OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down most of CTV’s requests to amend the licence conditions relating to MuchMusic’s nature of service, including a bid to decrease the number of music videos that it airs.
The English-language specialty service will, however, now be able to draw programming from some additional categories and can adopt an 18-hour broadcast day, down from a 24-hour period, the Commission’s decision reads.
CTV applied in March for amendments that it said would permit MuchMusic to “adapt to the business realities of audience fragmentation and changing technologies by providing programming that is relevant to the service’s core audience of young adult viewers”.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has sided with Bell Canada in a dispute with Telus over 911 network access charges in the province of British Columbia.
In a decision on Friday, the Commission directed Telus to credit Bell Canada for overbilled 911 charges in the province from March 2003 to February 2009, in accordance with Telus’ terms of service.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – Quebecor has received regulatory approval to proceed with its new “hard news and straight talk” Sun TV News channel. It is expected to launch early next year.
Friday’s decision granted the category 2 channel a five year license that will expire on August 31, 2015. As Cartt.ca reported, Quebecor last month dropped its requests that the channel be licensed with must-carry status, after the Commission said that it would not consider must-carry license applications until at least the Fall of 2011, if at all.
"Today marks the dawn of a new era for Canadian news media,"…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s top two communications industry regulators lamented the fact that they don’t have the appropriate tools to deal with a rapidly changing marketplace.
CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein and Helen McDonald, assistant deputy minister at Industry Canada, were speaking on a panel of regulators at the International Institute of Communications annual conference in Ottawa earlier this week (where Cartt.ca was the media sponsor).
McDonald said that for the department to more effectively manage scarce spectrum resources, legislative changes are in order. She pointed to secondary market trading for spectrum as an area that would run much more efficiently…
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TORONTO – Satellite radio competitors XM Canada and Sirius will merge in Canada, just as their American parent companies did over two years ago.
Wednesday’s announcement said that the all-stock merger values the combined company at approximately $520 million, which includes long-term debt of $130 million.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sirius Canada shareholders will be issued treasury shares of XM Canada parent Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (CSR) representing a 58.0% equity interest in CSR immediately following closing of the transaction. The approximate ownership interest in CSR following closing of the combination transaction will be as follows:
– CSRI Inc., an entity controlled…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) is urging the government to protect independent producers from what it calls “the negative impact (of) consolidation” in the broadcasting industry.
Appearing Tuesday before the House of Commons Standing Committee of Canadian Heritage, the CMPA claimed that the three integrated private broadcast corporate groups in English Canada are “using their dominant position to secure unreasonable terms that undermine independent producers’ businesses and put at risk the thousands of high-skilled jobs”.
“I would like to think that independent producers are well positioned to make a significant contribution to Canada’s burgeoning digital economy”, said CMPA…
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TORONTO – A 13.5% increase in self-paying subscribers contributed to XM Canada’s “sound” financial performance for fiscal 2010.
Self-paying subscribers totaled 432,200 as of August 31, 2010, up from 380,900 in the same period last year.
Average monthly subscription revenue per subscriber (ARPU) was $11.28 and $11.74 for the fourth quarters of 2010 and 2009, respectively, and $11.21 and $11.88 for fiscal 2010 and 2009, respectively. The company said that ARPU declined in the fourth quarter of 2010 and in fiscal 2010 due primarily to an increase in automotive self-paying subscribers which have a lower ARPU, an increase in subscribers committing…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has extended its call for new French-language general interest pay television service applications, but only for channels that don’t plan to compete with Astral’s Super Écran.
That was the gist of Friday’s rather peculiar decision denying a request from TVA Group for a new channel called Ciné-TVA. After asking for comments in January on how best to open up the genre, the Commission acknowledged that a second French-language pay television service could be viable, though applicants must provide evidence "clearly demonstrating demand and a market for the proposed service". It also added that though the service will…
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JAY SWITZER IS ABOUT to find out if Canadians want to accept an invite into his new Hollywood Suite.
That’s the name Switzer, the former CHUM Ltd. CEO, and David Kines, another former CHUM executive (who was EP of the just-wrapped Gemini Awards) have given their new company, which is about to launch four new high definition movie channels: dubbed at their license approvals: Velocity, The Love Channel, Kiss, and Adventure.
The independent broadcaster will officially launch in the coming days, announcing key people, branding and programming, aiming at an April 2011 launch with Canadian carriers.
Switzer and…
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OTTAWA – Well known communications lawyer Chris Johnston died Tuesday at his home in Ottawa. Johnston, 75, was diagnosed with cancer in April this year.
Johnston was appointed as General Counsel of the CRTC in 1974. In 1980, he partnered with Robert Buchan and Charles Dalfen to found the Ottawa-based telecommunications law firm of Johnston & Buchan LLP. That firm merged with Fasken Martineau in April 2007. While he officially retired in 2007, Johnston remained as a consultant to Shaw Communications over the last few years. In addition to Shaw, Johnston also counted WIC, Cancom, TSN, BC Tel, Pelmorex and…
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