GATINEAU – The CRTC knocked one item off the docket for the next couple of weeks with the approval of Blue Ant Media’s purchase of specialty service Bold from the CBC for $10 million.
Bold’s license renewal (and the CBC’s oft-told problems with the channel’s conditions of license) were to be examined beginning next week during the two-week long hearing into the Corp.’s license renewal but with the sale, that has been removed from the procedure.
Bold, a category A channel formerly called Country Canada, has about 2.6 million subscribers and conditions of license which say it is to focus on…
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GATINEAU – The small incumbent local telephone companies (SILECs) are urging the CRTC to reject proposals calling for changes to the local subsidy regime for lost telephony customers (lost NAS). They also say a regime that will force them to raise local rates to make up for a shortfall in toll interconnection revenue won’t work.
The large incumbents, as well as Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications, want the Commission to only allow the 50% subsidy rule to apply to lost customers who port their number to a competing carrier. The SILECs counter that this is not what the CRTC had…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today launched an online discussion “to facilitate broader discussion among Canadians on a new code for wireless services, such as cellphones and other personal mobile devices,” says today’s press release.
This discussion is part of a proceeding that will include a public hearing beginning on February 11, 2013, in Gatineau, as previously reported by Cartt.ca.
"We encourage Canadians to join the online discussion and have their say on how wireless contracts could be clearer and easier to understand," said Jean-Pierre Blais, chairman of the CRTC, in the release. "By sharing their views, Canadians…
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MONTREAL – Colba.Net Telecom is expanding its new Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service. The move follows CRTC approval of its the application for a broadcasting regional licence to operate a Class 1 terrestrial broadcasting distribution undertaking in Montreal, Drummondville, Trois-Rivières, Gatineau, Sherbrooke, and in the surrounding areas of Quebec.
The Commission has also recently approved its licences to operate terrestrial broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs) in Ontario, BC, the Maritimes and across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
It says its new IPTV service will offer several high definition (HD) channels, including…
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TORONTO – The new Board of the Canadian Communications Foundation (CCF) said it’s moving to address the need for new funding so that it can continue. CCF provides the definitive history of broadcasting in Canada on its website and was originally funded by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, and later supported through CRTC-approved Benefits Package grants from BCE and Astral. A registered non-profit charitable organization, CCF has also benefitted from private donors in the past.
This past Thursday the CCF elected its 2012-2013 Board at the Foundation’s Annual General Meeting at Ryerson University in Toronto.
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is threatening to withhold subsidies to four Quebec small ILECs for delays in opening up their networks to local telephone competition. Cogeco Cable claims the delays have prevented it from offering competing triple-play bundles (telephone, Internet, television) to those regions.
The regulator denied Cogeco the settlement it sought, but instead issued a Notice of Consultation regarding the potential withholding of subsidy payments to CoopTel, Téléphone Guèvremont Inc., Téléphone Milot Inc., and Sogetel Inc.
The decision stems from the failure of the ILECs to complete an interconnection arrangement based on leased…
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DARTMOUTH – Newfoundland Capital Corporation recorded a loss of $1.1 million in the third quarter compared to a profit of $4.3 million in 2011. The company attributed the decrease in profit primarily to a $7.5 million non-cash impairment charge resulting from the CRTC’s decision to end the Local Programming Improvement Fund.
Year-to-date profit of $3.5 million was down 74% from $9.6 million in the same period in 2011. It blamed the decline on the impairment charge combined with unrealized mark-to-market investment portfolio losses this year of $2.3 million.
"We are very pleased that positive…
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MONTREAL – Could an AM talk-radio war be brewing in Montréal? Looks that way with the city’s top-rated English-language radio station CJAD 800 AM now facing a new competitor on the 600 AM dial.
The CRTC today approved the application for a new English-language talk radio station from Montreal businessmen Paul Tietolman, Nicolas Tétrault and Rajiv Pancholy. The trio has promised to fill 100% of its schedule with local programming that primarily targets those between the ages of 25 and 54. It will also become the sister station to French-language talk station 940 AM…
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GATINEAU – The small telephone companies and their larger competitors are seeing eye-to-eye on some aspects of proposed changes to the regulatory framework for small incumbent local exchange carriers (SILECs). But on others, they remain at loggerheads.
When it comes to giving SILECs the same flexibility as the ILECs in market trials and promotions, and the use of rate ranges, there is broad consensus among interveners. The same goes for maintaining the basket of services structure. Telus is an outlier on this issue. It wants the creation of a fifth basket that would group all competitor services – interconnection and…
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by Steve Faguy
GATINEAU – With the recent, unexpected and much-publicized denial of Bell Canada’s purchase of Astral Media (because the players didn't prove the transaction to be a net benefit to Canadians) as a backdrop, the CRTC made it clear to Rogers Media Wednesday that its tough line isn't limited to Canada's largest media company.
At a hearing in Gatineau on Wednesday, the commission grilled Rogers, Channel Zero and a Montreal-based start-up on their multi-part plan to essentially convert ethnic television station CJNT Montreal (branded Metro 14) into two television stations, allowing Citytv to enter Canada's second-largest…
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