OTTAWA – Bell has received CRTC approval to amend its video-on-demand service’s broadcasting licence so that it may offer community programming produced by its corporate cousin Bell Aliant.
In its application, Bell ExpressVu also requested that a new condition of licence be added to allow a third party, in this case Bell Aliant, to be fully responsible for the management of the community programming and the adherence to the applicable regulations related to the community programming that would be offered on the Bell ExpressVu VOD service, a request that the Commission denied.
On Monday, the Regulator expressed concern with “the…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given the green light to Newcap to proceed with the sale of its two Winnipeg-based radio stations to Evanov Radio Group subsidiary Dufferin Communications.
The $5.5 million sale, first announced in May, includes CHNK-FM Winnipeg (formerly CHNR-FM Winnipeg) and CKJS Winnipeg.
In addition to issuing new broadcasting licences to continue the operation of these stations, the Commission said Monday that it has also approved Dufferin’s request to amend CHNK-FM’s condition of licence relating to the broadcast of musical selections from content category 2 (popular music).
Newcap said in a statement that it expects that…
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GATINEAU – Mandating Internet Protocol interconnection for voice services is unnecessary because doing so will not bring any additional benefits to consumers, three of the country’s incumbent telcos told the CRTC during its first day of hearings into the interconnection regime.
In its opening remarks, Bell Canada said that “no regulatory intervention is required to push the market towards IP interconnection” and that “the market will naturally drive this migration without any need for regulatory intervention,” explained Jonathan Daniels, VP of regulatory law at Bell.
He acknowledged that the company’s network is capable of providing IP voice to most of its…
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TORONTO – Score Media saw its 2011 profits cut nearly in half, despite a modest gain in revenue.
For the fiscal year ended August 31, the company posted net income of $1.48 million, down from $2.5 million in 2010 though revenue increased across its TV and digital media platforms to $47.7 million from $43.8 million. Excluding the impact of the $800,000 CRTC Part II fee reversal in fiscal 2010, EBITDA was $7.9 million compared to $6.8 million last year.
The sports broadcaster reported a fourth quarter loss of $316,000, down from $1.1 million year-over-year, due in large part to a charge for…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has approved Bell Aliant’s request for forbearance from the regulation of residential local exchange services in 19 exchanges in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia.
After applying the local forbearance test, the Commission issued the decision on Friday, and directed Bell Aliant to file revised tariff pages within 30 days of the date of this decision.
Earlier this year as part of its ‘obligation to serve’ decision, the CRTC determined that the large incumbent local exchange carriers would no longer receive subsidies for residential network access services (NAS) in high-cost exchanges for which the Commission…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC estimates that the total amount of Part II licence fees that it will assess in 2011 is $101.8 million.
The Commission said Friday that the fees, payable by the country’s largest broadcasters, were calculated using a cap of $100 million and adjusted to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the prior calendar year. For 2010, the annual average CPI was 1.8%.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – The real battle of the CRTC’s interconnection hearing that starts next week is going to be over whether the new entrant wireless service providers and long distance carriers are able to connect to incumbent and competitor networks at lower costs. In its consultation document, the Commission has asked the telecommunications industry if it would benefit from a consolidated interconnection regime rather than the current situation with three separate regimes: one for each the competitive local exchange carriers, wireless service providers and long distance or toll traffic carriers. Under the current rules, CLECs are…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is calling for comments on proposed amendments to the broadcasting distribution regulations relating to the customer transfer process and related competitive issues.
As Cartt.ca reported, the Commission streamlined the customer transfer process back in March. On Wednesday, the CRTC said that its proposed amendments would create a new provision for cancellation requests, specify that the current and prospective service provider coordinate with each other to cancel and replace the programming services to avoid a service disruption to the customer, and that the cancellation request will occur within two business days unless the service providers agree…
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TORONTO and MONTREAL – The CBC has upped the ante in its battle with Quebecor.
Quebecor's media outlets have been unrelenting in their criticism of the CBC, complaining of a lack of transparency at the public broadcaster, which has been forced to deal with hundreds of requests made by Quebecor under the Access To Information regulations. The CBC claims it can protect some competitively sensitive information. Quebecor has taken the position that because it's federally funded, it must divulge just about everything.
However, on the eve of Quebecor Inc. president and CEO Pierre-Karl Péladeau’s appearance in front of the House of Commons Standing…
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OTTAWA – The change of a single word, which the CRTC insists is a correction of a mistake, has many people in the regulatory side of the TV business wondering aloud if, in fact, the Commission caved a little to the wishes of Bell Canada.
Last Friday, October 14, the CRTC tweaked its regulatory framework relating to vertical integration, where the much ballyhooed code of conduct for vertically integrated companies was softened, with the words “shall” or “shall not” replaced with “should” or “should not” (or, in French, from “doit” or “ne doit pas” to “devrait”…
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