OTTAWA – The CRTC must address "the incentives" that Canada’s largest mobile wireless companies have to raise their competitors’ wholesale prices, and, offer new entrants help in gaining a foothold in the market.
That’s the gist of a submission made public Thursday by the Competition Bureau to the CRTC, in response to the Commission’s review of wholesale mobile wireless services.
Noting that mobile wireless companies, particularly new entrants, may need to enter into arrangements with the likes of Bell, Rogers and Telus to obtain certain wholesale mobile wireless services, the Bureau said that the retail market power that these large incumbents wield…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – With the prevalence of video on demand and services like Netflix, many of us take for granted just how easy it is to find exactly the kind of movie or other programming you want to watch. For those living with vision loss, however, accessing described video content through a streaming or VOD service has been next to impossible.
Until now. Toronto businessman Kevin Shaw (pictured) has developed a unique streaming solution where those who are visually impaired or have vision loss can enjoy popular movies and TV shows, dubbed with described video, for a monthly subscription.
Zagga Entertainment,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Canadians registered 41,745 new numbers on the national do not call list (DNCL) in April, down from a high of 68,597 numbers in March.
According to the CRTC’s latest status report, there are now 12,291,595 telephone and fax numbers on the list.
The number of telemarketing complaints also dipped in April, from 13,641 registered in March to 11,653. Since the DNCL’s 2008 launch, a total of 818,744 telemarketing complaints have been logged.
Six new investigations were opened in April, bringing the number of active investigations to 197. No new notices of violation were issued last month, so the total issued to date…
Continue Reading
By John Lawford and Geoffrey White
JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH WROTE: “Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.” Case in point: even though the 700 MHz auction is over, and most of the AWS new entrants have been swallowed up by the Big Three, or are about to be, business appears to still be thriving for some economists intent on knocking the Government’s attempts to instill more competition in Canada’s wireless sector.
For the most part these type of reports offer a paternalistic, if not patronizing, view of the consumer interest. The story, or…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Describing radio as an industry “under attack (because) everybody wants our audiences,” Eric Rhoads, publisher of U.S. industry magazine Radio Ink, kicked off the “Inside the Executive Suite” discussion at Canadian Music Week last Wednesday by asking Canadian radio executives how many hours a week they typically work.
While answers varied, it’s safe to say Canadian radio bosses are working upwards of 60 hours a week to lead their respective organizations through the ongoing migration to digital platforms.
Paul Ski, CEO of radio and regional broadcast operations for Rogers Broadcasting, said his work schedule is “very fluid” but added:…
Continue Reading
IT IS UP TO CEO HUBERT LACROIX to show whether he believes it is his good fortune – or his utter misfortune – to lead the CBC at this point in time. Despite all the talk about a new, five-year strategic plan to get to 2020 and a silly new “conversation” with Canadians he announced Monday, Lacroix must know already what he wants, and must, do. And, is it ever going to hurt. The changes that must be made to the CBC will run far deeper, and wider, than the 650 layoffs which were announced last month.
It will alter…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA–GATINEAU – Canadian local television stations saw profits plunge in 2013, according to the CRTC’s latest statistical and financial report for this sector released Tuesday.
According to the report Conventional Television – Statistical and Financial Summaries 2009-2013, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) for private local TV stations dropped from $22.9 million in 2012 to -$2.3 million, and the PBIT margin decreased from 1.1% to -0.1%.
Revenues dropped by 4.6% from $2.04 billion last year to $1.94 billion for the broadcast year ended August 31, 2013. While revenues from the sale of local advertising declined 1% from $355 million in…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Almost 10,000 new numbers were added to Canada’s national do not call list (DNCL) registry between February 28 and March 31, 2014, the CRTC said this week.
According to the Commission’s latest status report, the official number of telephone and fax numbers on the list stands at 12,237,963.
The number of telemarketing complaints also rose in March, and since the DNCL’s 2008 launch, 807,091 telemarketing complaints have been logged.
Twenty one new investigations were opened in March, bringing the number of active investigations to 191. No new notices of violation were issued during this period, so the total issued to date…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The fact that 700 MHz wireless spectrum (taken back from TV broadcasters in 2011 and sold to wireless companies for $5.3 billion earlier this year) will continue to be used to transmit all sorts of video, shows proof we must look at rewriting the legislation governing the broadcasting industry, according to former CRTC commissioner Suzanne Lamarre.
She was speaking Thursday at last week’s Law Society of Upper Canada’s Biennial National Conference on New Developments in Communications Law and Policy held in Ottawa. “The 700 MHz band, formerly designated for over-the-air television… has officially been taken over by wireless…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – CBC President and CEO Hubert Lacroix isn’t sugar-coating the news. He isn’t going to pretend that the 657 full-time equivalent jobs being cut this month — and the 2,107 total since he started on Jan. 1, 2008 — won’t seriously damage the organization.
Nor does he pretend to have the answer for how to fix the public broadcaster while all the media world shifts around it. Which is why, during a speech at The Canadian Club in Montreal, Lacroix announced that he wanted to have a “conversation” with Canadians about the future of the public broadcaster, and invited…
Continue Reading
