THE LITANY OF REGULATORY issues facing the Canadian telecom business is long and the stakes are huge. It’s why this year’s Regulatory Blockbuster session held Wednesday at the Canadian Telecom Summit yet again delivered a lively, sometimes heated, discourse among the industry’s key regulatory players.
Moderated by Cartt.ca’s editor and publisher Greg O’Brien, the panel featured senior regulatory experts from Bell Canada, Rogers Communications, Telus, MTS Allstream, Globalive Communications and PIAC (the Public Interest Advocacy Centre) and the issues ranged vertical integration, foreign ownership, usage-based billing, wireless spectrum auction rules, rural broadband initiatives, and so on.
With the CRTC’s public hearing…
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AS THE WAYS IN WHICH consumers can get video content proliferate, traditional media producers and distributors are worried about their future.
They hear tons of anecdotal evidence that Canadians are ending their cable, satellite or telco TV subscriptions in favour of getting their favourite shows online: the so-called cord-cutting phenomena.
Is it real? For some we’ve talked to, it sure is. They’ve abandoned their cable subscriptions in favour of a combination of off-air digital signals from TV broadcasters with a broadband connection where they can go “over-the-top” to find enough TV and movie content (from the likes of YouTube, Netflix, broadcaster…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s wireless industry injected $41.2 billion into the Canadian economy in 2009, according to a new report commissioned by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA).
The report, The Benefit of the Wireless Telecommunications Industry to the Canadian Economy, calculated that the wireless sector contributed more than $17.2 billion in terms of direct contribution to the GDP through the sale of goods and services; an additional $14.98 billion due to the economic flow through to contributing suppliers in the supply chain; and more than $9 billion in consumer surplus – the additional benefit or satisfaction that consumers…
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TORONTO – In its effort to set universal broadband Internet speeds for all of Canada, the CRTC set far too low a target when it announced in early May in its "obligation to serve" proceeding decision it expects all Canadians to have access to 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds by 2015. That was the view expressed by at least two panel speakers at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Tuesday during the “Connecting Canadians” session.
“This is just my opinion, but I do think (the CRTC’s Internet speed target) is too low,” said Daniel O’Connell, president of…
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OTTAWA – With just a few weeks left to go before the CRTC’s widely anticipated hearing on vertical integration, the Commission has provided interveners with a sneak peek into what exactly it plans to focus on.
The Regulator posted its agenda and issued a letter on Monday saying that its panel intends to focus on five key areas:
1. Perceived problems and benefits with respect to the Canadian broadcasting system resulting from vertical integration;
2. Concerns with respect to exclusivity of content distribution, including distribution over mobile and broadband platforms;
3. Requirement for protection of independent broadcasters or independent distributors;
4. Adequacy of current ex…
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OTTAWA – As the country’s biggest broadcasters release their fall programming schedules this week, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) said that it has its collective fingers crossed that those schedules will include a strong slate of quality Canadian drama.
“Broadcasters also have to know in a world where we can watch anything at any time, the only way they will stay relevant is to offer distinctive, Canadian programming,” said national president Ferne Downey, in a statement Monday. “Filling their schedules with just made-in-America product we can get anywhere would be a massive strategic mistake.”
Canadian performers…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has asked for comments as it ponders an exemption order respecting satellite relay distribution undertakings (SRDUs), and on the transport of Canadian pay and specialty services by SRDUs, whether licensed or exempt.
SRDUs are licensed undertakings that generally function as wholesalers by transporting broadcasting services and making those services available to broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs), which then offer them to subscribers. Canada currently has two licensed SRDUs – Shaw Satellite Services Inc., and Bell ExpressVu.
The Commission said Friday that it would like industry feedback on the following questions:
– Should the Commission exempt SRDUs from licensing…
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TORONTO – Watch for the arrival of CTV Two coming soon to a channel near you. The struggling CTV-owned /A\ network will be reborn as CTV Two starting this Fall, Bell Media announced Monday.
The new network will offer eight new programs, (which it will reveal at the CTV Upfront presentation Thursday), seven in simulcast and one “monster acquisition” designed to anchor the schedule. The news outlets at the Vancouver, Toronto, Southwestern Ontario, Ottawa and Atlantic Canada channels will also be rebranded to CTV News, though will remain independent from the main network’s news operations.
NOW WE KNOW WHAT happens when you try to combine an ideology that says big business is all-bad with sets of inaccurate data to try and make recommendations on fostering Internet “openness”.
You end up with a rambling report (honestly, we stopped counting after 10,000 words, but the 44-second video about the report is cute) chock full of conflicting messages and untenable ideas. And that’s just what Internet advocacy group OpenMedia.ca has produced with its report “Casting an Open Net.”
Instead of a concise and well-researched case against usage-based billing (UBB) that could have sparked a constructive debate between OpenMedia.ca…
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MONTREAL – Two of the country’s largest radio broadcasters are calling on the CRTC to make changes to its commercial radio policy.
After appearing in front of the Commission last week to week to reaffirm their respective compliance with the radio policy on French-language music content, Astral Radio and Cogeco Diffusion both suggested that the policy needs to be updated to reflect the shift in tastes and music listening habits of French-language listeners that are increasingly being to world and English-language music.
“An overall review has become all the more necessary because the radio industry is currently undergoing significant changes”, reads…
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