TORONTO – A labour disruption at Shaw Media has been averted. At least for now.
The company confirmed that it’s plans to launch a new Ottawa-based public affairs show, a new morning news show in Toronto, and expand its investigative news program 16×9: The Bigger Picture are back on track for a fall launch after reaching an agreement with unionized staff represented by eastern bargaining unit of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union (CEP).
CEP East represents Global employees in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Toronto, Ottawa and the Maritimes. Despite the union’s encouragement to reject Shaw Media’s offer, as Cartt.ca reported, members voted to…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – British Columbia is the latest province to receive a new area code.
On Thursday, the CRTC said beginning on June 1, 2013, new telephone numbers assigned in the province may be given the area code 236, as the regions currently covered by area codes 250, 604 and 778 begin to run out of numbers.
Until 1996, 604 was the only area code in British Columbia until 250 was introduced to serve the area outside the Greater Vancouver Area. In 2001, area code 778 and 10-digit dialing were introduced in the Greater Vancouver Area, before being extended across the…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – More and more Canadians are subscribing to broadband Internet and wireless services, while TV and radio are still the most popular devices for accessing content, according to the CRTC’s latest Communications Monitoring Report.
The report, released Thursday, provides an annual overview of the Canadian telecommunications and broadcasting industries. By the end of 2010, approximately 9 million Canadian households subscribed to broadband Internet services, an increase of 9.2% over 2009, and the number of Canadians subscribing to wireless services grew by 8.5% to 25.8 million.
“It is encouraging to see Canadians taking up broadband Internet and wireless services…
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TORONTO and OTTAWA – Canada’s creative community used words like “optimistic” and “pleased” to describe their reaction to the CRTC’s group-based licencing policy released Wednesday.
As Cartt.ca reported, Bell, Corus and Shaw will now be required to spend 30% of their revenues on Canadian programming, while Rogers will have to spend at least 23% of its gross annual revenues on Canadian programming for its conventional television stations. Bell and Shaw must allot 5% of their revenues to programs of national interest, Corus 9% and Rogers 2.5%.
Noting that it had hoped that the CRTC would require the English-language broadcasters to spend…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s largest broadcast companies will inject billions of dollars into original Canadian programming over the next five years after the CRTC renewed the English-language TV licences for Bell Media, Corus Entertainment, Shaw Media and Rogers Media on Wednesday.
The widely anticipated group-based licencing decision saw the broadcasting licences for services owned by Bell Media, Corus Entertainment and Shaw Media renewed until 2016. Citing the smaller number of specialty services owned by Rogers Media, the Commission renewed its licences through 2014.
Over the next five years, Bell Media, Corus Entertainment and Shaw Media must allocate at least…
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I have looked at your series on Canadian content. Any discussion with respect to television has to deal with cable carriage and simultaneous program substitution. While the flavour of the subject is there, some basic facts need clarification, and with my background as first a cable system owner operator and later an employee of the CRTC for 27 years, I felt I should comment.
Program protection with respect to cable is not a Canadian invention. That notion is false. That process started on the American side of the line in 1966 when U.S. border stations requested protection from…
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CANCON’S RULES AND regulations are much like a series of bandages slapped onto the television industry – one here to cover a scrape, another there as salve on a slash. It’s almost impossible to rip any away from this complex patchwork without damaging a broadcast arm or independent production limb.
The tales of woe – accompanied by an orchestra of tiny violins – come from both the broadcast and the creative side of the industry, and the TV doctors have differing opinions on which medicine is the cure for our ailing Cancon system. So what’s the spoonful of sugar…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is expected to hand down its decision on group-based licence renewals for English-language television groups this week, Cartt.ca has learned.
After a week-long public hearing in April, it will be interesting to see how the Commission navigates the big broadcasters’ various takes on Canadian programming expenditure (CPE) and programs of national interest (PNI) proposals. Cartt.ca was there every step of the way during presentations made by Bell Media, Rogers Broadcasting, Corus Entertainment, and Shaw Media, as well as the Independent Broadcast Group which called on the CRTC to establish a new, flexible framework for…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Toronto will be getting a third area code within the next two years, the CRTC confirmed Friday.
Area code 437 will begin in March 2013 and will be in addition to the 647 area code which was rolled out in the original 416 region in 2000. The Commission also said that it would set aside the 387 area code for “future relief”.
The move comes in in response to the Canadian Numbering Administrator’s assessment that the region will run out of telephone numbers by July 2015. Existing customers will keep their current area code and phone numbers.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The Weather Network and MétéoMédia have had their broadcasting licences renewed for a full seven years after pledging to continue to work towards finalizing a national emergency alert system in Canada.
The CRTC said Friday that the two weather services must continue to be offered as part of the basic television package, including the digital basic service, through 2018 provided that parent company Pelmorex Communications:
– ensures that the appropriate federal, provincial and territorial organizations, including Environment Canada, are authorized to issue alerts through its system by January 1, 2012;
– takes all necessary steps to ensure the participation of broadcasters and…
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