SO MANY WORDS, so few facts. So much fear. Is OTT the new “Death Star”?
I simply must stop learning to be so hopeful when it comes to these CRTC proceedings. Almost eight weeks ago, the Commission launched a look into over-the-top video, asking the TV industry, and anyone else who wanted to contribute, for cold, hard, facts on how consumers getting more video content online is affecting their business.
In their submissions to the CRTC on OTT, I was hoping some of the vertically integrated distributors would have some early numbers culled from their customers’ set-top box data showing how…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is requiring nomadic and fixed/non-native VoIP service providers to make their customers’ telephone numbers available to 9-1-1 operators.
In a policy released late last week, the Commission said that the operators must use the numbers provided as a last resort to re-establish contact with a 9-1-1 caller when the call is disconnected before the caller’s location has been determined.
VoIP providers have 9 months to implement the capability, and Canadian carriers providing service to VoIP providers must include the requirement in their service contracts.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – Bell Media’s request for a new movie channel, a French-language Discovery Channel and a female-skewing channel called Bella, are among a multitude of new television and radio applications that the CRTC will consider at a hearing set for September 16 in Gatineau.
The Commission made the 37 new applications public on Friday. Other applications of interest include one from Andtell Studios for Fitness Lifestyle TV, a pay-per-view channel from Canyon TV, a number of new ethnic channels, and a request by Dufferin Communications to buy two Winnipeg-based radio stations from Newcap.
The deadline for interventions is August 15,…
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IN (THURSDAY’S) ARTICLE about Shaw’s proposal to eliminate many of the VOD rules, you incorrectly give credit to their argument that the 5% contribution obligation for VOD services somehow represents an inequitable “double counting” .
Shaw, (and other BDUs affiliated with VOD services), made this same ‘double counting’ argument in their responses to BNOC 2010-702, when the CRTC proposed standard requirements for VOD. However, their argument at that point was against the CRTC’s apparent proposal that VOD services pay their 5% on 100% of the related retail revenue received by their affiliated BDU rather…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Led by cable, broadcasting distribution companies in Canada saw their revenues increase by more than $1 billion in 2010, according to CRTC data released Thursday.
The combined revenues for cable, satellite and multipoint distribution companies rose from $11.4 billion in 2009 to $12.5 billion for the year ended August 31, 2010.
The TV service providers collectively contributed $367.9 million to Canadian programming – $189.1 million to the Canadian Media Fund, $52.3 million to independent funds, and $126.5 million to cable community channels and other sources of local expression. An additional $100.7 million was contributed to the Local Programming Improvement Fund…
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PLAY A GAME WITH THE average English-language Canadian: “Name a Canadian television show”. Exclude Hockey Night in Canada and news. Watch them furrow their brow.
“Uh, Flashpoint?” says one friend, with whom I had an animated discussion about how Canadian TV can be as polished as American TV, and referenced Flashpoint.
Corner Gas will likely come up and another friend mentions Being Erica. Depending on your age, Degrassi (the original) may come to mind, too, or Street Legal. Perhaps Dragon’s Den.
Aside from these, and maybe Rookie Blue and Combat Hospital because they’ve been getting so much press, in the…
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GATINEAU – Since video-on-demand is one of the key components in the cable company arsenal when battling the new, over-the-top video providers for viewers, the CRTC needs to scrap most of its regulations governing VOD, according to Shaw Communications.
In its final reply to the vertical integration hearing (as well as in its OTT fact-finding submission), Canada’s largest TV distributor suggest preserving Canadian content exhibition requirements for VOD, but not much else.
In its final submission on the vertical integration proceeding, the company identifies seven rules that need to go and first on its priority list is the double-dip of…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s 654 commercial radio stations saw 2010 revenues increase by only 2.9%, according to data released Wednesday by the CRTC.
For the broadcast year ending August 31, 2010, FM stations reported higher revenues and profits on the strength of improved local and national advertising sales, but there was little change in the results for AM stations. Total revenues for AM and FM stations increased to $1.55 billion, while expenses rose by 1.5% to $1.21 billion. As a result, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) climbed from $271.6 million in 2009 to $298.4 million in 2010, and the PBIT margin went…
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GATINEAU – Shaw Communications Inc. says that while it prefers a volume-based billing model for wholesale services, it’s prepared to do the work to implement a peak period approach if directed to do so.
The company noted during its appearance on Day 3 of the CRTC’s usage-based billing hearing that if three specific criteria are met either approach could give the independent ISPs the flexibility they need to compete in the market while also appropriately compensating the wholesale network providers.
“We must be able to recover our investments; we must be able to charge more for higher speeds; and there…
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TORONTO and OTTAWA – Law professor Michael Geist is standing by a blog post he wrote late last week claiming satellite Internet provider Barrett Xplore altered its Internet management policies after a complaint made to the CRTC under the Commission’s guidelines on net neutrality.
Geist, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, also wrote in his blog that Barrett Xplore (now known as Xplornet) “was also the source of the longest running complaint as the company took months to respond to CRTC requests to improve its disclosure practices.” This prompted a tersely…
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