CALGARY – When Shaw Communications completes the purchase of Canwest Global, the vertically integrated entity will be so large and influential that some safeguards have to be attached as new conditions of license, a number of interveners told the CRTC Wednesday during its hearing into the deal.
Two of them, Telus and Pelmorex (owner of The Weather Network and Météomédia) brought lists of what those safeguards should be. Another, the Canadian Media Production Association, asked the Regulator to ensure the new company (controlled by the Shaw family) negotiates Terms of Trade in good faith – and doesn’t get cozy with…
Continue Reading
Perry Hoffman
GATINEAU – Canadian cable operators do not believe that a local-into-local signal carriage regime imposed on DTH companies would be disastrous for the operations of Bell TV and Shaw Direct.
Bell TV and Shaw Direct say in their submissions on 2010-488, the review of the direct-to-home satellite distribution policy they don’t have the capacity to carry all local over-the-air (OTA) signals, and despite technological improvements in compression coming online in the future complying with a local-into-local regime will be problematic.
Both say that if forced to carry all over-the-air (OTA) stations, they will have no choice but to remove specialty…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Glenn O’Farrell is the new president and CEO of the Office of French-language Educational Communications Ontario (OTÉLFO), the organization announced Thursday.
O’Farrell’s was previously head of Media de Novo, which in August was denied CRTC approval to sell third party ad avails in Canada. He is also a former president of the now defunct Canadian Association of Broadcasters.
In his new role, O’Farrell will oversee TFO, a commercial-free French television station in Ontario. TFO is also an educational and interactive service that offers a range of educational resources for educators, parents, and students.
“I am motivated by the importance that has…
Continue Reading
TORONTO and OTTAWA – The CRTC should rethink its decision to delay considering applications for mandatory basic digital distribution.
That message seems to be picking up steam, and not just with the independent broadcasters who currently have 9(1)(h) applications before the Commission. The Canadian Conference for the Arts (CCA) waded into the issue this week, calling on the Regulator to rescind BRP 2010-629.
“Our request is based on the fact that in our opinion, due process and transparency were gravely missing in the Commission’s decision to impose a moratorium”, the CCA wrote in a letter to CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein this week….
Continue Reading
SO, IS THE TELUS Canadian Football League mobile application exclusive to Telus customers or not? On Wednesday during the CRTC’s hearing into the purchase of Canwest Television by Shaw Communications, that caused some confusion among commissioners – and yours truly.
The day before, Shaw Communications EVP Brad Shaw said he thought it pretty rich that a company with a mobile app that is exclusive to its own customers would want to make sure other carriers aren’t allowed to offer such content only to its own customers. It’s a point Telus has made before and did again Wednesday.
So yesterday, commissioners…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Like everyone else, the Writers Guild of Canada says it’s pretty happy Shaw Communications decided to buy Canwest Global.
But also like a lot of others, the WGC wants the tangible benefits package improved.
The WGC insisted the Shaw benefits package should be worth no less than 10% of the $2.047 billion transaction as valued by the Commission, or at least $204.7 million of clear and incremental benefit to the industry.
Shaw has asked for less, given the intangible benefits of saving the company, keeping it intact and the costs already incurred to go through the CCAA process with…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – If the Shaw-Canwest $200-million tangible benefits package has to be altered or improved – as many, including the CRTC chair on Tuesday morning, have suggested – the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance tabled an idea to take advantage of that potentially rebuilt benefits package it says will help its members survive.
The CCSA represents more than a hundred independent, mostly rural, cable operators across Canada, many of whom must rely on one of the two Canadian satellite relay distribution undertakings (Shaw Direct and Bell TV) for their Canadian specialty channels. They are just too far away to be able…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – TV viewers could soon have another children’s channel added to their dials.
The CRTC approved TVO Kids+ on Wednesday, a national, English-language Category 2 specialty station aimed at “young learners” from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 5. In its application, the Ontario Educational Communications Authority (TVO) said that its programming will be linked to or based on the Learning Expectations set out in the Ontario Curriculum and complementary to the “formal in-classroom educational experience of young learners”, while encompassing the major areas of the curriculum.
The new channel will not be permitted to broadcast any commercial messages other than…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Canada’s public and private broadcasters are urging the CRTC to implement a local-into-local signal carriage regime for the country’s direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast distributors, saying the time has come to force them to comply with the provisions in the Broadcasting Act.
Private broadcasters Canwest and CTVglobemedia acknowledge in their submissions to the Regulator for 2010-488, the review of the direct-to-home satellite distribution policy, that Shaw Direct and Bell TV have capacity constraints, but this doesn’t take away from the fact the TV stations are harmed financially when they aren’t carried.
“Unfortunately, where a local television is not…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Shaw’s application to buy Canwest excludes Canadians with disabilities, according to Media Access Canada (MAC).
MAC, the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind appeared before the CRTC on Wednesday asking that a portion of the deal’s tangible benefits be used to fund research, technical innovation, business modelling and education initiatives to improve captioning quality and increase levels of described content.
“Given Shaw’s technical expertise and financial strength, we had hoped to see leadership to increase and improve accessible programming for the one in four Canadians whose…
Continue Reading
