THE INCENTIVES FOR THE great, big vertically integrated Canadian cabletelbroadcellcasters to act unfairly towards everybody else has become too great to ignore and new protections against potential perils are needed, say many companies in their submissions to the CRTC ahead of June’s hearing into vertical integration.
(Editor’s note: This preview originally ran on April 29th. We’re re-running it here as a preview of the hearing, which gets under way Monday in Ottawa with Rogers first up. As usual, Cartt.ca will be there. But if you can’t be there, it will be streamed live on cpac.ca – and available for…
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OTTAWA – Canadian television viewers need protection from the “anti-competitive practices of the large broadcasting companies”, according to Telus.
The telco made the comments Wednesday in reference to the “concentration of content ownership” as a result of the recent mergers of Shaw/Canwest and BCE/CTV. Telus suggested that the CRTC implement safeguards designed “to protect consumer choice and competitive pricing” as the Commission prepares to examine the issue of vertical integration at a hearing scheduled to begin on June 20, 2011.
Telus’ proposed safeguards include:– Distributors should not withhold content from competitors in order to prevent anti-competitive programming blackouts;– Preferential…
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TORONTO – While many in the traditional media industry would like to see the regulations applied to conventional electronic media extended to new media companies, Rogers Communications’ CEO Nadir Mohamed said Wednesday that he doesn’t think that’s the way to go.
With customers increasingly wanting connected experiences, to take their devices and content with them wherever they go and consume content whenever they like, continuing along with policy that was written prior to the massive growth of the Internet and all it enables is the wrong way to go, the CEO told reporters.
He referenced the recent work of Canadian media companies…
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OTTAWA – Nearly 7,000 Canadians have told the CRTC that television commercials are too loud, and, that they want the Regulator to do something about it.
The Commission got an earful after asking for comments back in February on measures to control the loudness of commercial messages. It launched the public consultation after receiving hundreds of complaints, and comments were due last week.
“It is highly annoying the number of times we need to adjust the volume from commercials back to programming”, wrote Mark Dostie from Richmond, B.C., in his submission to the CRTC. “In fact we will often ‘pause’…
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IF YOU THOUGHT THE “usage-based billing” debate was loud, just wait until the “regulate Netflix” debate.
(Both of those arguments are inextricably linked, of course, but we’ll tackle that part another time.)
In talking to many regulatory folks over the past number of days, it seems a virtual certainty that the CRTC will hold some sort of proceeding to look at the non-Canadian, unregulated video sector, otherwise known as over-the-top video (OTT). This rapidly growing segment (in terms of usage) encompasses Netflix, AppleTV, GoogleTV, Hulu, whatever video portal or digital locker service Amazon might bring to Canada, YouTube, movies rented via…
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OTTAWA – With the federal election just around the corner, the Canadian Conference of the Arts convinced the major federal parties (except for the ruling Conservatives) to offer up their thoughts on the arts, culture, and heritage sector with a series of thought-provoking questions.
Below are a few excerpts from some of their most interesting answers. Click here for the parties’ full responses on the CCA blog.
On foreign ownership in broadcasting and telecommunications:
– Liberal Party: The Liberal party believes that none of the elements of the Canadian broadcasting system should be sold to foreign interests. We are willing to consider some foreign investments…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given its thumbs up to a new TV service provider that wants to serve the greater Toronto area plus Kitchener-Waterloo.
The Commission announced Tuesday that 2251723 Ontario Inc. has received Class 1 terrestrial BDU status through August 31, 2017. The company is wholly owned by Content Media Rights Inc. and equally controlled by Alexei Tchernobrivets, Vadim Sloutsky and Ivan Smirnov.
After some prompting from incumbent Rogers, the applicant confirmed that it would comply with all requirements relating to distribution and linkage, priority carriage and access, as well as distribute all ‘must-carry’ services and over-the-air priority signals.
No…
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GATINEAU – There were some pretty big surprises as Canada’s large broadcast groups took the stand one last time during the CRTC’s group licensing proceeding in Gatineau last week.
While it should come as no shock that Bell Media maintained its position on symmetrical regulation of Canadian content spending requirements – 30% on Canadian production expenditure (CPE) and 5% programs of national interest (PNI) – Rogers Media shocked commissioners when it asked to be excluded from the group licensing regime.
For Bell, complying with the new group licensing approach is simple: all large broadcast groups should follow the same…
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OTTAWA – The country’s television broadcasters may be a little more worried about the threat from foreign over-the-top (OTT) services than they have let on.
A group of some 35 senior private sector executives from the country’s distribution, telecommunications, broadcasting, production and creative sectors have formed a loose coalition called Over-The-Top Services Working Group to counter, or at least mitigate, the impact that these services could have on their traditional media businesses.
Founded by Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA), the group counts industry heavyweights like Bell and Rogers amongst its members. And it has been meeting quietly over the last few…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications has asked the CRTC to drop the requirement that Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct be kept structurally separate.
In an application filed with the Commission, Shaw calls the 14-year old regulations “unnecessary in view of Canada’s competitive market for broadcasting distribution.” The rules were first introduced in 1997 when Shaw acquired DTH service Homestar, later christened Star Choice, and now known as Shaw Direct. At that time, they were designed to ensure that no undue preference or advantage passed between the company’s DTH service and Shaw’s cable business.
Shaw says those rules now “discriminate" against Shaw Direct,…
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