By Ahmad Hathout
The Canadian Media Producers Association is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to hear an appeal challenging the CRTC’s decision to grant Corus regulatory relief of its Canadian content spending obligations, alleging the media company has been delinquent on its obligations to independent content.
The CRTC in May reduced until the next licence renewal date Corus’s obligations to programs of national interest (PNI) from 8.5 per cent of previous year’s revenues to five per cent, which is exactly what the pure play media company asked for because it was struggling financially against the backdrop of…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Supreme Court of Canada has approved late last month the applications of four organizations to submit interventions in its hearing on whether the CRTC has jurisdiction over wireless access to municipal infrastructure.
The Canadian Telecommunications Association, the attorney general of Quebec, the Business Council of Canada, and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce will have the opportunity to submit arguments in the case that could hold significant consequences for the roll-out of 5G technology – or at least that’s what the large telecoms have argued.
Telus is the telecom that won the appeal to the country’s…
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The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) on Wednesday said it is “very disappointed and frankly shocked” by the CRTC’s decision to exclude community television from the base contributions to the Canadian broadcasting system that will be required from online streaming services.
The CRTC announced June 4 that foreign and standalone online streamers that make $25 million or more in annual contributions revenues will be required to contribute five per cent of those revenues into certain funds supporting the broadcasting system in Canada.
In its breakdown of how the base contributions from audio-visual online streaming…
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Bell Canada announced Tuesday its intention to sell its subsidiary Northwestel to Sixty North Unity, a consortium of indigenous organizations from the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, in a transaction worth up to $1 billion in cash.
The deal will see Northwestel become fully indigenous-owned, making it the largest telecommunications company worldwide with full indigenous ownership, a Bell press release says.
The strategic transaction will create more opportunities for investment and ownership in critical infrastructure and communications projects for northern indigenous communities, the release says. In addition, the acquisition “will provide Indigenous communities with greater access to…
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A group of multicultural, community, local, and national news publishers and trade associations, representing hundreds of publications, is calling on the CRTC to make regulations with respect to the Online News Act “that will ensure consistency and fairness, maximize newsroom investment, enhance transparency and minimize misrepresentation,” says a Tuesday press release.
The news publisher coalition’s call for CRTC regulations follows Google’s announcement Friday that it has chosen the Canadian Journalism Collective-Collectif Canadien de Journalisme (CJC-CCJ) to distribute the digital giant’s annual $100-million contribution to eligible news businesses under the Online News Act.
None of…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Bell is telling the CRTC it has not received approval on a proposed tariff that would address the issue of the cost of prep work for its poles to which a Montreal municipality wants to attach.
The Municipalité régionale de comté (MRC) de D’Autray, located in the Lanaudière region northeast of Montreal, filed a Part 1 application in April asking the CRTC to force Bell to make adjustments to its existing attachment applications so that the telco, not MRC, is absorbing the costs of corrective work incumbent upon it.
The demand stems from a Continue Reading
By Connie Thiessen
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) says it’s concerned commercial broadcasters – the largest employer of journalists in Canada – aren’t represented on the new collective chosen by Google to distribute funds under the Online News Act.
The digital giant announced Friday that it had selected the Canadian Journalism Collective-Collectif Canadien de Journalisme (CJC-CCJ) to distribute its annual $100M CAD contribution to eligible news businesses.
CJC-CCJ is led by Erin Millar, the CEO and co-founder of Indiegraf, a tech provider for small and start-up publications. Millar is a journalist and entrepreneur who also founded The Discourse. The not-for-profit organization is made up of 12…
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By Ahmad Hathout
If the CRTC raises the revenue threshold for contributions to the regulator’s administration of telecom matters, it will effectively concentrate the burden on fewer providers, which is the opposite of what it has been trying to do with changes to broadcasting fees that an application to raise the threshold is partially relying upon, Bell argues.
The Independent Telecommunications Providers Association filed a Part 1 application in late April calling for the increase in the revenue threshold from $10 million to $25 million to contribute to the CRTC’s administration of the telecom regime, with an annual…
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Corus and Eastlink announced Thursday that a carriage dispute dating back almost exactly a year ago has been resolved.
Beginning today, Eastlink television subscribers will again have access to Corus’s 33 channels, which include dramas, comedies, kids content, factual, lifestyle and reality series. That premium programming will be available through Corus’s theme packs, which start at $7 per month but can be bundled together at a discounted rate.
Before the dispute, Eastlink subscribers had the Corus channels at no extra charge as part of their TV packages, a spokesperson confirmed.
“We are excited for Eastlink subscribers to once again…
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The CRTC last week asked the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee’s (CISC) Emergency Services Working Group (ESWG) to provide recommendations to ensure 911 calls routed to intermediary call centres are handled in the caller’s preferred official language.
The request stems from incidents reported in January in which 911 calls from francophone residents of Quebec were routed to Sudbury-based intermediary call centre Northern911 and answered in English.
In a May 31 letter to Ryan Anstey of the CISC’s ESWG, the CRTC’s executive director of telecommunications, Leila Wright, says the commission is concerned about the reported events.
“Canadians need…
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