WE’RE NOT USED TO what we saw Tuesday. When Shaw Communications appears before the CRTC, we more often than not witness quarrelsome company executives facing off against sometimes testy commissioners.
We just have to point to a couple of pieces of evidence. There’s more, but these will give you a sense of what we mean (we’re partial to the one where Shaw said last fall they weren’t going to buy broadcasters…)
But today? Compared to past Shaw-involved hearings, “this was super-fun-time-happy-hour,” is how wish-I-hadn’t-but-did put it to Global TV reporter David Boushy.
Tuesday morning we had a panel of…
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TORONTO – As the CRTC considers Shaw’s proposed purchase of Canwest Global’s TV assets, one industry analyst specualted on the implications of content providers making their content proprietary.
In a note to investors on Tuesday, Dvai Ghose, the managing director and head of Canadian research for Canaccord Genuity, said that companies like BCE and Rogers “see content ownership as an essential bargaining chip when negotiating content deals”, which, he continued, could make it difficult for companies who do not own content, naming TELUS and MTS as examples, to compete in the broadband, TV, and wireless segments.
“This does not seem to be in the interest…
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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…
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CALGARY – “Put yourself into my shoes,” CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein asked Shaw Cable’s executives.
The chair made the plea during an exchange Monday morning at the Airport Four Points Sheraton in Calgary during the day-long hearing into the western cableco’s applications to renew most of its cable licenses.
Due to a number of regulatory transgressions and questions over the years, (especially concerning advertising messages on some of its community channels that were contrary to the regulations, and treatment of some specialty channels), Shaw was granted only a short term license renewal by the CRTC back in 2008…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications executives told the CRTC today that it has no plans to hoard all of its content when it gains control of Canwest Global – and that when it comes to the digital transition, it would rather upgrade all of its transmitters, not just the ones in mandatory markets.
Commissioners were happily caught off-guard by the some of the commitments the big MSO/ISP/home phone/future wireless provider made this morning in Calgary.
When asked by CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein what the company planned to do in the unregulated spaces of mobile and broadband and how much content it…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has agreed to fast track Bell’s request to reconsider parts of its deferral accounts decision.
Bell asked the Commission last week to review, rescind and vary its determination regarding its DSL technology directive, and its calculation of the recurring amount and interest in Bell’s accumulated deferral account balance. It suggested that the DSL technology application be subject to a 30 day comment and 10 day reply period, while the deferral account balance application be subject to an accelerated process with a 20 day comment and 5 day reply period.
The Commission responded Friday that comments on either…
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PART OF THE RATIONALE behind Bell Canada’s purchase of CTV is that the mobile and broadband spaces are unregulated – and that content exclusives will be part of the game when attracting and retaining subscribers who want to see their video content on their iPads, BlackBerrys or PCs, as well as their TVs.
Bell CEO George Cope told us as much when we asked him about it during the press conference announcing the deal last week.
However, to paraphrase what Telus has been saying for a while now: “Not so fast, consolidators.”
The Bell/CTV deal was excellent timing for the…
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CALGARY – When the CRTC dives into the proposed purchase of Canwest Global’s TV assets by Shaw Communications next week, many industry stakeholders are asking for asking for safeguards and urging the Commission to be prudent.
(Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien will be in Calgary next week covering the hearing. For live updates, follow him on Twitter via @gregobr and surf back to Cartt.ca regularly.)
The $2 billion deal, which would make Shaw the largest vertically integrated media company in Canada, for now, appears to have the cautious support of many, as long as certain conditions – often described as “competitive safeguards” – are attached.
Shaw’s primary…
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“One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it.” – Peter Drucker
By Bill Roberts
NOW THAT WE HAVE TWO major mergings of BDUs and large national broadcasters underway, plus an inclination to enhance non-Canadian ownership potential, perhaps there is just cause and fair reason to review the recent 9.1.h. decision by the CRTC.
This is especially critical for the diverse voices and ownership structures of the smaller and independent broadcasters within the Canadian broadcasting system.
In the first instance – and seeing now how fast the landscape morphs – the extent to which the CRTC makes rules to be…
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TORONTO – Citing the CRTC’s genre exclusivity policy and a nearly identical programming schedule, Pelmorex Communications says Corus Entertainment’s application for a category 2 specialty channel providing community news, information and weather in Western Canada should be denied.
The Corus service is “a thinly disguised weather specialty channel which would duplicate completely the programming service that The Weather Network already provides to Western Canadians,” Pelmorex (owner of TWN and Météomédia) tells the Commission in comments filed on September 7. An appendix to its submission shows that about 90% of Local1’s programming would be “similar, if not the same” as…
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