OTTAWA – Just months after unveiling a new wireless code of conduct designed to regulate carriers by capping fees on cancellation fees and data overage charges, the CRTC may be getting ready to do the same with wireless roaming rates.
In an email letter today distributed to 36 companies, the CRTC has asked the country’s large and small carriers to provide information about their Canada and U.S. wireless roaming rates, terms and conditions, as well as revenues dating back to 2007 for voice, data, and text messaging services.
“Over the past year, the…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has decided November 5th is the day it will hear why Corus Entertainment should be able to purchase French specialty channels Historia and Series+, three Ottawa radio stations and the piece of Teletoon (including its other animation brands) it does not yet own.
In March, Corus agreed to purchase the assets in question as part of the divestitures required as conditions of the Bell Media purchase of Astral Media. While it already held 50% of Teletoon/Télétoon (as well as Teletoon Retro in English and French, and the Cartoon Network) with Astral, it…
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TORONTO – For thousands of southern Ontario cottagers, Webers Burgers is an institution that’s part of many families’ trek up Hwy 11 to cottage country.
On Friday, September 6, the first 5,000 people to visit the popular restaurant will be treated to a free burger courtesy of specialty channel Cottage Life, which is marking its launch with the free hamburger giveaway.
The Cottage Life channel officially launches September 4 with a national free preview in 9.2 million homes.
The Webers promotion is part of a national multimedia campaign designed to highlight the broad appeal of Cottage…
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TORONTO – Shaw Media is supporting today’s kickoff of its newest (read “TVTropolis rebranded”) lifestyle channel DTOUR with a national multi-platform marketing and advertising campaign.
Shaw's DTOUR specialty channel launched today with a national promo campaign that included blanketing Toronto's Bloor subway station (above) with images from various reality series, including this one from Continue Reading
DARTMOUTH, NS – Bell Media has agreed to sell five of the 10 radio properties that it must divest as part of its acquisition of Astral to Newfoundland Capital Corp.’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Newcap Inc., for $112 million.
For Newcap, which already owns 88 radio stations across Canada, today’s deal marks the company’s foray into two of Canada’s largest radio markets, as it picks up two Toronto and three Vancouver Bell radio stations.
Newcap will acquire the radio broadcasting licenses of CHBM-FM (Boom 97.3) and CFXJ-FM (93.5 Flow) in Toronto, and CKZZ-FM (Virgin Radio 95.3), CHHR-FM (Shore 104.3 FM), and CISL-AM (AM 650)…
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VANCOUVER – A new report from The Fraser Institute this morning says that Ottawa will only achieve its stated goal of providing Canadians with more choice and competition in the wireless marketplace if it removes restrictions on foreign ownership of telecommunication companies.
“The goal of achieving and maintaining a competitive market is not the same as having a minimum number of competing firms,” said Steven Globerman, Fraser Institute senior fellow and Kaiser Professor of International Business at Western Washington University, in the official press release. “By setting up rules that handicap the three large Canadian telecoms and favour small or…
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MONTREAL — Vincent Geracitano runs the gamut of emotions describing the future of his television channel: pride, enjoyment, worry, but mostly anger about how it's being taken away from him. More than once during an interview with Cartt.ca, he's brought to tears.
When the CRTC made its decisions on mandatory carriage public August 8, it denied most of the applications from existing or proposed channels seeking the status for the first time, and approved most of the applications for renewal. Géracitano's channel, Avis de recherche, was the only service with mandatory carriage that had its renewal denied. And he doesn't…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has dismissed a complaint filed by former-Astral Media against Videotron which alleged that Videotron's illico Club Unlimited service unfairly competes with Astral's (now Bell Media's) Super Ecran network.
In its decision the CRTC disagreed with Astral's argument that Illico Club, launched by Videotron in February, had violated the regulatory framework and certain conditions of Videotron?'s video on demand licence.
The condition in question states that a licensee is prohibited from offering a Canadian SVOD package that is directly competitive with a genre-protected Canadian linear…
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TORONTO – The CBC will begin airing advertisements on CBC Radio 2 and Espace musique this fall, as the Corp announced a deal today with Canadian Broadcast Sales to represent advertising sales for both properties.
The radio sales organization will work with CBC and Radio-Canada's sales and marketing teams. In Quebec, Espace musique will be represented by Groupe Force Radio, a CBS partner.
"?I?'m confident that by working closely with our team at CBC and through their unmatched experience in radio advertising sales, together we will deliver to our clients a streamlined and effective way to access…
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TORONTO – A number of multicultural organizations have added their voices to calls for a CRTC public hearing into cuts made by Rogers to OMNI TV's multicultural programming.
More than 20 organizations, including the National Congress of Italian Canadians, the South Asian Women?s Centre (SAWC), the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP), the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO) and the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA), as well as two federal MPs are reported to support an application made by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union requesting a public hearing…
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