OTTAWA – CBC/Radio-Canada will challenge the legal recourse filed by Canada’s Commissioner of Official Languages earlier this month “in the interest of protecting its programming independence”.
“The Commissioner of Official Languages should not have jurisdiction over the Corporation’s programming”, said Maryse Bertrand, CBC/Radio-Canada’s VP of real estate, legal services, and general counsel, in a statement. “It would be inappropriate for him, or another third party, to be able to dictate what kind of content CBC/Radio-Canada should air. It’s in the public interest that the Corporation’s editorial independence be protected. That independence is at the very heart of the public broadcaster’s…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Should broadband be deemed an essential service for all Canadians in the same way as basic telephone service?
Count the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) firmly on the ‘yes’ side of that question. In a new report called Is Broadband Basic Service, the Ottawa-based consumer organization details how Canada could benefit from such a plan, and how countries like Japan and the European Union have been successful thanks to policy and infrastructure investments that make broadband service a basic right for their citizens. All of which stands in contrast to Canada where no such regime exists –…
Continue Reading
WHY WOULD KEITH PELLEY move to Rogers Communications? That’s the question the industry is asking this week. There are many speculative answers, but let’s try to look at some facts before we lob our own opinion-grenades.
Pelley is a sports guy. A TV guy. A sports TV guy. He’s a heck of a broadcast executive who is still riding a massive wave of goodwill generated by the stellar Winter Olympics broadcast, one which he constructed from the ground up and oversaw. He and his people did a terrific job and with a bit of downtime between now and…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Depending on how you look at it, the CRTC sided with both Torstar and Rogers Communications over the carriage dispute of Torstar shopping channel ShopTV. Or neither.
After a public hearing on the matter last month, the Commission offered concessions to both parties in a decision Wednesday. It supported Torstar’s claim that Rogers is offside on the Commission’s 1:1 regulation which says for each BDU-owned channel carried, there must be a similar unaffiliated channel also offered.
“…the Commission determines that where Rogers is counting the House of Commons programming service as a third-party exempt service in order to…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC’s decision to deny an appeal from Telus to reconsider two earlier rulings could have an unexpected and wide ranging impact on the Canadian enterprise market, the telco warned.
The Commission said Tuesday that it was turning down Telus’ request to review and vary Telecom Decisions 2009-85 and 2010-11 because “it is incumbent upon a party making a review and vary application to raise all of the grounds in support of their application that are, or should be, apparent to the applicant at the time the application is made.”
The request is part of a…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – New media broadcasting undertakings affiliated with Canadian broadcasters must begin to report financial information to the CRTC starting next year.
After calling for comments on reporting requirements for new media broadcasting undertakings (NMBUs) back in February, the Commission said Friday that revenues and expenditures from NMBUs that are affiliates of licensed broadcasting undertakings will be sent out in the first quarter of 2011 for the 2009 broadcasting year, and will be required on an annual basis going forward.
An example of an affiliated NMBU would be Rogers On Demand Online, a broadband service in which Rogers Cable…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Media de Novo was denied CRTC approval for its plan to sell ad time on U.S. specialty channels’ local avails in Canada.
In its decision on Thursday, the Commission said that Media de Novo failed to demonstrate “that its proposal would provide sufficient benefits to warrant departure from the Commission’s current policy on local availabilities, or that its service should be licensed as a Category A programming service”.
It also expressed concern that Media de Novo’s proposal could result in “an unacceptable negative impact on the advertising revenues of Canadian broadcasters”, particularly “given the severe financial constraints…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Breathe E-Z Homes Ltd. has been slapped with a $2,000 fine for violating the country’s national do not call list (DNCL).
The Commission said that it received “numerous complaints” in relation to telemarketing telecommunications made by the company between September 5 and November 11, 2009. After receiving a notice of violation on January 7, 2010, Breathe E-Z argued that it had not committed any of the violations set out in the notice. It claimed that all of the calls it made during the period covered by the notice were to persons with whom Breathe E-Z had an existing…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – The Competition Bureau has cleared Shaw Communication’s $2 billion acquisition of 100% of the over-the-air and specialty television businesses of CanWest Global Communications Corp.
In an announcement on Friday, Shaw said that the Competition Bureau concluded that the transaction “will not likely give rise to a substantial lessening or prevention of competition under the Competition Act” because of a number of factors, including effective remaining competition, the effect of the regulatory environment, the absence of relevant concerns expressed by market participants and numerous alternatives available to advertisers.
"The Bureau has conducted a very thorough review and we appreciate their…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has extended various Canadian broadcasting licenses in order to carry them through next year’s digital transition deadline.
CBC, Canwest, CTV, and Rogers received license extensions for their respective conventional, over-the-air stations from September 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011 so that they may be considered as trial markets for the upcoming transition.
Many category 1 and 2 specialty stations and radio networks were renewed through August 31, 2011, while others – such as The Score, ATN, Teletoon and some pay TV channels – received an extension through August 31, 2012.
“The Commission intends to administratively renew the…
Continue Reading
