GATINEAU – Rogers has been left quite a regulatory pile of laundry to sort through with its license renewals announced Thursday. And, the company was told "no" a lot.
The CRTC has renewed the licences of most Rogers-owned television services until 2016, but though it’s a short-term renewal (at Rogers’ request, so it lines up with the licence terms of the other major English-language broadcasters), the decision makes a lot of changes to how Rogers will operate, particularly in light of its $5.2-billion deal for rights to National Hockey League games.
The biggest change in the decision is that Rogers’s services…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today announced it is prohibiting exclusivity provisions in all roaming agreements between Canadian wireless service providers, saying it has found clear instances of unjust discrimination by Rogers Communications.
In December 2013, the CRTC launched a public proceeding to look at whether wireless service providers were subjecting smaller Canadian competitors to unjustly discriminatory roaming rates, terms and conditions – and it found some.
“Rogers has imposed exclusivity clauses in roaming agreements that prohibited smaller service providers from using networks from any other carrier. Additionally, they charged some new Canadian service providers significantly higher roaming rates compared to rates…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications and WWE today announced a 10-year broadcast and multimedia agreement, making Rogers the exclusive distributor of WWE's flagship programming in Canada through 2024.
Financial terms were not disclosed but the deal extends WWE's current programming on Sportsnet 360 (formerly The Score) and includes the right to distribute WWE Network as a premium linear channel, with a preview beginning August 12, according to the press release.
Rogers will be the exclusive distribution partner of all WWE pay-per-view events throughout Canada and will sponsor an application to the CRTC to bring the popular WWE Network to Canada as a…
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GATINEAU – There is broad consensus among parties to the CRTC’s TV policy review that a mandated small basic package is not likely to come with a lower price tag.
A skinny basic to go along with a pure pick-and-pay channel regime could also cause some sticker shock, not only for consumers but also for broadcast distributors looking to acquire programming, according to the big content owners and the VI companies.
Bell Canada argues that broadcasters will bear the brunt of unbundling. First, because channels will have less penetration, fewer customers will share the costs of that service, driving prices skywards….
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GATINEAU – Suitelife Vacations Club, which sells travel and vacation packages, has paid $20,000 in administrative monetary penalties as part of a settlement over violations of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules, the CRTC announced today.
The company also agreed to end its previous telemarketing practices.
Acting on complaints submitted by Canadians, the Commission investigated Suitelife for alleged violations of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules. It found that through third-party firms, the company made unsolicited telemarketing calls to Canadians who had registered their numbers on the National Do Not Call List. Suitelife had also failed to register with and subscribe to the List before…
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OTTAWA – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the Consumers Association of Canada Tuesday published an open letter to CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais decrying the Commission’s decision to call carriers in for a meeting on paper billing practices instead of allowing for a public process.
Both PIAC and the CAC had submitted a formal application to the CRTC, asking it to prohibit charging Canadians an extra fee to receive a paper bill.
The CRTC issued a press release last week noting it has called the industry in to explain itself. "We are concerned that not all Canadians…
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GATINEAU – Local TV is struggling mightily. Ad revenue is down and showing no signs of growth, while the ever growing lineup of new specialty channels and the rapid rise of Internet-based alternatives are blasting away at what has always been the bedrock of the television system in Canada.
Some are telling the CRTC that it’s time to adopt a radically different approach for local TV, one that would bolster the revenue side of the ledger while also helping to encourage the development of compelling Canadian content.
For example, Bell Canada and CBC/Radio-Canada suggest shutting down over the air infrastructure completely…
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WOODSTOCK, N.B. – Satellite and wireless broadband provider Xplornet Communications said Monday it will provide homes and businesses with internet download speeds up to 25 Mbps to 100% of the rural population by 2016.
“CRTC and Industry Canada have forged a vision and an action plan to ensure all Canadians have equal access to high speed broadband,” the company noted in a press release. “Xplornet has embraced this vision and is executing a plan to provide customers outside big cities with the most attractive Internet experience that technology can provide. Xplornet has started rolling out a new Long Term Evolution…
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TORONTO – Though he was just coming off an announcement of hundreds of management layoffs, and numbers showing a 24% drop in net income, fewer cable TV subscribers and flat revenue, Rogers CEO Guy Laurence put an optimistic face on his company’s financial outlook on Thursday.
Wireless, by far the biggest contributor to Rogers’s bottom line, saw a 1% drop in revenue, which the company attributed largely to its new simplified plans (bundling in fees like voicemail and caller ID) and changes like lower-priced roaming plans (as it did three months ago). But the drop in…
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OTTAWA – DHX Media received CRTC approval Thursday to proceed with its purchase of Family, Disney XD, and the English- and French-language Disney Junior channels from Bell Media.
The company said that the acquisition has now met key regulatory requirements for completion, having also received approval from the Competition Bureau last December, and is expected to close on or about July 31, 2014. First announced last November, the deal comes as part of Bell Media's requirement to divest some properties to comply with regulatory conditions attached to its acquisition of Astral Media.
As part of its approval, the Commission revised the value of…
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