VANCOUVER – Telus says that it has always been compliant with Canada's foreign ownership restrictions for telecommunications companies, and called on the CRTC to dismiss the “misleading allegations” made by Globalive and Mason Capital.
In a formal response to the Commission on Monday, the telco reported that as of June 29, 32.59% of its voting shares were held by non-Canadians, an amount that falls just below the federal limit of 33.3%. This includes the holdings of its shareholder Mason, a New York-based hedge fund, which recently reported that it held a 19.98% ownership stake of Telus’ common shares.
"Globalive relies on…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Television has received the CRTC’s permission to move forward with its plans to launch British Columbia’s first all-news channel.
The English-language Category B service, which was green-lit by the Commission on Friday, will be called Global News: BC 1 and programming will include “a mix of local and regional news, traffic, weather, business, sports and entertainment information devoted to serving residents of British Columbia, with a special focus on the Vancouver/Victoria Extended Market”, according to its application.
In response to an intervention by Victoria-based local broadcaster CHEK-TV, the CRTC imposed a condition of licence that precludes Global News:…
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OTTAWA – While Friday’s CRTC rulings may indeed eventually pave the way towards more choice for consumers in the selection of TV channels, what remains unclear is whether that “choice” will truly be driven by Canadian viewers or continue to be shaped by the country’s biggest broadcasters and television service providers.
Friday’s CRTC decision, which chose Bell Media’s final offer over the one presented by the Canadian Independent Distributors Group (CIDG), noted that “both parties’ offers moved in the direction of providing more consumer choice”, plus contained “incentives to provide a wide choice of programming in the broadcasting system, and…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The controversial Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) will be phased out by August 31, 2014, the CRTC announced Wednesday.
Citing the advertising market’s recovery and the completion of the digital transition, both of which have helped to improve the financial situation of the country’s local television broadcasters, according to the Commission, the Fund’s contribution rate will be reduced from 1.5% to 1% for the 2012-2013 broadcast year, and to 0.5 % for the 2013-2014 broadcast year before being discontinued entirely effective September 1, 2014.
“While the implementation of the LPIF was appropriate to address the issues facing local stations at the…
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OTTAWA and TORONTO – Reaction from the broadcasting industry to the CRTC’s plan to depose of the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) was swift and virtually unanimous.
Mirko Bibic, chief legal and regulatory officer and EVP at Bell, told Cartt.ca that while his company is still “analyzing the new model and its financial impact”, the decision could serve to reignite the value-for-signal/fee-for-carriage debate.
“There’s no doubt, however, that local stations in small and medium-sized markets will receive significantly less revenue”, he said. “At a time when conventional television continues to be under tremendous financial pressure, including from a soft advertising…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given the go-ahead to Blue Ant Media to proceed with its acquisition of independent broadcaster High Fidelity HDTV.
High Fidelity owns the specialty services radX (formerly Rush HD), HIFI (formerly Treasure HD), Oasis HD, eqhd (formerly Equator HD) and three other Category 2 services not yet in operation, known as The Wedding Channel, WHD and WSD. Through its subsidiary GlassBox Television, Blue Ant already owns Bite Television and Aux TV, five other specialty Category B services, one specialty Category C service not yet in operation, plus Category A service travel + escape.
In its decision, the…
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OTTAWA – More than 2,000 Canadians have contacted the CRTC to protest the CBC’s plans to shut down 620 analog over-the-air transmitters by the end of this month, according to the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
The organization, which has urged communities and CBC viewers to demand that the transmission equipment be made available for local public use, said Friday that over 2000 of the requests specifically requested that CBC consult with the affected communities.
CACTUS has proposed that some of the affected communities could not only use the equipment to maintain free access to CBC TV,…
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THERE HAS NEVER BEEN THIS much money available at one time for the development and production of Canadian television programming.
According to the newly available 2012 report of the Canadian Television Benefits Monitor, Canadian broadcasters must spend more than $450 million on new television programming or programming-related tangible public benefits over the next seven years (by Aug. 31, 2019). When the benefits associated with the BCE-Astral Media transaction currently before the CRTC are factored in, that number will be almost $600 million. This is over and above the hundreds of millions of dollars in baseline expenditures…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will take a close look at a number of Astral Media-owned radio stations that were found in apparent non-compliance with regulatory requirements during their current licence terms.
The Commission said Tuesday that it has received broadcasting licence renewal applications for 34 stations located in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia for which the licences are due to expire on March 31, 2013.
The deadline for interventions is August 9, 2012.
www.crtc.gc.ca
www.astral.com
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WHITEHORSE – Northwestel is encouraging governments, businesses and residents in Canada’s north to express their support for Bell’s public benefits package associated with its intended takeover of Astral Media.
That benefits package, made public by the CRTC on Tuesday, includes $40 million earmarked for Northwestel’s recently proposed ‘modernization plan’ in which it pledged to invest $273 million over five years to upgrade its 96 communities in northern Canada with high-speed Internet and next-generation wireless.
“We strongly believe northerners want advanced Internet and wireless services, but we need CRTC approval of the Astral component for our Modernization Plan to move forward,”…
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