GATINEAU – Atop Broadband received a Class 1 Broadcast Distribution Undertaking license from the CRTC today to serve the Greater Toronto Area.
Under its license the company can serve Ajax, Aurora, Bolton, Brampton, Caledon, East Gwillimbury, Etobicoke, Georgetown, King City, Markham, Milton, Mississauga, Newmarket, Nobleton, Oakville, Orangeville, Oshawa, Pickering, Richmond Hill, Scarborough, Toronto, and Vaughan (Kleinberg, Maple and Woodbridge).
The company is owned by Robert Socci, president of Atop Communications, and according to the proceeding’s documents, it appears it will be an over-the-top video provider that will provide its own set-top box using its customers’ existing cable DOCSIS or telco…
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TORONTO – Multi-platform specialty service Bite TV will debut its new fall lineup this Friday with a relaunch to the 4.5 million homes nationwide that it reaches.
“Bite’s focus on rising stars and up-and-coming talent remains unchanged,” reads the press release. However, the Second City, Yuk Yuk’s, Just for Laughs, and Edmonton’s Caution: May Contain Nuts sketch troupe are “set to inject a shot of Canadian comedy into Bite’s award-winning mix of short-form programming.”
The new Bite embraces Canada’s emerging comedy scene and is committed to developing and showcasing the country’s top rising comedians.
"Our commitment to budding home-grown talent is a…
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SINCE THE "CITY With a Heart of Gold” is the home town of Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien, we figured we would act as hosts of a couple of hours of cocktails and food the night before the “Obligation to Serve” CRTC hearing getting under way next Tuesday in Timmins.
Channel Zero (owners of CHCH TV, Movieola and Silver Screen Classics) generously offered to help us co-host the cocktail party to be held at the Timmins Days Inn, from 7 to 9 pm Monday October 25th in Ballroom D.
Knowing the city as we do, finding something to do there…
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OTTAWA – Wind Mobile has asked the CRTC to step in to try and make sure its customers’ calls aren’t repeatedly fumbled with so-called “hard handoffs” from its roaming provider Rogers Communications.
Wind wants the Commission to toss a flag on Rogers and grant it seamless, or soft, handoffs. A hard handoff, for example, means a Wind customer call is cut off as he moves out of out of a Wind network zone into a Rogers area. A soft handoff would mean the call isn’t dropped as the subscriber moved from network to network while chatting.
In a Part VII filed…
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TORONTO – Bell Satellite TV has added three new local OTA signals to its channel lineup: CTV Ottawa, CBC Edmonton and CBC Regina.
“Bell Satellite TV subscribers in eastern Ontario and western Quebec, as well as across the country, can now access the region’s leading local news broadcasts from CTV Ottawa,” said Louis Douville, CTV Ottawa VP and GM, in a release.
“We are responding to our customers in Ottawa-Gatineau who have told us they want to see their #1 local channel on Canada’s premier satellite television service,” added Heather Tulk, Bell’s SVP, residential products. Bell Satellite TV has 1.9 million…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has announced plans to resume the hearing that it began in May about the community-based campus radio station CKLN-FM Toronto, plus has added more information to its public file.
The Commission originally adjourned the hearing in Toronto on May 12 due to on-going litigation and judicial mediation before the Ontario Superior Court concerning the governance of CKLN Radio and the legitimacy of the current board of directors. The hearing has been rescheduled for December 8, 2010 at 9 a.m. at the Doubletree by Hilton – Toronto Airport in Toronto.
The deadline for interventions on the additional…
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OTTAWA – TVA received CRTC approval for two new category two specialty television stations on Wednesday.
The first is for TVA Mode, a national, French-language general-interest channel that will offer programming intended for men and women dedicated to fashion, beauty and personal well-being. The application says that programming would include Québécois, Canadian and international fashion shows, various magazines covering the world of fashion and beauty trends in a problem/solution approach, and programs offering vignettes and features dedicated to trends, products and personal well-being. The licence will expire August 31, 2017.
The second is for Star Système, a national, French-language high definition channel…
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TORONTO – The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) says that it lauds the CRTC’s recent decision to reject requests from Rogers and CTVglobemedia to reduce their Canadian content requirements in order to provide increased programming flexibility for their conventional television stations.
In a statement on Tuesday, the organization accused the broadcasters of “making Canadian programming the scapegoat for Canadian broadcasters’ difficulties”.
“The Commission made the right call. The group licensing policy is a single framework for the television sector, and not a collection of individual policies that can be cherry-picked to suit the broadcasters’ purposes or applied inconsistently across competitive…
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TORONTO – Retiring CTV CEO Ivan Fecan worked in TV all of his life. He was a producer, director and executive at a number of levels. As CEO, he knows all there is to know about how TV in Canada works.
The background of the new CTV CEO-to-be is far different.
Kevin Crull, president of residential services at Bell Canada (CTV’s new parent, pending regulatory approvals) was appointed COO today. He takes the job January 1st and will become CEO once Fecan retires when the Bell acquisition is closed sometime in early 2011.
While Crull knows he’s going to have…
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SASKATOON – Golden West Broadcasting says that it has learned its lesson. After being denied an opportunity to launch a FM radio station in Humboldt Sask. in 2008, the company has come back with facts in hand, demonstrating that it should be awarded the licence.
But Golden isn’t the only company vying for a FM radio station licence in the small Prairie market. Fabmar Communications Ltd., the owner of a regional FM station that covers Humboldt, Melfort and other areas, also wants a licence.
The two companies squared off during a CRTC hearing on Wednesday over who’s better positioned…
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