OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The Federal Liberal Association in Guelph, ON, has been hit with a $4,900 fine by the CRTC for its use of automatic dialers, also known as robocalls, during the 2011 election.
The Commission said Friday that its decision pertained to robocalls made over a period of approximately one hour on April 30, 2011 that did not comply with the country’s Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules. The violations involved a pre-recorded message sent by the Association that failed to identify on whose behalf the call was made, did not provide necessary call-back information, and failed to display the originating telephone number or…
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OTTAWA – Complaints about telemarketing spiked in July, with the CRTC fielding approximately 17,000 complaints.
According to the Commission’s most recent status report, five new investigations were opened in July, bringing the number of active investigations to 172.
The national do not call list (DNCL) now contains 10,936,524 telephone or fax numbers. Since its launch in 2008, 585,846 complaints have been logged.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – Cogeco Diffusion has received CRTC approval to amend the broadcasting licence for radio station CJMF-FM Québec to a specialized format devoted to spoken word programming.
In its decision, the Commission noted that CJMF-FM already broadcasts spoken word programming during peak listening hours, and still intends to broadcast 17 hours of music programming per broadcast week.
“In light of the above, the Commission is of the view that approval of the amendments proposed by CJMF-FM would only have a limited impact on the Québec radio market, and no undue negative financial impact on incumbent radio stations”, the decision…
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QUISPAMSIS – The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) has added its voice to those speaking out against the proposed merger of Bell and Astral.
Describing the matter as “profoundly a consumer issue”, CCSA president Alyson Townsend said that should the deal be approved, Canadian TV viewers will continue to be denied the ability to buy and pay for only the channels they really want. In addition, small cable and telephone TV distributors presently serving rural and remote communities in Canada would most likely be put out of business or gobbled up by Bell.
Citing her organization’s experience as a member of the…
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“ONLY IN CANADA” were the three words I couldn’t get out of my head while reading Corus Entertainment’s application to the CRTC to change the Nature of Service (NOS) for its specialty channel OWN.
Stateside, OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network) has a pretty straightforward history. Daytime talk TV queen Oprah wanted to do something new – start her own cable channel and then step down from her popular TV show. So, she partnered with Discovery Communications and together they rebranded Discovery Health as OWN. The channel has not been the runaway success in the ratings most assumed it would be…
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PERHAPS WE’RE DIGGING too hard but we wonder if, in approving the sale of Leafs TV, Gol TV and NBA TV on Thursday, the CRTC is sending a message to Bell Canada that its stated benefits package for the purchase of Astral Media won’t make it out of next month’s hearing intact.
The Commission took a vigorous look at the valuation the new owners of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment (Bell Canada, Rogers Media and existing minority shareholder Lawrence Tanenbaum) put on the regulated broadcast assets of the company which also owns The Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto…
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THESE CRTC HEARINGS INTO big acquisitions have simply become giant public negotiating exercises where a lot of dirty laundry is aired in public by those who feel they’ve been wronged in the past. It becomes payback time, if you will.
The applicant – in this case, Bell Media – puts in an application that is a swing for the fences. It cocks its regulatory bat and takes a mighty swing, looking for that grand slam home run on the first pitch, where all of its proposals are accepted by the Commission – but knowing full well it’s likely to miss…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor's Videotron is making its first step toward eliminating analog cable television service throughout its network.
Last Friday, the company issued a stop-sell order for new analog television subscriptions. The end goal is the transition of its approximately 412,000 remaining analog TV customers (many of which are hotel rooms or other business customers) to the company's illico digital service.
"We need more space in the network," said Videotron vice-president Isabelle Dessureault. In areas like western Montreal, where analog cable is still prevalent, Videotron devotes about 55 of its 135 6-MHz television channels to analog service. Ending analog service completely…
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WHILE WE HAVE NO inside information to give you, we have covered enough CRTC hearings featuring the current crop of Bell executives and regulatory folks to guess at what the thrust of their presentation will be when they face the panel of CRTC commissioners in Montreal come September 10th.
They are probably going to ask what all the fuss is about. The media industry has consolidated at a rapid pace with the likes of Bell, Rogers, Shaw, and Quebecor owning significant carrier as well as media assets. With one more company, Astral Media, assimilated into Bell…
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OTTAWA – The ‘Say No To Bell’ coalition is taking issue with interventions filed by Telefilm Canada and the Terrace, BC detachment of the RCMP in support Bell’s proposed takeover of Astral Media.
In a letter addressed to Heritage Minister James Moore, the heads of Cogeco, Eastlink and Quebecor expressed surprise that the publically funded federal agencies would submit interventions that “go beyond their respective competence and mandate”.
“In our view, these federal public bodies should have known better than to take sides on this public policy debate before the federal regulators in charge of reviewing the proposed merger”, reads the letter…
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