OTTAWA – Campus and community radio stations in Canada must maintain their current levels of Canadian content, the CRTC said Thursday. It also declined to set requirements on volunteer participation.
While the Commission originally released its revised campus and community radio policy in July 2010, it launched three follow-up proceedings calling for comments on amending the radio regulations, Canadian content requirements and volunteer participation, and the structural and operational plan proposed by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.
In Thursday’s follow up proceeding, the CRTC directed campus and community radio stations to maintain their current level of musical…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Consumers will continue to take advantage of new capabilities and platforms to access content and services, making it even more critical to understand the dynamics of convergence, according to a new report released Thursday by the CRTC.
Navigating Convergence II: Charting Canadian Communications Change and Regulatory Implications identifies trends in network developments and content consumption that could disrupt traditional regulatory approaches to achieving policy objectives. Using independent research and views from CRTC stakeholders such as consumers, public-interest advocates and members of the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors, it also examines developments in technology and business models that raise…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CBC has received permission from the CRTC to continue broadcasting its analog over-the-air television signals in 22 markets for another full year.
The Commission said Tuesday that the national broadcaster now has until August 31, 2012 to “find solutions” for viewers who may lose access to its over-the-air signals after the transition to digital television.
The CBC operates 25 local stations in mandatory markets whose over-the-air transmitters will be converted to digital in time to meet this year’s August 31st deadline. It also operates 22 analog transmitters that rebroadcast its stations’ signals into other communities that are also considered…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has extended its deadline for comments on draft electronic commerce protection regulations.
The Commission said Monday that comments are now due by September 7th, more than a week later than its initial deadline of August 29.
The move comes in response to a request from the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) made late last month. The CWTA said in a letter to the CRTC that "there would be merit" in extending the deadline to coincide with the end of the comment period applicable to the related draft regulations proposed by Industry Canada.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is seeking input on proposed new French and English-language closed captioning quality standards for television broadcasters.
The closed captioning quality standards are sets of standards, one for each official language market, that address the quality of closed captioning provided by Canadian television broadcasters. Once approved by the Commission, all TV licensees will be required to adhere to the closed captioning standards through conditions of licence that will be applied at the time of licence renewal or approval of a new licence.
The deadline for comments on the French-language closed captioning quality standards is September 14 and the…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is set to release its revised policy on campus and community radio this week, Cartt.ca has learned.
The new amendments, which will come into effect on September 1st, will reflect determinations made in the Commission’s regulatory framework for campus and community radio released in July 2010, plus feedback from the industry.
The matters addressed by the policy include:
– the role, definition and mandate of campus and community radio stations; – a simplified approach to licensing campus and community stations, including elimination of the campus instructional category, elimination of the distinction between Type A and Type…
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OTTAWA – Following a CRTC hearing that could determine the internet prices and options available to Canadians, the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) had applied to the CRTC for “clarification and expedited relief concerning the manner in which cable companies intend to implement directives in Telecom Order 2011-377.”
The Commission had directed cable companies to issue, by June 23, 2011, tariff pages with interim rates for wholesale high-speed access services. Final rates for these services will be set at the conclusion of the proceeding.
CNOC, which represents a number if independent ISPs, has expressed concerns “about how the major cable…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will cease issuing multipoint distribution system (MDS) licenses as of September 1, 2011 and will now require companies to apply for standard broadcast distribution licenses. The Commission ruled that existing licenses for those undertakings will simply lapse on that date.
The Department of Industry had converted various broadcasting certificates issued to MDS undertakings to Broadband Radio Service (BRS) licenses. Any BRS licensee that requires a CRTC license because it chooses to offer broadcasting services, but does not meet all criteria set out in the Commission’s exemption order for broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs), will be need to…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has approved a trio of new specialty channels, including a five-year license for Shaw Television to operate Shaw Media Sports, a national, English-language service that has been licensed as a Category C service.
Shaw is the latest media company to apply and receive permission to operate a sports channel, since the CRTC opened up competition in the mainstream sports segment. Rogers, CBC and MLSE have previously applied to the regulator and been approved to launch their respective sports channels, but one wonders what big name sports rights are left for another new sports channel to acquire.
Category…
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LOS ANGELES and TORONTO – A company that produces the ad-supported application textPlus – which provides free text messaging – has announced users in Canada can now obtain their own free phone number to support free and unlimited texting with anyone, whether they are using textPlus or not.
The mobile social messaging app is available from GOGII and is for Android and iOS devices. It reaches over 50 million users in 193 countries/territories, says the company. To date, GOGII claims there have been 60 million messages sent per day and over 14 billion overall messages sent in the textPlus…
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