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…
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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…
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TORONTO and GATINEAU – Ethnic Channels Group Ltd. has lobbed pretty serious accusations at VMedia Inc., alleging the company is using the public Internet to deliver TV services and that it’s distributing unauthorized foreign services to its subscribers. VMedia says ECGL has all it all wrong.
Now though, the CRTC has decided to hear more fully from both parties. In a letter posted on its website on May 5, the Commission has removed VMedia’s applications for additional BDU services in several Atlantic Canadian markets as well some in Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as a national video on…
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OTTAWA – Spending on tangible public benefits related to the acquisition of regulated Canadian broadcast television assets declined significantly to $108.8 million (all for English-language benefits initiatives) in the 2012-2013 broadcast year, according to new research from research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services.
For the year ended August 31, 2013, spending on television benefits by various Canadian broadcasters dropped 39% ($68.3 million) from a record high of $177.1 million in 2011-2012. Of that $108.8 million, 76% ($82.7 million) went to on-screen/programming-related initiatives – primarily the creation of new Canadian programming – and the remaining 24% ($26.1 million) went…
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OTTAWA – Forty-one campus and community radio stations will receive $1.1 million from the latest round of funding of the Community Radio Fund of Canada’s (CRFC) Radiometres program.
In total, the CRFC awarded $1,185,500 for 37 projects that will help the stations improve their local programming, train volunteers, and involve community members in station activities.
For example, CFYT-FM in Dawson City, Yukon will partner with a community center to broadcast community and local Aboriginal events, CINQ-FM in Montreal, Quebec will develop a program produced by seniors, CHUO-FM in Ottawa, Ontario will host a series of workshops for the recording of live music…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Two-thirds of Canadians would prefer a basic cable service that is the lowest price possible, and more than half prefer to ‘pick a pack’ of television channels rather than ‘pick and pay’. That’s according to the results of the Let's Talk TV Choicebook questionnaire, released Thursday by the CRTC.
In total, more than 6,300 people filled out the interactive questionnaire issued in February as the second phase of the Let’s Talk TV initiative.
A self-selected group of Canadians undertook the Choicebook process by going to a public site, encouraged to visit through outreach and advertising by the CRTC…
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OTTAWA – GATINEAU – Canadian specialty, pay, PPV and VOD television services generated revenues of $4.09 billion in 2013, an increase of 3.1% over the $3.97 billion earned the previous year, according to the CRTC’s statistical and financial report for this sector released Wednesday.
For the broadcast year ended August 31, 2013, national advertising revenues for this group increased by 2.8% over 2012 to $1.27 billion, and subscriber revenues exceeded $2.7 billion.
Revenues for these television services have climbed by an annual average of 7% over the past five years, to surpass $4 billion in 2013 for the first time. During…
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OTTAWA – Sun News has cracked the programming lineup at Bell.
The network said Wednesday that it has secured “a long-term spot” on Bell TV's basic satellite television and in Bell Fibe packages, and will also soon be available for the first time ever to Bell Aliant customers. Viewers can find Sun News Network on Bell Satellite TV on channel 506, on Bell Fibe channel 531 (or 1531 for HD) and on Bell Aliant channel 232.
The network said that the agreements follow a CRTC ruling in December “that told cable and satellite TV providers to treat all Canadian news channels…
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GATINEAU – CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais set a tough tone right at the start of Monday’s hearing into Channel Zero’s specialty channel license renewal and corporate reorganization hearing.
“Ladies and gentlemen, these licenses are very much in jeopardy,” he said in his opening remarks.
The hearing was also a show cause hearing (meaning everyone on the broadcasters’ panel was sworn in, something we had not heard before, but has been done in the past for such hearings), which means the Commission was calling the company on the carpet to make sure that the license holders are actually operating the channels as…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC last week unveiled an ambitious three-year plan that lists its priorities as modernizing the regulatory framework for the Canadian broadcasting system, improving access to advanced and competitive communication services, strengthening the security and safety of Canadians through the communication system, and building a high-performing organization.
Those initiatives are among a number of goals that the Commission has outlined for completion during 2014-17 under the pillars of “connect,” “create”, “protect”, and “management excellence.”
The CRTC added that its shorter term activities include a public consultation on the television system and initiating a review of the basic telecommunications…
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