviewed program logs submitted by Videotron for MAtv. Its investigation concluded that during the week in question, the channel devoted only 30.2% to access programming (the required…
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GATINEAU – Bell Canada’s Mirko Bibic had more than football on his mind this Super Bowl Sunday.
Bell’s leadership is angry with the CRTC’s decision to ban the practice of simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl broadcasts, beginning with the 2016 season, and so the company’s EVP and chief legal and regulatory officer Mirko Bibic sent an e-mail to commissioners Sunday morning to ask for a meeting to discuss.
Senior sources with knowledge of Bell Media’s NFL contract tell Cartt.ca that ending simsub for the Super Bowl will cost the company $20 million in lost revenue for…
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OTTAWA – The participant list for Industry Canada’s upcoming AWS-3 and 2500 MHz auctions this spring is beginning to take shape. Among those who have confirmed to Cartt.ca that they have submitted applications to participate in the two aforementioned auctions are Rogers Communications and Telus Corp.
SaskTel says it applied for the AWS-3, but noted it is ineligible for the 2500 MHz sale. Bell Canada and Eastlink wouldn’t confirm or deny that they filed applications. Vidéotron and MTS hadn’t replied to Cartt.ca by deadline.
Wind Mobile, which recently completed a restructuring, had previously announced its…
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TORONTO – The CRTC left no doubt as to its stance on an open internet when it clamped down on Bell and Videotron’s practice of exempting their own mobile television services from their standard monthly data charges.
The Commission determined Thursday that mobile television services Bell Mobile TV and illico.tv give their respective distributors an undue preference in favour of their own services, and have subjected consumers of other services to a corresponding undue disadvantage, contrary to the Telecommunications Act.
Bell Mobility was ordered to eliminate the “unlawful practice” by April 29, 2015. Vidéotron, which had already told the Commission…
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TORONTO – The topic of simultaneous substitution always comes up a lot at this time of year, in the same breath as the Super Bowl and its nifty new ads.
While the average Canadian sports fan may be celebrating the CRTC’s decision Thursday to prohibit the controversial requirement in Super Bowl games starting in 2017, Bell Media, the Canadian rightsholder of the big game that airs nationally on its CTV network, told Cartt.ca that it was “extremely disappointed” with the ruling.
“The government is damaging the future of local television in Canada while rewarding U.S. corporations over home-grown companies”, said…
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