GATINEAU – Do customers want more choice or more channels? Are the two questions mutually exclusive?
If that sounds like an odd pair of questions because choice and channels can’t be unlinked like that, hear us out, because those two queries are what repeatedly sprung to mind reading the progress reports submitted to the CRTC by Bell Canada, Shaw Communications, Rogers Communications and Vidéotron on the vertically integrated companies’ moves to allow more programming choice and flexibility for their customers.
When it released its new policy on vertically integrated media and distribution companies last fall, the CRTC gave the big four…
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TORONTO – The CBC’s plan to generate revenue by adding advertising to its national radio networks CBC Radio 2 and Espace musique received a warm response by the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA). (The proposal has yet to receive CRTC approval.)
The industry organization, which has long advocated for advertising access to CBC/Radio-Canada, said Thursday that the move “allows government to be fiscally prudent while still advancing public policy goals”.
“Advertisers are seeking evermore narrowly-defined target audiences to promote their products and services”, said Bob Reaume, VP of policy and research, in a statement. “They require a depth and breadth of…
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GATINEAU – Revenues for cable and satellite companies increased by more than $1 billion last year but profit margins continue to decline according to financial information released on Wednesday by the CRTC for the broadcast year ending August 31, 2011.
Cable companies reported revenues of $11 billion in 2011 (an 8.2% increase from the previous year’s total of $10.1 billion), for their basic/non-basic television services as well as Internet and telephone services. They however also reported higher operating expenses of 10.7% during the same period which hit $6.1 billion compared to $5.5 billion in 2010.
The CRTC says…
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GATINEAU – Profits of private conventional broadcasters have risen to pre-recession levels mainly due to cuts in overall program expenses says the CRTC in financial information it released Wednesday for the broadcast year ending August 31, 2011.
While revenues for private conventional television stations remained nearly frozen from 2010 to 2011 ($2.147 billion to $2.153 billion), broadcasters managed to cut 7.2% from their operating expenses, reducing them to $1.9 billion from $2.05 billion. The result is that operating profits rose from $11.5 million in 2010 to $160.6 million last year. Including contributions from the Local Programming…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s wireless providers may soon have to adhere to a new code of conduct.
The CRTC said Wednesday that it is seeking comments on whether the wireless market has changed enough to warrant its intervention in the development of a national retail wireless services consumer code, after receiving “several applications” recommending that one be established. (Cartt.ca first reported back in February on Telus's demand for such a process.) A number of provinces have recently introduced amendments to consumer protection legislation that directly or indirectly impact wireless services.
In 1994, the CRTC decided against regulating the wireless…
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OTTAWA – The Toronto radio market is gaining a new station after the CRTC approved an application for an English-language commercial FM radio station in Uxbridge, ON.
Controlled by Frank Torres, on behalf of a corporation to be incorporated, the new station has proposed a classic hits format targeting adults aged of 25 and 54 with a heavy dose of local programming including sports, weather forecasts, traffic reports, an events calendar, business reports and special features.
The new station will be a first radio service for the community of Uxbridge. Its licence will expire August 31, 2018.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – The CBC will eliminate 650 jobs, including 475 this fiscal year, as it struggles to swallow the $115 million in budget cuts announced as part of last week’s federal budget.
President and CEO Hubert Lacroix told staff Wednesday afternoon that it will seek to increase self-generated revenues by adding advertising and sponsorship to its national radio networks CBC Radio 2 and Espace musique (assuming it can get CRTC approval on that), while CBC Radio One and Premiere Chaine will stay ad-free for now, leasing existing real estate, and by divesting of non-core assets, including digital specialty…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has rejected a request to stay its recent decisions on introducing local phone and broadband competition in areas served by small independent phone companies.
The Commission said Friday that the request made by the Ontario Telecom Association (OTA) and Association des companies de telephone du Québec (ACTQ) failed to demonstrate that their member companies will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of being granted their stay requests, and that “the balance of convenience favours not granting the stay requests”. The Commission also asked the small ILECs to track and maintain a record of all relevant costs…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – A five month investigation has resulted in 85 more telemarketing companies, many of them small businesses, caught violating the country’s do not call rules.
The CRTC said Monday that has issued citations to 74 telemarketers who had either failed to register with the national do not call list operator or subscribe to the national do not call list. Notices of violation were issued to an additional 11 companies for what the Commission described as “more significant breaches”, resulting in fines totalling $41,000.
“Today’s announcement should serve as a reminder that registering as a telemarketer is a basic requirement,” said Andrea…
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IT’S PRETTY UNUSUAL for dropped cellular phone calls to be mentioned in a Speech from the Throne.
But, that’s exactly what happened last fall when Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor Gordon Barnhart said in that speech that “improving digital and electronic infrastructure is essential to the new economy,” and that “(d)ropped cell phone calls are still a problem, despite an increased investment in SaskTel’s 4G network of $170 million in my government’s first term.”
SaskTel’s ownership – the taxpayers of Saskatchewan – is a holdover of the past, when many telcos were government-owned. While its competitors feel competing against the government is unfair, the…
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