OTTAWA – Nearly 7,000 Canadians have told the CRTC that television commercials are too loud, and, that they want the Regulator to do something about it.
The Commission got an earful after asking for comments back in February on measures to control the loudness of commercial messages. It launched the public consultation after receiving hundreds of complaints, and comments were due last week.
“It is highly annoying the number of times we need to adjust the volume from commercials back to programming”, wrote Mark Dostie from Richmond, B.C., in his submission to the CRTC. “In fact we will often ‘pause’…
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IF YOU THOUGHT THE “usage-based billing” debate was loud, just wait until the “regulate Netflix” debate.
(Both of those arguments are inextricably linked, of course, but we’ll tackle that part another time.)
In talking to many regulatory folks over the past number of days, it seems a virtual certainty that the CRTC will hold some sort of proceeding to look at the non-Canadian, unregulated video sector, otherwise known as over-the-top video (OTT). This rapidly growing segment (in terms of usage) encompasses Netflix, AppleTV, GoogleTV, Hulu, whatever video portal or digital locker service Amazon might bring to Canada, YouTube, movies rented via…
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OTTAWA – With the federal election just around the corner, the Canadian Conference of the Arts convinced the major federal parties (except for the ruling Conservatives) to offer up their thoughts on the arts, culture, and heritage sector with a series of thought-provoking questions.
Below are a few excerpts from some of their most interesting answers. Click here for the parties’ full responses on the CCA blog.
On foreign ownership in broadcasting and telecommunications:
– Liberal Party: The Liberal party believes that none of the elements of the Canadian broadcasting system should be sold to foreign interests. We are willing to consider some foreign investments…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given its thumbs up to a new TV service provider that wants to serve the greater Toronto area plus Kitchener-Waterloo.
The Commission announced Tuesday that 2251723 Ontario Inc. has received Class 1 terrestrial BDU status through August 31, 2017. The company is wholly owned by Content Media Rights Inc. and equally controlled by Alexei Tchernobrivets, Vadim Sloutsky and Ivan Smirnov.
After some prompting from incumbent Rogers, the applicant confirmed that it would comply with all requirements relating to distribution and linkage, priority carriage and access, as well as distribute all ‘must-carry’ services and over-the-air priority signals.
No…
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GATINEAU – There were some pretty big surprises as Canada’s large broadcast groups took the stand one last time during the CRTC’s group licensing proceeding in Gatineau last week.
While it should come as no shock that Bell Media maintained its position on symmetrical regulation of Canadian content spending requirements – 30% on Canadian production expenditure (CPE) and 5% programs of national interest (PNI) – Rogers Media shocked commissioners when it asked to be excluded from the group licensing regime.
For Bell, complying with the new group licensing approach is simple: all large broadcast groups should follow the same…
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OTTAWA – The country’s television broadcasters may be a little more worried about the threat from foreign over-the-top (OTT) services than they have let on.
A group of some 35 senior private sector executives from the country’s distribution, telecommunications, broadcasting, production and creative sectors have formed a loose coalition called Over-The-Top Services Working Group to counter, or at least mitigate, the impact that these services could have on their traditional media businesses.
Founded by Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA), the group counts industry heavyweights like Bell and Rogers amongst its members. And it has been meeting quietly over the last few…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications has asked the CRTC to drop the requirement that Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct be kept structurally separate.
In an application filed with the Commission, Shaw calls the 14-year old regulations “unnecessary in view of Canada’s competitive market for broadcasting distribution.” The rules were first introduced in 1997 when Shaw acquired DTH service Homestar, later christened Star Choice, and now known as Shaw Direct. At that time, they were designed to ensure that no undue preference or advantage passed between the company’s DTH service and Shaw’s cable business.
Shaw says those rules now “discriminate" against Shaw Direct,…
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GATINEAU – Don’t change regulations just to let the major sports broadcasters get out of scheduling problems they created themselves, Score Media told the CRTC this week.
Earlier this week during the group based licensing proceeding, Score executives said that Rogers Media’s and Bell Media’s requests for more schedule flexibility for the likes of OLN and ESPN Classic Canada must be denied.
The two big sports broadcasters said they need the freedom to add some of their sports TV overflow to OLN and ESPN Classic Canada if needed because despite their many channels – Sportsnet, Sportsnet One and the regional channels…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has officially blessed the proposed merger of satellite radio companies XM Canada and Sirius Canada.
After holding a hearing in early March to examine the transaction, the Commission signed off on the deal in a decision on Monday.
While their American parents combined over two years ago, the Canadian firms only announced their intention to follow suit last November. The combined company is valued at approximately $520 million, which includes long-term debt of $130 million.
Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings (CSR), the parent company of XM Canada, has said that it expects the transaction to close during the…
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TORONTO – Former Alliance Atlantis president and CEO Michael MacMillan is getting back into the industry he knows so well.
His company, Blue Ant Media, announced today it has entered into an agreement to acquire GlassBOX Television, which owns and operates digital specialty channels Aux TV, Bite TV and the recently acquired (for $10 million) Travel & Escape.
Blue Ant will initially purchase 29.9% of GlassBOX Television from both existing security holders and company treasury. In addition, an offer has been accepted for Blue Ant to purchase additional shares in GlassBOX from existing shareholders, which will result in a minimum…
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