REGINA – SaskTel customers can look forward to higher rates and enhancements to the company's 4G network in 2012.
The provincial telco said Wednesday that it has filed an application with the CRTC to increase rates for customers in its high cost serving areas (HCSA) in accordance with the Commission’s obligation to serve decision issued in May. That decision allows local HCSA rates to rise to an average of $30 per month by June 1, 2013, in order to reduce the amount these rates are subsidized from the national contribution fund which subsidizes high cost rural and remote consumer services.
SaskTel confirmed…
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MONTREAL – TVA Group said Thursday that it is selling its share in specialty channels Mystery TV and The Cave to Shaw Media. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Quebecor Media subsidiary owns a 50% interest in Mystery TV and 51% of The Cave, though both channels have been run by the Shaw Media group.
TVA said that a licence transfer request was submitted to the CRTC last week, and pending approval, the proposed transaction could be finalized in the spring of 2012.
www.tva.canoe.ca
www.shawmedia.ca
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OTTAWA – Throttling is so 2011, according to Bell Canada. In a letter sent to the CRTC this week, representatives from Bell and Bell Aliant said that the company has decided to stop using Internet traffic management practices (ITMPs) on its networks for both retail and wholesale traffic effective March 1, 2012.
While noting that “streamed video and other traffic, P2P file-sharing, as a proportion of total traffic, has been diminishing”, the company credited its “extensive investments” in network capacity as one reason for discontinuing the controversial practice.
“The Companies have consistently maintained that they would continue to monitor the need…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has pushed back by six weeks the procedural dates in its review of the regulatory framework for the small incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs).
The deadline for proposals and interventions has been extended to February 22, 2012 at the behest of l’Association des Compagnies de téléphone du Québec inc. and the Ontario Telecommunications Association, the Commission said Wednesday.
The Regulator said last month that was restarting its review of the small ILECs’ existing price cap regime, subsidy requirements for 2011, the toll interconnection regime, and the local forbearance regime.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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TORONTO – Blue Ant Media announced Wednesday it will acquire Canadian broadcaster High Fidelity HDTV and its four premium high definition television channels – Oasis HD, eqhd, radX and HIFI HD.
The transaction, which has been rumoured for months, is pending CRTC approval. The deal calls for the company to initially purchase 29.9% of shares in High Fidelity HDTV, with the remaining 70.1% closing subject to CRTC approval. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Blue Ant Media is a recently established independent media company led by media veteran, former Alliance Atlantis CEO and co-founder Michael MacMillan. In addition to…
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WE’LL CONTINUE TO cover industry news as it happens on Cartt.ca over the next two weeks, but our newsletters are taking a holiday break. Today's edition will be the final regular newsletter until January 10th as those of us at Cartt.ca pause to celebrate Christmas and the New Year.
If there's REALLY BIG news over the holidays, we'll be on it of course, but the whole industry gets a bit quiet between now and the back-to-school week, so that’s when we schedule our break, too.
We'll be pretty busy right away in the new year as Cartt.ca consumer electronics editor John…
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REGINA – It’s been an jarring 18 months for SCN, the former Saskatchewan provincial public broadcaster, and viewers in the province.
Back in the first half of 2010, the government there decided to close the channel down, citing a need to cut costs and get out of non-core government initiatives such as television few seemed to watch. However, just before the government faded it to black, Bluepoint Investments, which is headed by advertising executive Bruce Claassen, stepped into the breach and paid $350,000 for the operation.
The CRTC approved the transaction in late 2010 and altered the…
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MONTREAL – Astral Media Radio has received CRTC approval to move forward with its purchase of Vancouver-based Shore Media Group Inc., three months after the Commission initially halted the deal.
As Cartt.ca reported, the Commission denied the acquisition after determining that it ran afoul of its licence trafficking policy. But the CRTC has now approved the $13.4 million transaction which is set to be completed early next year.
Shore Media is the radio licence holder for CHHR FM 104.3 (Shore FM). Astral also owns Virgin Radio 95.3 and AM 650, plus a nine-face digital outdoor advertising network in the Vancouver market.
"We are…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canadians are encouraged to weigh in on the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) as part of the CRTC’s planned review of the fund’s success.
The Commission said Monday that it has scheduled a public hearing as part of its review process, which will begin April 16 in Gatineau. Comments are due by February 15, 2012.
The fund was created almost three years ago to support the development of local television programming, particularly local news, in non-metropolitan markets. At that time, the CRTC determined that broadcasters' spending on local programming had stagnated due in large part to the fragmentation of television audiences and…
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CORD-CUTTING, OR SHAVING, could take a big, 1.7-billion-dollar bite out of Canadian television distribution revenues by 2017, according to a new report from RBC Capital Markets.
While that sounds pretty painful, the reports authors call that a modest hit to an industry which pulls in some $10 billion annually. The real challenge will be after that, during what they call the 2017-’19 inflection period, where cord-cutting could really accelerate, especially if over-the-top video services grab much more of the premium programming and the traditional industry isn’t proactive.
“Prior to our OTT inflection period, we do not expect the financial impact of…
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