OTTAWA – The federal government is capping domestic wholesale wireless roaming rates in an effort to benefit Canadian consumers and give a leg-up to new wireless entrants.
Industry Minister James Moore said Wednesday that the Government will amend the Telecommunications Act to prevent large wireless providers from charging other companies more than they charge their own customers for mobile voice, data and text services. This measure will be in place until the CRTC, which launched its own investigation into roaming rates last week, makes a decision.
Minister Moore said in a statement that high domestic roaming rates hold back many providers, especially…
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FOR A YEAR NOW, Sam Norouzi has been working tirelessly toward getting a new conventional television station on the air.
It's not something you see much these days. Unlike specialty channels, where applications come in by the bucketload (but are launched by the thimbleful…), the number of conventional television stations has only shrunk over the past decade. In 2006, there were 101 private commercial stations in Canada, according to the CRTC. By 2012, after the bottom had fallen out of the advertising market, that had dropped to 91.
Even tougher for Norouzi, his station, dubbed ICI, is an ethnic station –…
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THE FINE FOLKS AT CHCH recently let Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O'Brien take camera operator Thomas Bowser out on the streets of Oakville and Hamilton to do what the CRTC is doing – and hoping the industry will do more of – ask Canadians to Talk TV.
We spent a few hours on November 22nd on Lakeshore Drive in Oakville, then in Hamilton on the corner of King William and James St. N., and the corner of King St. W. and Marion Ave. and did our best to Talk TV with these random Canadians. CHCH even had Greg on…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is expected to rule this week on Corus Entertainment’s request to buy French specialty channels Historia and Series+ and the piece of Teletoon (including its other animation brands) it does not yet own.
Corus agreed to purchase the assets last March as part of the divestitures required as conditions of Bell Media’s purchase of Astral Media. While Corus already held 50% of Teletoon/Télétoon (as well as Teletoon Retro in English and French, and the Cartoon Network) with Astral, it owned neither of the two French specialties, both of which had been split…
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ROGERS COMMUNUCATIONS' BLOCKBUSTER NHL deal puts a direct focus on the sheer costs of sports programming for distributors and their customers, the Canadian consumer.
Cartt.ca interviewed several executives across the Canadian television industry (including some distributors who spoke to us on the condition they not be identified) to discuss the impact sports is having on broadcasting in Canada and whether or not the business can survive the spiralling costs of this rich content.
Alyson Townsend, president of the independent cable group Canadian Cable System Alliance, said no one should be surprised by the consistent price increases consumers have paid for cable…
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ONLY A FEW WEEKS after losing its National Hockey League national package to Rogers, Bell Media struck back on Monday by cornering the market on National Football League games.
Bell announced Monday it has secured Canadian broadcast, digital and mobile rights to NFL games in a “multi-year” deal starting next season. Bell would not elaborate on the length of that deal, but if recent contracts are any indication it could be for a much longer a term than the three years the two sides agreed to last time. Financial details were also not released.
“As NFL audiences continue to rise, Bell…
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TORONTO – The Canada Media Fund (CMF) is staging a discussion Tuesday about the current state of television as part of the CRTC Let’s Talk TV initiative.
Scheduled for December 10 from 3:00 – 4:30 PM ET, the bilingual webcast is intended for producers, broadcasters, and content creators, and will focus around content, technology and viewer experience. It will be hosted by CMF president and CEO Valerie Creighton and Stéphane Cardin, vice president of industry and public affairs.
Click here to register.
www.cmf-fmc.ca
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OTTAWA – Rogers Media must submit licence renewal applications for its OMNI television stations a year early after the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) complained to the CRTC about the cancellation of some of the stations’ programs.
Rogers announced last May that it was making programming cuts to OMNI’s multicultural programming at the stations located in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto. CEP filed its complaint with the CRTC a month later, asking for the programs to be reinstated, and that the Commission hold a hearing to discuss Rogers’ programming decisions.
While dismissing CEP’s complaint, the CRTC Continue Reading
OTTAWA – What will the future of TV bring the industry, consumers and content creators? Join the debate at the Prime Time In Ottawa conference, scheduled for February 19 -21, 2014 at the Westin Ottawa.
This year’s event will feature senior industry executives and stakeholders discussing the CRTC's Let's Talk TV proceeding, how they see the future of television, and what could be at stake.
Early bird registration ends December 13 and all early birds are eligible to win an iPad mini.
www.primetimeinottawa.ca
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I’VE BEEN COVERING this business since 1997 but not until now do I have my first ever actual submission, well co-submission, to the CRTC. It’s not a traditional one but I do hope Cartt.ca readers – and anyone else for that matter – find it interesting.
When we first heard of the Commission’s idea for flash conferences as a way to inform its overhaul of the policies governing television in Canada, I immediately wondered what I could do in Cartt.ca’s hometown of Hamilton, Ont. It’s a neat idea and kudos to whomever came up with it at the Regulator.
Since I’m…
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