By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday set the interim rates competitors will pay large telephone companies to use their last-mile fibre network outside of Ontario and Quebec, while adjusting the existing rates for that access in those two provinces. The rates are being received with reception ranging from lukewarm to outright disappointment.
For all provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, the CRTC set Bell’s last-mile interim access rate – which competitors can lease with its middle-mile facilities – at $68.94 per month for between 3 Mbps to 1.5 Gbps and $78.03 for 1.5 Gbps to 3 Gbps. To bulk buy the…
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By Connie Thiessen
Corus Entertainment says it’s been able to renegotiate its credit arrangement through the end of March, as the company reported its fiscal fourth quarter earnings.
Led by RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities, Corus’s restated credit facility has been amended to reduce its revolving facility limit to $150 million from $300 million, and increase its maximum total debt-to-cash-flow ratio to 5.75 through the end of the year, and 7.25 from January through March. Corus paid down $2.7 million of debt in the fourth quarter and $38.8 million for the year.
Co-CEO John Gossling told a Friday morning conference call…
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The CRTC on Tuesday granted Uvagut TV mandatory distribution on basic TV, beating out its fellow Inuktut-language broadcaster Inuit TV for the spot.
Distributors will need to pay a monthly per subscriber fee of nine cents to carry the channel run by the Nunavut Independent Television Network (NITV), which proposes to run 24 hours a day, for a five-year term until August 2029. Inuit TV had proposed 18 hours a day but said it would have difficultly meeting that threshold in the immediate term.
Uvagut TV has been on the air since January 2021, offering Inuit-made children’s shows,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
A television network that focuses on Canadian 2SLGBTQIA+ communities wants the CRTC to broaden its distribution on basic television, or at least set a base wholesale fee for negotiations with distributors.
When the CRTC came to renew the licence for OUTtv in 2022, it granted the service in the English-language market must-offer status – requiring broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs) to carry the channel but leaving it to the subscriber to pay for the service – instead of must-carry status with a guaranteed wholesale fee that is available to all subscribers of the BDU. That status will remain until…
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Eatrides says internet ‘nutrition’ label possibly on menu
By Ahmad Hathout
The head of the CRTC said Monday that the regulator will be launching public consultations “in the weeks ahead” related to ease of contract cancellation and more transparent information on telecom plans, including a broadband label already in force in the United States.
“In the weeks ahead, we will also be launching public consultations to ensure that Canadians have the information and flexibility they need when choosing or switching cellphone and Internet plans,” Vicky Eatrides said at the Canadian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications.
That will include “seeking views on…
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Telecom also wants high court to revisit bias allegations against former chair Scott
By Ahmad Hathout
TekSavvy is asking the Supreme Court of Canada this month to help define the meaning of the terms “method or technique” that were at the centre of a decision by the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) to side with the CRTC in its 2021 determination to quash lower wholesale access rates proposed two years prior.
In simple terms, this is a case about whether the CRTC must follow the rigidness of an established costing methodology to set and justify the rates competitors pay to lease internet…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) regime, once confined to individual consumers and small businesses, has been expanded to include internet of things (IoT) and enterprise customers now that the CRTC on Wednesday ordered the large telecoms to modify their tariffs to enable competitors to wholesale network space to serve those particlar clients.
The regulator affirmed Wednesday its preliminary view that the IoT segment, which includes the machine-to-machine market, and the enterprise market, defined as companies with 100 or more paid employees, see similar market dynamics as the rest of the segments under regulation –…
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By Connie Thiessen
The CRTC has released its “What We Heard” report, summarizing feedback collected from workshops with members of the audiovisual (AV) industry discussing the CRTC’s definition of Canadian Content (CanCon) and the possibility it might need to be adapted given fundamental changes to the broadcasting industry.
A total of 382 participants took part in 17 workshops in February and March of this year, including in-person events in Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Calgary, encompassing the perspectives of Indigenous and official language minority communities (OLMCs), online creators, small and large producers, domestic broadcasters, unions, and representatives from foreign streaming services.
The…
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Cartt obtained WBD’s filing in non-compete case
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell announced Tuesday it has ended its legal battle with Warner Bros. Discovery, which was accused of violating non-compete covenants when it signed a multi-year deal with Rogers for the rights to the U.S. company’s brands and trademarks.
Simultaneously, Bell announced that the two companies have agreed to “expand” their partnership in Canada by extending Bell’s rights on Crave to HBO and Max Originals – which are not part of the Discovery portfolio Rogers purchased – and inking a new agreement on a co-production commitment to original Canadian content “with global appeal,…
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By Connie Thiessen
The CRTC is launching a public consultation on the proposed code of conduct for the Online News Act bargaining framework.
The act, formerly known as Bill C-18, requires the commission to set up and supervise the bargaining framework to support fair negotiations between news organizations and the largest online platforms.
This is the fourth consultation on the act the CRTC has launched to encourage organizations and platforms to bargain in good faith and make informed decisions during negotiations. It follows previous consultations on the mandatory bargaining process, undue preference and information gathering; another on cost recovery regulations, and a…
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