OTTAWA – A coalition of American border television stations is hoping that the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV policy initiative will help them in their quest for compensation for their over-the-air programs that are being imported and retransmitted in Canada.
The group, which includes ABC, CBS, NBC and CW affiliates in Detroit, Buffalo and Minneapolis, says it’s seeking equitable and non-discriminatory remuneration opportunities under Canada’s TV retransmission regime, as Cartt.ca has reported.
The group maintains that Canada's Broadcasting Distribution Regulations were amended in 2011 to provide retransmission consent and new remuneration rights for operators of distant Canadian TV…
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OTTAWA – Bell has received CRTC approval to launch its own community channels via video-on-demand to select official language minority communities in Ontario and Quebec.
The Commission said Friday that it will amend the broadcasting licences for Bell’s terrestrial BDUs so that it is authorized to redirect up to 2% of its gross annual revenues derived from broadcasting activities to each of its English- and French-language community VOD channels in Hamilton/Niagara, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Oshawa, Ottawa, Peterborough, Stratford, Toronto and Windsor, and their surrounding areas, in Ontario.
In Quebec, the communities include Drummondville (region of Centre-du-Québec), Gatineau, Joliette (region of…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU — The CRTC released a model of its new municipal access agreement Thursday, designed to assist municipalities and telecommunications companies navigate the installation of telecommunications infrastructure.
Municipal access agreements (MAAs) are negotiated between municipalities and telecommunication providers for access to municipal rights-of-way, such as street crossings and other municipal property, for the purposes of installing, operating, and maintaining transmission facilities.
The model agreement was developed, at the CRTC’s request, by a working group that included representatives from Canadian municipalities and the telecommunications industry. While the Commission said that the model agreement will streamline the negotiation process and reduce the likelihood…
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TORONTO – What is the best way to offer choice to your customers when the very act of choosing is personal and subjective?
That was the basis of a panel entitled ‘Packaging Flexibility: Customer Choice vs. Brand Investment’ at the CTAM Canada Broadcaster Forum held Wednesday in downtown Toronto. And that panel, a mix of broadcasters and distributors moderated by Rogers’ senior vice-president of content David Purdy, all agreed that Canadians’ ability to choose their own television channels was inevitable, whether mandated by the government, the Regulator, or driven by consumer demand.
“This…
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OTTAWA – Turns out that creating actual public policy is far more complicated than a few easy sound bites about choice and protecting jobs.
While the federal government last week demanded a report from the CRTC on letting Canadians break up their subscription TV bundles by April 30th, the written direction to the CRTC from the Privy Council shows an argument that is far more complex than the throw away sentences about “protecting consumers” which were a part of the Speech from the Throne on October 16. It seems to be demanding a report on providing pick and pay without…
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OTTAWA – The federal government’s vague plans for lower wireless prices, and pick and pay TV channel packaging seem to be ploys to curry consumer favour and not in the public interests, overall, argued members of a panel at the International Institute of Communications Canada’s annual conference in Ottawa on Tuesday.
Rather, the federal Conservatives are focused on scoring political points and on short-term outcomes without considering the potential long-term ramifications of their actions on the broader Canadian public.
Richard French, a professor in international and public affairs at the University of Ottawa and former vice-chair of telecommunications at…
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TORONTO – Telus said Monday that it is on track to implement all necessary requirements of the CRTC’s new Wireless Code of Conduct by the end of the month.
The code, which comes into effect on December 2nd, establishes a common set of rights for all wireless consumers in Canada.
Telus said that it adopted many of these customer-friendly provisions long before the Code was drafted. It is currently modifying policies and procedures to add domestic and international data caps and notifications at $50 and $100 respectively; and, customers who purchase a device outright…
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OTTAWA – Industry analysts and a journalist duked it out over wireless pricing and government policy in Canada during a session at the annual International Institute of Canada conference on Monday.
Jeff Fan, research analyst at Scotia Capital, presented some figures that countered many of the arguments which have been made by the federal government and others who say that competition in Canada’s wireless market is lacking. Fan noted that the elimination of three-year contracts as mandated by the CRTC earlier this year in its Wireless Code of Conduct has actually made things worse for consumers by leading…
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OTTAWA – Forcing broadcast distributors to offer specialty services on a pick and pay basis may not result in big savings for consumers, Kevin Crull, president of Bell Media, said during a luncheon keynote speech at the International Institute of Communications Canada’s annual conference in Ottawa on Monday.
Crull’s comments come as the CRTC has undertaken a broad conversation with Canadians about the future of TV and as the federal government has all but told the industry it will force pick-and-pay upon it. After talking directly to consumers for a while, the Commission will…
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OTTAWA – Just over 50,000 new telephone and fax numbers were added to the country's national do not call list (DNCL) in October, while telemarketing complaints dropped considerably from those registered in the previous month.
According to the Commission's most recent status report, a total of 12,009,325 numbers were registered with the DNCL as of October 31, up 118,537 over September’s figures.
The total of telemarketing complaints filed in October was about 7,300, down from approximately 7,600 in September. Since the DNCL's launch in 2008, 755,582 complaints have been logged.
Ten new investigations were opened…
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