Global studios and streamers have been the driving force behind the expansion of the Canadian audiovisual production sector, with global production fuelling employment at a rate three times higher than that of domestic production over the 2012-2022 period, according to a new report from KPMG commissioned by the Motion Picture Association – Canada (MPA-Canada).
Using data from a May 2023 report from the Canadian Media Producers Association, the KPMG report notes foreign location and service (FLS) productions in 2022 accounted for more than half (57 per cent) of total film, television and streaming production…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC is asking Rogers to maintian TekSavvy’s ability to service its customers at two Toronto buildings until it can make a determination on an application by the wholesaler that warns the cable giant’s move to pure fibre would leave competitors behind.
The request came two days after TekSavvy complained that Rogers’s transition from hybrid fibre-coax facilities to pure fibre would mean it would lose 29 existing and possibly more future subscribers at the 191 and 201 Sherbourne Street buildings.
The regulator said in a Friday letter shared with Cartt that it is “concerned that customers…
Continue Reading
Disconnections are expected June 4, TekSavvy said
By Ahmad Hathout
TekSavvy is again asking the CRTC to intervene in a case where its internet customers are at risk of losing service because the cable network from which it leases capacity is being migrated to pure fibre.
In a Part 1 application dated Wednesday that has yet to be posted at the time of this story’s publishing, Teksavvy said 29 customers at two buildings – 191 and 201 Sherbourne Street – in Toronto are at risk of disconnection because Rogers told the Chatham-based company that it is migrating those hybrid fibre-coax facilities to…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor is asking the CRTC to investigate whether Bell is giving itself an unfair advantage by allegedly adding more hurdles for internet service providers looking to access the telco’s last-mile fibre facilities.
The issue is related to what additional equipment Bell requires of third-party competitors to connect their customers to certain speeds on its fibre network, as according to its tariff pages for the interim access regime that went into effect May 7.
Quebecor, on behalf of Videotron, is alleging in its intervention to amended tariff pages filed by Bell that the latter is unnecessarily requiring optical network terminal…
Continue Reading
The CRTC announced Monday it has approved separate broadcasting licence applications for a French-language community FM radio station and a French-language commercial FM station in Joliette, Quebec.
In its March 2023 application, Radio Nord-Joli Inc. had said it wanted to operate a community FM station in Joliette to replace its existing French-language community station CFNJ-FM in Saint-Gabriel-de-Brandon (a town located roughly 35 kilometres north of Joliette). Radio Nord-Joli also requested to transfer its existing rebroadcasting transmitter in Saint-Zénon to the new licence and to revoke CFNJ-FM’s licence. The CRTC has approved these…
Continue Reading
By Connie Thiessen
The CRTC is proposing cost recovery regulations that would apply to the largest online platforms that distribute news content as it continues to set up a framework around implementation of the Online News Act.
With the vast majority of the commission’s operations funded by fees charged to companies it regulates, it’s now proposing additional cost recovery rules in light of work required under the new Act. In a call for comments on the suggested measure, published Thursday, the CRTC proposes charging the largest digital operators to fund that new work, stipulating it will not collect from news businesses.
Cost recovery…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has ordered Bell’s Northwestel to stop adding a $20 surcharge for DSL internet services that don’t bundle the telecom’s home phone service.
The surcharge was approved by the commission in 2016 for the purpose of providing the telecom with enough revenue to complete by the end of 2017 DSL network upgrades in 45 communities in the Far North, which are considered high-cost serving areas outside of Whitehorse, Yukon, and Yellowknife.
“With the completion of these upgrades, the surcharge’s purpose has been fulfilled and it should no longer be added to customers’ bills,” the CRTC…
Continue Reading
The CRTC will decide how much it will cost Bell and Quebecor to broadcast each other’s sports channels, it said this month.
The two companies agreed that they could not hash out commercial terms to distribute Bell’s RDS and Videotron’s TVA Sports and filed in November a request for the regulator to make that decision.
The commission agreed in a letter dated May 15, saying the request met all the required criteria for a final offer arbitration hearing: the dispute is shared between the two; it concerns only monetary issues; the parties exhausted all methods to come to an agreement; the…
Continue Reading
Canadian Heritage has announced the appointment of Sylvain Lafrance as chairperson of Telefilm Canada. In addition, Deborah MacPherson and Claude Doucet have been appointed as members of Telefilm’s board of directors.
The five-year terms of all three appointees began May 9.
An expert in the fields of media management and communications, Lafrance worked at CBC/Radio-Canada for more than three decades. Before leaving the national public broadcaster in 2011, he held the position of executive vice president of French services, where he led the integration of the Crown corporation’s radio,…
Continue Reading
By Oliver Kane, a media consultant based in Toronto, who was a former Corus employee for a little more than eight years before leaving in September 2023
On May 6, the CRTC published an update on the phased implementation of bill C-11. While I can appreciate that, in their words, “the changes needed to implement the modernized Broadcasting Act are substantial and complex, with many interconnected issues to be addressed,” this glacial roll out is completely out of touch with the current challenges affecting the industry.
Phase 2 includes an update of no less than 10 consultations expected to take place…
Continue Reading
