DARTMOUTH, N.S. – Newcap Inc. announced Thursday it will acquire the broadcasting license for radio station CHNI-FM in Saint John, N.B., from Rogers, pending approval from the CRTC.
“This licence is a great fit for our company as it expands our presence in New Brunswick and represents our entry into the Saint John market. We are eager to serve and become part of the community,” Newcap president and CEO Rob Steele said of the announcement.
Newcap, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Newfoundland Capital Corporation, has 88 radio broadcasting licenses across Canada.
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TORONTO – A group of Canadian telcos, including Rogers, Bell, and Telus, have filed a court motion seeking leave to appeal from certain sections of the CRTC’s wireless code they say are unclear about when the code actually comes into effect.
In a motion filed by the Big Three, along with MTS Inc., NorthernTel, SaskTel, Télébec, and Société en Commandite, the companies contend that the CRTC overstepped its jurisdiction by attempting to make the code “retrospectively applicable” to wireless contracts that were created before the code comes into effect on December 2, 2013.
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MAKE NO MISTAKE, it was a long road, but BCE Inc. finally won the right to purchase the most coveted licensed assets owned by Astral Media. However, CRTC decisions are so much more nuanced than a simple “yes” or “no”.
So below we give you our first impression of the decision broken down by the number of points Bell won with the Regulator – and lost.
WIN: No additional divestitures. Bell executives said repeatedly through the whole process that it could live with certain conditions – even some unprecedented, stringent ones, but it would not proceed with the deal if the…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today approved the $3.2 billion purchase of Astral Media by BCE Inc., but Bell’s regulatory people have MUCH paperwork to file before July 29th in order to satisfy the various conditions of the approval. That said, there doesn’t appear to be anything surprising in the decision which could scuttle the transaction.
As most are well aware, this is the second time Bell attempted to purchase Astral, as the Commission said no to the original 2012 deal last October.
Bell executives pronounced themselves pleased Friday morning, and so they are obviously okay with all the conditions, all of…
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OTTAWA – Will the CRTC approve the deal to let BCE Inc. take control of Astral Media? After weeks of speculation (and 15 months since its intitial bid for Astral was announced), that question will finally be answered Thursday, as the CRTC has confirmed it will release its decision about the Bell/Astral merger June 27, at 4 p.m.
Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien will be in Ottawa tomorrow at the media lock-up at 2:30 p.m. to view the decision just prior to its official release. CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais will address the…
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THE SWIRL OF RUMOURS has to be difficult on the folks who work at Bell Media and Astral Media, what with the flurry of emails, tweets and phone calls we’re experiencing. It’s reached a fever pitch.
What we can tell you is this. From discussions with those who know at the Commission and at the two companies, we expect the decision to be announced this week (something we first noted days ago). While many thought the decision would be released today (Tuesday, the 25th), we don’t believe that to be so, since we were also told…
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ELEVEN MONTHS AGO, the CRTC announced it would get rid of the Local Programming Improvement Fund, a line item applied to the monthly bill of every cable, satellite and telco TV subscriber in the country which was dreamed up and made part of the 2008 Broadcast Distribution Undertaking policy as a stop-gap measure to aid local, non-major-market broadcasters.
It has brought in just over $100 million a year for local private and CBC broadcasters since 2010 ($112 million in 2012), roughly split 60-40 in favour of the privates. Former Commission vice-chair telecom…
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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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