TORONTO – Rogers Broadcasting has bid $3 million for its 100% stake in Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN) which it is planning to re-launch as Citytv Saskatchewan.
The CRTC has yet to approve the acquisition, but is scheduled to review it during a hearing on May 7 held at the Allstream Centre in Toronto.
Rogers is buying the former Saskatchewan provincial public broadcaster from Bluepoint Investments in a deal that was officially announced in January. Bluepoint paid the Saskatchewan government $350,000 for the station late in 2010 after promising to spend $1.75 million per year on independent Saskatchewan production, and $1 million per year…
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TORONTO – One of the applicants vying for a spot in the Toronto radio market has launched a grassroots campaign designed to elicit support from its future listeners.
Biz88 FM, the all-talk business news and information station proposed by independent broadcaster Channel Zero, launched the campaign on Monday encouraging supporters to visit its website and send a letter of support to the CRTC on its behalf.
“The CRTC takes your comments seriously – please show them your support for Business News in Toronto”, reads the web page which requests participation prior to April 2, 2012. The CRTC has confirmed…
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MONTREAL – In its third major content acquisition in a little over 18 months, BCE Inc. (Bell) announced today the purchase of Astral Media Inc. and all its assets for $3.38 billion. If approved, the deal would dramatically boost Bell’s French language TV viewership in Quebec from 6% to 32%, placing it within striking distance of Quebecor, which reaches about 35% of viewers. But at least one market analyst has questioned the value of the deal and believes Bell should have invested the money in its broadband network.
"Bell is gaining a well-seasoned national Astral management team, dramatically expanding our…
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OTTAWA – Haliburton Broadcasting Group has received CRTC approval to buy two more radio stations in Ontario.
The Commission reviewed the company’s wish to buy CJFB-FM Bolton and CFGM-FM Caledon in a hearing conducted in February in Calgary, and granted that request on Wednesday. The two stations were purchased from Rick Sargent, and the CRTC valued the transaction at $$284,855.
Haliburton Broadcasting Group currently owns and operates 19 radio stations throughout Ontario in rural markets that include Haliburton, Huntsville, Timmins and North Bay.
www.crtc.gc.ca
www.hbgradio.com
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OTTAWA – Industry Canada has officially acknowledged receipt of the appeal filed by many of Canada’s independent phone companies over recent CRTC decisions around the introduction of local competition.
As Cartt.ca reported, 21 telcos represented by the Ontario Telecom Association (OTA) plus the nine members of Quebec’s Association des companies de telephone du Québec (ACTQ) want the CRTC to keep the subsidy mechanism that was in place prior to the ‘Obligation to Serve’ decision, and to make changes to the local competition regime. In addition, the telcos are seeking a stay of the CRTC’s…
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DARTMOUTH, NS – Newfoundland Capital Corp. more than doubled its fourth quarter and 2011 profits thanks to strong revenue growth and the sale of its two Winnipeg radio stations.
The radio broadcaster saw profits for the quarter ended December 31, 2011 of $13 million, up from $4 million in the same quarter last year. Year-to-date profits of $26.1 million were $14.5 million higher than 2010.
Quarterly revenue of $34.7 million and year-to-date revenue of $126.6 million were both 9% higher than 2010 results, which the company attributed primarily to organic (same-station) growth in the broadcasting segment. Earnings before interest,…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has approved CHCH’s request to use a new replacement UHF digital television transmitter, specifically the one formerly used by Toronto 1/Sun News Toronto.
The Channel Zero-owned over-the-air TV broadcaster said in its application to the Commission that the new replacement digital transmitter operating on CH15 will boost its coverage and help it regain viewers who previously tuned to its CH18 transitional DTV channel which was shut down in August as part of the digital transition.
The Commission agreed and granted the change in a decision issued Friday.
www.crtc.gc.ca
www.chch.com
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GATINEAU – The CRTC said Wednesday that all contracts which telecom network owners have with voice over IP providers must now contain specific 9-1-1 emergency language.
While existing Commission regulations stipulate that VOIP providers who offer voice service as a web app and have little or no network of their own must provide 9-1-1 service, this new decision backs that up with an additional Commission tool it can deploy should any VOIP providers be found in violation of the 9-1-1 regulations.
“The Commission directs Canadian carriers, as a condition of providing telecommunications services to local VoIP service providers, to include in…
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GATINEAU – There was little love for the CRTC when, on the day before St. Valentine’s Day, Videotron filed its appeal of the wholesale Internet billing decision (more popularly known as the usage-based-billing issue). However, the Quebec cableco wasn’t the only provider to let its feelings be known regarding the matter, other network owners as well as the independent ISPs have taken the Commission to task over the appropriate rates for wholesale network access and use.
The issue that never seems to go away is not focused on the capacity-based billing framework, which most agree is a good idea, but…
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IN NOVEMBER, THEN-MACLEAN’S magazine national columnist Andrew Coyne added his voice to the cacophony of critics carping about the CBC, saying the TV portion should become a pay channel, a-la HBO.
Oy, where to begin with that one? How about starting with the Broadcasting Act, a law which mandates the CBC’s existence, carriage and programming goals. According to the Part 1 of the Act, section 3(1)(l & m), the overall programming provided by the Corp. should be that which “informs, enlightens and entertains” and should:
(i) be predominantly and distinctively Canadian, (ii) reflect Canada and its regions…
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