GATINEAU – The CRTC approved a pair of new category B specialty service licenses yesterday for Fantasy Sports TV and Quest.
Fantasy Sports TV is a Fight Network (which is controlled by Leonard Asper) application and the channel, if launched, will be “devoted to fantasy sports, allowing viewers to act as owners and assume all the responsibilities associated with operating real sports franchises, and allowing viewers to create, monitor, trade and discuss players on their teams with others also playing fantasy sports,” according to the Commission decision.
Quest’s application was filed by its owner HGTV Canada (Shaw…
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TORONTO – Building on an idea that was dubbed “Watch Canada” back in October, the Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada and the CRTC on Wednesday announced the creation of a working group of leading industry executives whose goal will be to “promote the increasing success of Canadian film, television and digital media with a principal focus on the Canadian market,” says a press release.
The creation of the group grew from industry leaders’ feedback at the Symposium on the Promotion of Canadian Films and Television Programs in Canada and Internationally which was held in Ottawa in conjunction with the International…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Rogers Broadcasting’s “optimal solution” has prevailed with the CRTC approving its plan to rebrand Metro 14 (CJNT-TV) as Citytv Montreal. The Commission also approved a new multilingual television station to be called International Channel/Canal International (ICI) and operated by the Nowrouzzahrai family. Channel Zero, which bought CJNT and Hamilton's CHCH from Canwest Global for $12 in 2009, sold CJNT to Rogers for $10.3 million.
As reported by Cartt.ca in September, Rogers in its application indicated it had found the “optimal solution” to provide Montreal with a new English-language…
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WHILE WE DEFINITELY WILL cover news as it happens on Cartt.ca over the next two weeks, our newsletters (and the hard-working writers who fill them with newsy goodness) are taking a holiday break. Today's edition will be the final regular newsletter until January 8th as those of us at Cartt.ca pause to celebrate Christmas and the New Year.
If there's REALLY BIG news over the holidays, we'll be on it of course, but the whole industry usually gets a bit quiet between now and the back-to-school week, so that’s when we schedule our break, too.
As every year, we’ll be pretty…
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AS CANADIANS CHOOSE to carry their worlds in their pockets – loaded onto their much loved and much used Androids, iPhones, BlackBerrys and so on, they are demanding service that’s always excellent and bills that are always affordable.
When things go wrong with the little device in our hands, when we get dinged for charges we didn’t expect, when it doesn’t work as fast as advertised, when it breaks, it’s a mini-disaster. It’s not like tearing a hole in your pants or getting a flat tire. Those things can be dealt with and are relatively easy to fix. When it…
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TORONTO – Mobilicity says its legal battle with Telus to keep its TV ads running was no-contest. In a press release, it declared a “colossal victory for Canadian wireless consumers” after the British Columbia Supreme Court dismissed an interlocutory injunction application by Telus to pull certain Mobilicity TV ads off the air. But Telus contends today’s Court decision only dealt with the interim ruling to have the ads pulled and that it will not impact their pursuit of a full hearing.
"Today is a big day for wireless consumers and continued competition in Canada," said Mobilicity…
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YELLOWKNIFE – For the first time ever, consumers and businesses in Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Inuvik are being given a choice for local phone service. Iristel says they can now keep their existing phone numbers and move to its competing phone network for significantly less than they are paying currently for local phone service by using VoIP technology. It is also planning to offer advanced Internet-based services for smaller communities in 2013
"Our network is fired up, connected to the south and ready to go for people in Canada's North who are tired of high monopoly…
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OTTAWA – The promise of more regional and children’s programming as well as more programs of national interest (PNI) were not enough for some of CBC/Radio-Canada’s detractors. In final comments to its licence renewal filed this week, many suggested that the public broadcaster needs to still do even more Canadian programming than it committed during replies stage.
ACTRA said the CRTC shouldn’t been fooled by CBC’s request for flexibility, which has usually been synonymous with airing less Canadian content. Nor should the CBC shouldn’t be able to use its fiscal challenges as an excuse to its lessen its obligations. “Without…
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MARKHAM, ON – “Re-commercialization of CBC Radio is a terrible idea” and would be “extremely detrimental to smaller market operations” says Douglas E. Kirk, President, Ontario Association of Broadcasters (OAB).
In a letter to the CRTC dated Dec. 11, Kirk responds to the CBC’s proposal made at its recent license renewal hearing that it be allowed to run commercial ads on its radio properties and responded to the CBC’s claims regarding revenue growth.
In the letter Kirk questions whether CBC Radio is actually facing a “financial crisis” given the $327.3 million in parliamentary appropriation it…
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OTTAWA – In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada said Thursday that the CRTC does not have the jurisdiction to allow conventional over-the-air broadcasters pursue a wholesale fee from BDUs for the carriage of their signals. The court’s decision should just about bring to a close the so-called fee-for-carriage (FFC) or value-for-signal (VFS) debate.
The court heard the case back in April which was essentially between the big BDUs, which had always stood against VFS, and Bell Canada. Canwest Television was listed as a respondent, but that was a leftover artefact of the earlier case as Canwest’s new…
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