by Steve Faguy
GATINEAU – It's the most important decision about private French-language television in Canada in years, but the CRTC's renewal of licenses for major broadcasters contained few surprises.
On Thursday, the CRTC renewed broadcasting licenses for Quebecor's Groupe TVA, Astral Media and the independent specialty channel Canal Évasion. The Commission also reviewed the licenses of the V network (formerly TQS), which was given exceptional relief from its regulatory obligations in 2008 when purchased by its current ownership while in bankruptcy. For the most part, the decisions were based on proposals made during discussions at the hearings in Montreal in…
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TORONTO – Independent producers who attended a special Banff Media Festival preview event and reception in Toronto on Wednesday were likely very encouraged to hear top Canadian media executives speak about the value they place on high-quality original programming.
During a special media leader panel discussion, David Purdy, senior vice-president of content for Rogers Communications, cited several examples of successful TV channels – all of which feature a high percentage of original TV series content in their daily broadcast schedules. “If you look at A&E, they used to carry Murder She Wrote and CSI,” Purdy said. “A&E is now going…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications has received CRTC approval to buy out the half of specialty channels Mystery and The Cave that it doesn't already own.
Both English-language category A channels are currently jointly controlled by Shaw Communications and Quebecor’s TVA Group. In its decision, the Commission valued Mystery at approximately $36 million and The Cave (formerly known as Men TV) at just over $4 million.
The Commission also approved Shaw’s request to spread out the payment of its tangible benefits associated with the transactions over the next seven broadcast years, and to renew the channels’ broadcasting licences through August 31,…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC on Thursday renewed the licences of the French-language television services operated by TVA Group, Astral Media, and Canal Évasion, plus maintained the existing conditions of licence for V.
Noting that TVA has invested an average of 45% of its gross annual revenues in the production of Canadian programming over the last three years, the Commission approved its request to remove all requirements related to the type of programming it broadcasts.
The CRTC directed it to continue to provide the same quantity of dramas, musicals and documentaries that it currently broadcasts, plus devote 80% of its programming…
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TORONTO – Wind Mobile’s legal woes appear to be over after the Supreme Court said Thursday that it would not grant Public Mobile’s leave to appeal an earlier court decision confirming Wind’s compliance with the Canadian ownership rules.
Public Mobile’s petition sought to overturn a Government in Council decision to quash the previous CRTC ruling that Wind’s parent, Globalive Wireless, didn’t comply with the Telecom Act’s foreign ownership rules. At that time, Egypt-based wireless company Orascom Telecom owned two thirds of Globalive’s equity and almost all of its debt.
“Wind is interested in fighting in the marketplace to provide Canadians with…
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OTTAWA – If you ask anyone on the regulatory side of this industry, they’ll tell you that Bob Buchan and Peter Grant are two of the most admired legal minds in the country.
Together, Buchan, of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin and Grant, of McCarthy Tetrault, created and organized the Law Society of Upper Canada’s New Developments in Communications Law and Policy Conference, held every two years in Ottawa. It’s a must-attend for those working the regulatory trenches in Ottawa.
As stewardship of the conference has been handed over to co-chairs Grant Buchanan of McCarthy Tetrault and Laurence Dunbar of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin,…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC received 39 new complaints in the first quarter of 2012 about the Internet traffic management practices (ITMPs) used by Internet service providers.
In its latest status report, the Commission noted that the vast majority of the complaints centred on ITMP usage, which are complaints related to the effect of such practices on customers.
At March 31, 2012, the CRTC still had 8 active complaints but had closed 27. Closed complaints include complaints where Commission staff determined that the ISP is compliant with the CRTC’s policies, or the ISP has come into compliance subsequent to the complaint, and…
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OTTAWA – Small local telephone companies operating in rural regions of Ontario and Quebec have enjoyed special protection from competition for long enough and now is the time to open up their markets to cable competitors, its competitors and potential competitors have told the Governor-in-Council.
The Ontario Telecommunications Association (OTA) and the Association des Compagnies de Téléphone du Québec Inc. (ACTQ) fear that if their markets are fully opened to competition, they will suffer severe financial impacts that could put them out of business (as they have noted on Cartt.ca). They are urging the Governor-in-Council to…
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IT’S BEEN A NUMBER OF months since we last tried to publicly discomfit the Canadian Internet service provider industry over its lack of action on delivering a cohesive, national, inexpensive broadband program to low income urban Canadians.
As we’ve noted, it’s happening south of the border. A program (the creation of private industry done at the urging of the Federal Communications Commission and with zero government money) called Connect 2 Compete allows qualifying low income families to get access to broadband for $9.95 a month as well as to low cost computers and tech support.
In the…
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GATINEAU – The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) and Rogers Communications have told the CRTC that they are prepared to accept an extension of the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) as long as the program is only available to independent broadcasters.
In addition to excluding the vertically integrated companies and CBC/Radio-Canada, (which has campaigned hard to keep it) the CCSA said that LPIF monies should only be made available for new, incremental local programming. Despite this slight change of heart, the small BDUs would prefer a complete and immediate elimination of the fund.
According to Access Communications,…
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