MONTREAL – Astral Radio is appealing the CRTC’s decision to allow Cogeco to maintain a third radio station in the Montreal market, claiming the move “disrupts the competitive equilibrium”.
In a motion filed with the Federal Court of Appeal on Tuesday, Astral called the decision “prejudicial”, and said that it “puts an end to nearly twelve years of consistent application” of the common ownership policy. The common ownership policy limits ownership to two FM stations of the same language in a market. The Commission let Cogeco keep a third FM station in Montreal as part of its overall approval of Cogeco’s plan to purchase of Corus’ Quebec radio assets.
"The sudden lack of predictability…
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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia has begun testing a provincial emergency alerting system that could send urgent public safety alerts directly to air on radio stations across the province.
"This new system will save time when seconds count," said Ramona Jennex, Minister of Emergency Management, in a statement. "It will enable emergency officials to send critical public safety information directly to broadcasters and, in the most urgent situations, directly to air. The sooner the public has the information they need in a crisis the faster they can take action to protect themselves and their loved ones."
Nova Scotia is the second province…
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TORONTO – The Canadian broadcast and telecom industries appear to have plenty to say about the proposed merger of Bell and CTV. With comments and interventions due on Tuesday, three weeks in advance of the CRTC hearing, most stakeholders offered their conditional support, but only with safeguards in place to preserve industry competition.
Rogers tied its support of the deal to Bell’s continued opposition to the issue of value-for-signal (a.k.a. fee-for-carriage). Bell, Rogers, Cogeco, Shaw and Telus at one point banded together to challenge the CRTC before the Federal Court of Appeal arguing that the Commission lacks the power…
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OTTAWA – The Commission has approved revisions to the monthly recurring rates and service charge rates for wholesale unbundled loops in Bell Aliant’s and Bell Canada’s incumbent operating territories in Ontario and Quebec.
Incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) are required to unbundle their local access facilities and make them available on a wholesale basis to competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs). These unbundled local access facilities are referred to as ‘unbundled loops’ and are used by CLECs to provide connections for services between individual customer premises and an ILEC’s central offices.
Telecom analyst Mark Goldberg said in a blog post that the…
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OTTAWA – It was good to be a TV distributor in 2010.
That’s the message we see in the CRTC’s aggregate financial data recently posted on the Commission’s web site. Expenses are up (in some cases, way up), but then again, so was revenue, and profits.
• According to the data submitted to the Commission by the big cable and satellite companies for the 2010 broadcast year (ended August 31, 2010), the largest six companies (Shaw, Bell, Rogers, Videotron, Cogeco and Bragg) together earned $12.15 billion in revenue from their video, high speed internet and VOIP telephone services (the data does…
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WHILE MASSIVE SPENDING cuts at one bankrupt broadcaster led it back into the black in 2010, another that was home to the Olympics saw the Games both boost – and drag down – results.
According to the aggregate financial data submitted to the CRTC by all English and French language OTA broadcasters and posted to the Commission web site recently, all lost money, save two.
• Those two are Quebecor Media’s TVA (which recorded a PBIT of $49 million in the 2010 broadcast year (ended August 31, 2010) and the former Canwest Global stations (now part of Shaw Media) which…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is asking for feedback on proposed amendments to its broadcasting regulations.
The new regulations, which will come in to effect on September 1st, will amend the Radio Regulations, 1986; Television Broadcasting Regulations, 1987; Pay Television Regulations, 1990; Specialty Services Regulations, 1990; and the Broadcasting Information Regulations, 1993.
Monday’s notice says that the proposed revisions will “address concerns” raised by Parliament’s Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations related to the prohibition on broadcasting false or misleading news; the prohibition on broadcasting programming that contains obscene or profane language; and the submission of information by licensees to…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has announced plans to take a closer look at the proposed Canadian merger of satellite radio companies Canadian Satellite Radio Inc. (XM Canada) and Sirius Canada Inc. at a hearing slated for March 7, 2011.
While their American parents combined over two years ago, the Canadian firms only announced plans to follow suit last November. That announcement pegged the combined company at approximately $520 million, which includes long-term debt of $130 million.
Interventions and comments are due by February 7th. Click here for more on the hearing.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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TORONTO – This week, Rogers Television (the community channel arm of Rogers Cable) announced the cancellation of its local news and information show, First Local, effective immediately.
Local versions of the show had been produced in York Region, Durham Region, Mississauga, Barrie, Brantford, Stratford, Guelph and a provincial edition in New Brunswick. The program never existed in Ottawa or Toronto and had already been axed in Collingwood, London and Kitchener.
“The decision was made as a result of the CRTC’s new community television policy issued in August,” said Colette Watson, vice-president of Rogers TV. The policy imposed increased requirements for…
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TORONTO – Is Kory Teneycke coming back to run Sun TV News? A story in the Globe and Mail says yes, next week.
Sun TV News, a new TV news channel which will launch sometime in the first quarter of 2011, is Quebecor Media’s first foray into English language Canadian news and Teneycke, before his resignation in late summer under a cloud of controversy, touted the channel as a distinct new voice that would challenge the establishment at every turn.
Teneycke is a former senior advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and at vice-president development, was the force…
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