TORONTO – The Ontario government announced today it is proposing legislation that would make cell phone and wireless service contracts easier for consumers to understand.
The proposed legislation, if passed, would require wireless carriers’ contracts to be written in plain language that clearly outlines which services come with the basic fee, and which would result in a higher bill. It would also require providers to get consent from the consumer before amending, renewing or extending a fixed-term contract. In addition, the legislation would enforce a cap on cancellation fees to make it less…
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OTTAWA – Consumer rights group the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) urged the CRTC today to keep basic television service affordable by not asking consumers to pay for “unnecessary” mandatory carriage services.
At a Commission hearing today on applications for mandatory distribution on basic television service, PIAC appeared on behalf of the Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC), Council of Senior Citizens’ Organizations of British Columbia (COSCO), and National Pensioners and Senior Citizens Federation (NPSCF). PIAC asked the CRTC to grant mandatory distribution only in exceptional cases so that consumers would not be burdened with higher costs…
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OTTAWA and KITCHENER-WATERLOO, ON – CBC Radio’s Waterloo Region morning show will resume its broadcast Friday morning after receiving CRTC approval of its broadcast license Thursday afternoon – which it didn’t have when it first launched the station last month.
CBC Radio called the mistake an “operational error,” and suspended the show late Tuesday following a complaint filed with the CRTC by the Ontario Association of Broadcaster’s government committee that the station had launched without CRTC approval.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Record quoted CBC spokesperson Angus McKinnon, who said, “This was a very regrettable…
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GATINEAU – Canadian feature films, along with some big-name filmmakers, took centre stage at the CRTC’s 9(1)(h) hearing on Thursday when Starlight: The Canadian Movie Channel, armed with a panel of noted Canadian film personalities such as Paul Gross, Denys Arcand, David Cronenberg and others, appeared to defend its application for mandatory carriage on digital basic.
Describing Canadian feature films as the “orphans in our broadcasting system,” well known TV and film producer Robert Lantos argued that the CRTC has to fix this imbalance where Canadians “have been denied affordable access to them” by granting Starlight the requested 9(1)(h) status…
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IT MIGHT SURPRISE SOME to learn that one of the fastest growing Canadian media companies is not some sexy, new media, web based disruptor, but in fact built on the oldest electronic media we have: radio.
In about nine years, Vista Radio has grown from a single station in Duncan, B.C. to a national power with over 60 stations spread from the west coast to Ontario. It really jumped in size in 2012 when it agreed to purchase Haliburton Radio and its 24 Ontario stations for $32 million (backed by Westerkirk Capital, an investment arm of the powerful Thomson Family)….
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OTTAWA – CBC Radio pulled its new Waterloo Region local morning show it launched just over five weeks ago off the air yesterday because the CRTC has not yet approved the service.
The public broadcaster says it anticipates the shutdown of The Morning Edition show will be temporary as it awaits for final approval from the Commission of its broadcast application. Listeners in the Waterloo Region will continue to be able to tune in to the 89.1 FM frequency or online at www.cbc.ca/kitchener-waterloo for their favourite CBC Radio programs.
CBC filed its application for…
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GATINEAU – Applicants in the CRTC’s 9(1)(h) process this week have been on the hot seat during the first two days of the hearing trying to demonstrate that their respective services meet the “exceptional” test required to be a mandatory TV service.
“Given its exceptional nature, the CRTC has set the bar very high for obtaining a mandatory distribution order on digital basic pursuant to section 9(1)(h). The CRTC’s policy requires that a service seeking such an order must clearly demonstrate its exceptional nature and that it achieves important public policy objectives under the Act,” Commission chair Jean-Pierre Blais said…
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TORONTO – TheScore, Inc. today announced an influx of $16 million in private placement financing from a small group of new and existing investors that includes Rogers Media.
The company said it has entered into subscription agreements for $16 million non-brokered private placement of 100,000,000 Class A Subordinate Voting Shares at a price of $0.16. Relay Ventures, a venture capital fund based in Toronto and Silicon Valley focused on the mobile space, is leading the private placement, along with existing shareholders Levfam Holdings Ltd. and Rogers Media.
This follows a 2012 deal by Rogers, which…
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GATINEAU – Quebecor Media’s Sun News compared itself to a wireless new entrant Tuesday saying it needs to benefit from a regulatory mechanism in order for it to compete against the established news players, company executives argued before the CRTC on the first day of the Commission’s 9(1)(h) hearing.
Kory Teneycke, vice-president of Sun News, told the commissioners under questioning that the news service is suffering from a market he believes isn’t functioning properly and is open to abuse by some of its competitors. He referred to the 2008 advanced wireless spectrum auction as an instance where the government recognized…
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IF CRTC CHAIR Jean-Pierre Blais is putting the Canadian consumer back into the CRTC driver's seat, as he has stated repeatedly, then surely the Commission must say no to most of the broadcasters and postulant broadcasters arriving cap-in-hand this week to ask that they be given mandatory spots (and the mandatory dollars that would come with it) in the TV channel lineups of Canadian subscription TV customers.
While there’s a long history of forcing Canadian cable subscribers to pay for channels they may or may not have wanted, back in the day, we just accepted it. Sometimes, begrudgingly. Sometimes we…
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