OTTAWA – Canada’s national do not call list (DNCL) registry now contains more than 12.1 million phone numbers, as 109,333 phone were added to that figure between November 1, 2013, and January 31, 2014.
The official number of telephone or fax numbers stands at 12,118,658, according to the CRTC’s most recent status report. Approximately 40,000 numbers were added in November, with another estimated 31,000 in December, and approximately 37,000 more in January.
The number of telemarketing complaints filed between November and January was 25, 426. Since the DNCL’s launch in 2008, 781,008 telemarketing complaints have been logged.
Five new investigations were…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – SourceKnowledge, a Canadian video advertising exchange company, today announced it has partnered with San Francisco-based adRise, considered one of the largest video ad distributors on connected TV.
The partnership means that brands and agencies represented by SK can now run their online video campaigns across 16 connected TV devices including all gaming consoles such as Xbox, streaming boxes such as Roku, smart TVs, Blu-ray players and tablets.
As TV consumption habits change, so do the flow of ad dollars. Canadian viewing habits are changing the landscape considerably. The CRTC reported in 2013 that one-third of Canadians watch TV online…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Bell Media will open two new regional production development offices in Vancouver and Winnipeg, the company announced Wednesday.
Bell Media has hired senior industry executive Michele McMahon (pictured) as a development manager to run the new Vancouver office, which is set to open on Monday, Feb. 17.
The office in Winnipeg will open on March 3, and will be headed by new development manager Brandice Vivier.
Both McMahon and Vivier will report to Susan Makela, Bell Media’s director of independent production and Canadian programming management.
“These appointments reiterate Bell Media's commitment to Canada's creative and vibrant independent production community,” said Corrie Coe, SVP of independent production,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – A Senate committee turned to a former broadcast regulator for insight on how to address the challenges facing CBC/Radio-Canada in light of its loss of Hockey Night in Canada to Rogers Communications last year.
Appearing via video conference from Florida, former chair of the CRTC Konrad von Finckenstein told the Standing Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications what he believes could be done to improve the chances for success of Canada’s public broadcaster. He pointed to unloading the corporation’s vast over-the-air broadcast network, refocusing of the public broadcaster’s content as well as changing the governance structure and oversight…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Tuesday’s federal budget is being characterized as a “do-nothing” budget by opposition politicians and the “one before the big one” by business journalists, as Canada prepares for an election year in 2015. The small advances made in Budget 2014 to wireless telecommunications and broadband Internet policies would seem to support those views.
Tabled in the House of Commons along with Economic Action Plan 2014, the Canadian government’s Budget 2014 provided little real news value for the telecommunications sector. What was included amounted to a re-announcement of the federal government’s intentions with regard to capping wholesale domestic roaming fees…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Without domestic roaming rate caps Wind Mobile can’t compete in the Canadian marketplace and despite what the incumbent wireless companies have to say, the high wholesale rates they charge the newcomers prevent some Canadians from choosing Wind as their provider.
So, the CRTC must step in, the company told the CRTC in the reply phase of the Regulator’s dive into wholesale wireless domestic roaming rates, the initial comments for which we summarized here last week.
In its reply, Wind noted several consumer groups told the CRTC that the fact Wind offers “home” rates for when…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – BCE ended its final fiscal quarter of 2013 with a 6% increase in its annual common share dividend and EBITDA of almost $2 billion, driven in large part by revenue growth in its Bell wireline business.
The company reported its common share dividend will increase by $0.14 per share to $2.47 effective with BCE’s Q1 2014 dividend, adding that today’s dividend announcement is BCE’s tenth successive increase in five years.
BCE reported Q4 2013 net earnings attributable to common shareholders of $495 million, compared to $666 million in Q4 2012. The year-over-year decrease in net earnings was due to…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is launching an inquiry to examine the impact of satellite services on the quality and cost of providing telecommunications services to the country’s northern and remote communities.
The inquiry, to be led by CRTC Commissioner Candice Molnar, will focus on communities in remote regions that are served solely by satellite.
As part of a decision released last December concerning a four-year modernization plan of Northwestel’s broadband internet and wireless services for certain areas of northern Canada, the CRTC identified a digital divide between communities that receive these services over terrestrial networks, such…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – A complaint before the CRTC accuses a big Canadian TV broadcaster of behaving poorly by giving itself an undue preference by outright refusing to air advertising from a radio competitor.
The culprit? The CBC.
Leclerc Communication, which bought Quebec City radio stations CJEC-FM (WKND 91.9) and CFEL-FM (CKOI 102.1) from Cogeco when the latter acquired Corus Quebec stations in 2011, says that it has tried and failed to buy local advertising on Radio-Canada's Quebec City television station because of a policy the public broadcaster has to refuse advertising to competitors.
"We believe that it's imperative to promote WKND 91.9 on…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – While it’s all-hands-on-deck time for the CBC’s 16 days of broadcast and new media coverage of the Sochi Winter Olympics, CEO Hubert Lacroix sent out a note of caution to employees last week, warning hard decisions are coming once the sliding, riding, skiing, skating and sledding comes to an end.
“I couldn’t imagine a better start to the year than the Sochi Games!” Lacroix enthused in the staff memo. “Whenever I walk down the hall, wherever I happen to be, the energy is palpable. And the most exciting thing is, in just a few short days, that energy…
Continue Reading
