HAMILTON – The CBC’s new local digital setup isn’t good enough to serve the Steel City, says city councillor Brian McHattie, who insists Hamilton needs its own CBC radio station.
The councillor (who serves the ward where Cartt.ca is based) has sent a letter to CBC CEO Hubert Lacroix as well as all of the local MPs saying that since there are no available frequencies for another radio station in Hamilton, the CBC should instead purchase one of the Toronto stations which Bell Media has promised to divest as part of its purchase of Astral Media.
The Toronto stations put on…
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MARKHAM, ON – Raj Shoan, Ontario Commissioner at the CRTC, will be the luncheon keynote speaker at Connection 2013, the Ontario Association of Broadcasters announced Friday.
Shoan was appointed to the Ontario Commissioner position in June and has broad public and private sector experience in communications law and regulatory affairs.
He previously served as the CBC/Radio Canada's director of regulatory affairs, where he led the Corp's…
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OTTAWA – The number of telemarketing complaints dropped in July, and fewer new phone or fax numbers were added to the country?'s national do not call list (DNCL) during this period compared to June 2013.
According to the Commission'?s most recent status report as of July 31, 37,386 new phone or fax numbers were added in July, a marked decrease from the 163,915 numbers added during May and June. A total of 11,858,562 numbers were registered with the DNCL as of July 31.
The total of telemarketing complaints filed in July was at 8,664,…
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GATINEAU – With weeks to go before the Local Programming Improvement Fund gets cut in half, two independent television stations that rely on it are seeking access to a different fund designed to help small-market stations.
CJON (NTV) in St. John's, NL, owned by Newfoundland Broadcasting, and CHEK in Victoria, which is owned in part by its employees who bought it from Canwest, have asked the CRTC to add their stations to the Small Market Local Production Fund. The fund was established in 2003, to help compensate small-market stations for the audience fragmentation caused by direct-to-home satellite distributors. Funded by…
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TORONTO – The National Congress of Italian Canadians says it wants the CRTC to hold a public hearing about the cuts made by Rogers to its OMNI Television's programming.
“We intervened in this process because the program changes announced by Rogers for its OMNI stations affect the 1.4 million Italian Canadians across Canada,” said Michael Tibollo, president of the Congress, said in a release. On May 30, Rogers Media announced the closure of its 18-month old all-Toronto news station CityNews Channel, as well as some news programming cancellations at OMNI, resulting in the loss of 62…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Along with today’s numerous decisions regarding license application requests and renewals and mandatory carriage status, the CRTC also invited Canadians to participate in a review of its policy on the licensing of Canadian national news television services.
Today’s notice of consultation to conduct a review of the state of Canada’s national news services originated from evidence presented during the public hearing in April on mandatory distribution, where a number of issues and concerns came to light over the challenges faced by new entrants offering Category C national news specialty services.
Canadians…
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GATINEAU – For many companies there is much riding on what the CRTC has to say at 11 a.m. this morning.
The Commission will make public its decisions on a wide range of license application requests and renewals Thursday morning, but a few will get far more notice than most. For example, if Sun News does not get its must-carry (and must-pay) status, will owner Quebecor Media really follow through on its threat to close up shop?
Did all-Canadian movie channel gambit Starlight pull the right heartstrings with the panel of commissioners to be granted an all-Canadian…
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OTTAWA – Today’s decision by the CRTC to renew and approve new television programming broadcasters for mandatory distribution represents a step forward in making television services accessible and affordable for Canadians, said consumer rights group the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC).
“The CRTC’s decision today ensures that Canadians’ essential interests are well served by basic television services in Canada. The Commission has also heard the consumer interest in keeping rates low in approving these channels,” said PIAC executive director John Lawford in a release.
PIAC appeared before the CRTC at its mandatory distribution…
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DARTMOUTH, NS – Radio broadcaster Newfoundland Capital Corp. almost tripled its net profit to almost $6 million in the second quarter over the previous three months, driven by what the company calls “organic” increases in revenue.
Revenue for the second quarter was $35.8 million, an increase of $1.5 million or 4% higher than last year. Year-to-date revenue of $64.9 million was $3.1 million or 5% higher than 2012.
EBITDA was at $10.3 million, which was $1.1 million or 12% higher compared to the same period in 2012. Year-to-date EBITDA of $15.5 million was $1.6 million or…
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OTTAWA – And then there were three.
Of the 22 broadcasters that applied for mandatory distribution on cable and satellite companies’ digital basic television service, only three brand new applications received CRTC approval.
Those 22 applications comprised services looking to renew their existing mandatory distribution, existing services seeking to obtain a first distribution order, and from brand new applicants.
NEW APPROVALS
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