OTTAWA – Some 31,500 rural Canadians who relied on rabbit ears or antennas to view local TV now have another year to apply for Shaw Direct’s Local Television Satellite Solution (LTSS), to ensure the transition to DTV and loss of OTA transmitters doesn’t leave them behind. Under LTSS Shaw provides a free dish, receiver and installation to rural viewers so they can continue to receive local channels.
The CRTC in a letter to Shaw has agreed to extend the eligibility period for LTSS for 12 months to November 30, 2013. It also approved Shaw’s requested…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC says it will begin regulating Northwestel’s backbone connectivity V-Connect IP VPN service, and has ordered it to file a revised pricing model for what it charges competing internet service providers, along with a cost study justifying that price by year’s end.
The CRTC first directed Northwestel to file competitive rates nearly a year ago, but the company appealed the decision. The regulator this week responded by rejecting all of the carrier’s arguments in its decision.
“Commission concludes that Northwestel has market power in its operating territory with respect…
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AFTER A LONG CAREER in telecom in Canada, Len Katz calls his time at the CRTC the best years of his career.
The 61-year-old former vice-chairman, telecom (and former Bell Canada and Rogers executive) is spending some time now taking a deep breath, a bit of a break, after seven-plus extraordinarily busy years at the Commission. While he admits some boredom has already set in since leaving last month, he is happy to be able to spend extra time with family before deciding what to do next.
Despite some rumours in the summer, his health is good after recovering from a…
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SEED, THE NEW CITYV SITCOM now shooting in Halifax, will debut in Atlantic Canada, as across the country, early in 2013.
Citytv just won’t simsub the sperm donor comedy in the Maritimes, and local TV viewers will see Citytv Toronto commercials when the series bows. The broadcaster wanted to simsub it, but the CRTC said no to the company’s request last month. That’s a challenge for the braintrust at Rogers Media, where Atlantic Canada remains the one Canadian market where Citytv has no simsub privileges, and so depends on distant-signal carriage via BDUs.
To be sure, John…
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GATINEAU – Quebecor Media renewed its assault on CBC/Radio-Canada’s access to information practices during the corporation’s licence renewal hearing on Monday by requesting the CBC include access to information data in transparency and accountability reports to the Commission.
CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais, however, wondered if it’s wise to have a parallel system regarding access to information.
“We’re not asking for the CRTC to impose sanctions on CBC/Radio-Canada with respect to access to information like the Information Commissioner can. What we’re asking for is in the reports that are submitted to the CRTC, which allow the Commission to verify how…
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TORONTO – University of Toronto campus radio station CIUT-FM 89.5 has filed a lawsuit against its former station manager Brian Burchell seeking to retrieve more than $162,000 in station funds that he allegedly used to pay for personal expenses before he was fired in October 2010.
In its statement of claim filed against Burchell to the Ontario Superior Court, the University of Toronto Community Radio Inc. (UTCRI), which owns and operates CIUT, is seeking damages of $162,193.68, payment of its legal fees and other damages as may be proven. UTCRI is a registered charity that relies in…
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GATINEAU – CBC’s call for greater regulatory flexibility to help it deal with the new realities of the broadcasting environment got some support on the fourth day of its licence renewal hearing.
Shaw Communications Inc. appearing later Thursday afternoon, said that all broadcasters should have additional room to operate in an environment that is being challenged by the emergence of non-traditional players such as Apple, Google, Netflix and Amazon.
“Regulatory micro-management is neither necessary nor efficient,” Paul Robertson, president of Shaw Media, said in his opening remarks. “All of us in the broadcasting sector require the ability to respond quickly to…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications said Wednesday it has signed an agreement with SamKnows Ltd., a well-trusted independent broadband performance testing company, to conduct ongoing measurement of broadband internet speed, based on customer data collected in the home.
SamKnows measures broadband performance around the globe, including measuring for the FCC in the United States, for example. The U.S.-based company also recently completed a small pilot project with the CRTC which used SamKnows to test rural broadband speeds.
"With Internet usage exploding, speed is more important than ever to the customer experience," said John Boynton, Rogers’ EVP and chief marketing officer, in the press…
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GATINEAU – The Canadian broadcast environment has changed considerably since 1999, the last time CBC/Radio-Canada appeared before the CRTC for a licence renewal hearing, and the changes in the world since requires an utterly new regulatory framework for the national public broadcaster, the corporation told the Commission on the first days of its licence renewal hearing Monday.
Direct-to-home satellite TV was only emerging, cells phones were for calling, and YouTube and Facebook were years away from even being thought up then, Hubert Lacroix, CBC president and CEO said during his opening remarks. Now, with the myriad devices and applications used…
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GATINEAU – After nearly a full day Monday examining corporate aspects of CBC/Radio-Canada’s licence renewal, the CRTC began a thorough study of the specifics of the broadcaster’s proposals late that day and through Tuesday.
Commission chair Jean-Pierre Blais brought up CBC’s commitment to seven hours of programs of national interest (PNI) per week. He wondered how the corporation decided on the number particularly since some interveners believe the corporation should be committing a greater amount each week to PNI.
Christine Wilson, executive director of content planning for English Language Services at CBC, said the corporation wanted to come up with a…
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