OTTAWA – The CRTC issued a notice of consultation today calling for comments to amend regulations that would exempt commercial and ethnic radio stations with less than $1.25 million in revenues to make basic contributions to Canadian content development (CCD).
The Commission says the proposed change to the Radio Regulations, 1986, would help reduce the regulatory and administrative burden on some smaller stations to report basic CCD spending, which can often require filing of extra submissions to fully document a station’s compliance on CCD spending.
The proposed change would not affect funding for Canadian…
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OTTAWA – While the CRTC’s recently introduced Wireless Code states that it will apply to new wireless contracts beginning December 2, 2013, it now appears the Commission expects Canada’s wireless carriers to begin operating by the spirit of the code well before that date.
“The six month transition period was established to allow the industry to adjust its business practices to bring them into line with the Code. Carriers are free to implement any part or parts of the Code prior to the 2 December 2013 implementation date,” the CRTC wrote in a letter…
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OTTAWA – Fifty-five campus and community radio stations will receive $996,371 to implement projects to improve local programming thanks to the second round of funding of the Community Radio Fund of Canada’s Radiometres program.
The goal of Radiometres is to increase the development, volunteer participation, and sustainability of campus and community radio stations.
And there are as many ways to meet these outcomes as there are stations. For example, this year the CRFC will fund such initiatives as an educational program on Aboriginal languages, capsules on families that have shaped Acadian history, a new program…
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QUISPAMSIS, N.B. – This year’s Canadian Cable Systems Alliance annual general meeting and Connect conference will be the 20th year the group gathers for networking, knowledge and fun.
“It really is the only opportunity everybody has to get together anymore,” said CCSA president and CEO Alyson Townsend.
The 2013 conference will take place September 22-24 at the Fairmont Mont Tremblant, Quebec. The theme of this year’s Connect is focused on community and all that means.
“So, we’re celebrating the CCSA community that has been around for 20 years, we’re celebrating the communities that are served by our members – and that is…
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MONTREAL – A group representing 8,000 anglophone artists in Quebec is hoping to convince the CRTC to require Videotron to include an English-language community TV channel in the Montreal-area as a condition of its license, which is up for renewal this summer.
The English Language Arts Network (ELAN) said Tuesday it is building an alliance with the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), a not-for-profit which represents 41 English-language community organizations across the province, to intervene at the upcoming CRTC public hearings concerning Vidéotron’s Montreal licence renewal.
ELAN says the Videotron licence affects the 600,000 English-speaking…
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WHITEHORSE, YT – The head of Toronto-based telecom Iristel Inc. told the CRTC today telecommunications in Canada’s northern region will only truly thrive in an environment that allows competition and innovation rather than the current status quo of Northwestel’s monopoly.
Speaking at the public hearing reviewing the regulatory framework and proposed modernization plan for Bell-subsidiary Northwestel, Iristel president and CEO Samer Bishay explained in a prepared statement that it planned to tell the Commission that the northern incumbent telephone company “has squandered millions of dollars of annual public subsidies with little upgrades in service…Simple things like…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU – Canada’s 675 commercial radio stations reported total revenue of $1.62 billion in the 2012 broadcast year, a figure which has slowly but steadily increased since 2009, according to the CRTC’s latest statistical and financial report for this sector released today.
Despite competition from satellite, online and mobile services, total revenues for AM and FM stations increased by 0.4%, from $1.61 billion in 2011 to $1.62 billion in 2012; with the report indicating revenues have increased by 7.4% since 2009.
While overall sales of local and national times have also steadily risen…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has amended the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations to implement the exemption order applicable Category B services that serve fewer than 200,000 subscribers and that operate under an approved nature of service.
The amended Regulations, which will be published in the Canada Gazette, Part II, will come into effect on the date of their registration.
The purpose of the amendments is to ensure that certain provisions governing the distribution of programming services by BDUs continue to apply to exempt Category B services. These include the provision that a BDU cannot provide any…
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TORONTO – Veritas Investment Research says the speech by CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais to the 2013 Banff World Media Fest last week appears to foreshadow a negative ruling for Bell/Astral II and that investors should pay heed.
In a research note to clients last week, Veritas noted that investors are betting that the answer from the CRTC will be affirmative, and not negative like the first go-around in October of 2012. It’s not a safe bet, says the company. “Astral Media Inc.’s class A shares are trading at approximately $48.50, compared to BCE Inc.’s offer price…
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INUVIK, NWT – The CRTC began its public hearing today to review the regulatory framework and proposed modernization plan for Bell-subsidiary Northwestel.
“This review will attempt to strike the right balance between market forces, network investment and regulatory intervention to meet these goals for the North,” CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais said in his opening statement.
“As we study Northwestel’s modernization plan, the hearing panel will be looking at the degree to which it will provide northern Canadians with access to services that are comparable to the rest of the country.”
In 2011, the CRTC…
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