OTTAWA – The CRTC has officially amended the Broadcasting Licence Fee Regulations relating to Part II licence fees.
The Commission said Wednesday that it will calculate licence fees due and payable by December 1, 2010 at the latest, and send out invoices on or about November 1st to undertakings that are licensees on the billing date for which the fee revenues for the broadcast year ending August 31, 2009 exceed the applicable exemption.
After receiving Treasury Board approval, the amended regulations were registered and came into effect on June 23.
Click here for the full list of amendments.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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TORONTO and GATINEAU – Rogers Communications wants to know why the CRTC hasn’t included wireless in its look at regulatory symmetry in the telecom world when it comes to the handling of customer cancellations and transfers.
In a letter dated June 30th, the communications giant told the Commission it didn’t make any sense to be looking into so-called regulatory symmetry for broadcasting, telecom and Internet while skipping wireless – and it wants the notice of consultation amended to include the handling of wireless customer transfer requests, too.
Bell Canada made an application to the Commission in May demanding the same…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is undertaking a review of television program categories.
Monday’s call for comments asks for input in to the Commission’s proposed amendments to the definitions for specific program categories, as well as matters related to program length and advertising.
It is also seeking comments on the appropriate procedure for identifying and updating the specific award shows that will qualify as ‘programs of national interest’. The Commission announced that the current exhibition requirements for priority programming would be replaced by an expenditure requirement for programs of national interest in BRP 2010-167 relating to a group-based approach…
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MONTREAL – If you give it to them, you must give it to us, too.
That’s the gist of the message that Quebecor Media had for the CRTC on Monday when it called for the Commission to “reject the applications by CTV Limited in order to obtain regulatory relief for the ‘A’ stations and for the CTV Network or apply the requested conditions to all Canadian conventional television stations”.
As reported by Cartt.ca, CTV has asked that the Commission extend “interim regulatory flexibility” to its group of ‘A’ channels across the country which it claims have lost nearly $98 million….
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has released an approximate schedule for its upcoming television license renewals.
First up will be the renewal of Vide-on-Demand undertakings which will be handled via paper processes this Fall. This will be followed by private English-language groups CTV, CanWest, Rogers, Corus, and CJBN-TV Kenora in the Spring of 2011.
Private French-language groups services Quebecor, V interactions, Astral, TV5 Quebec Canada, and Canal Evasion will be considered in early Fall 2011, while all other conventional, specialty, pay, PPV, and community television undertakings whose licences expire in the next two years will be scheduled for Spring 2012.
CBC/Radio…
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OTTAWA – The Outdoor Life Network can add comedy and cartoons to its programming schedule, but still can’t include “stick and ball” sports.
In a decision on Friday, the CRTC approved Rogers’ request that it add categories 7(b) Ongoing comedy series (sitcoms), 7(e) Animated television programs and films, and 7(f) Programs of comedy sketches, improvisation, unscripted works, and stand-up comedy to the list of program categories that may be broadcast by the service. It also okayed an increase the amount of programming that may be drawn from category 7 Drama and comedy, as a whole from 5% of the…
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OTTAWA – CTV wants to decrease the amount of Canadian programming that it must air in order to allow it more “scheduling flexibility”.
In an application to the CRTC, the network has asked be relieved of the 60% yearly Canadian program requirement set out in section 4(6) of the Television Broadcasting Regulations, instead asking that it be replaced with the following condition of licence:
“As an exception to section 4(6) of the Television Broadcasting Regulations, 1987, the licensee shall devote not less than 55% of the broadcast year to the broadcasting of Canadian programs.”
CTV’s application said that it would "be unlikely" that this…
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WELL, I GUESS THIS leaves Canada (temporarily?) offside with both Europe and the U.S.A. now.
Pity, only in Canada you say?
By the Federal Court of Appeal’s logic, VOD is not a broadcast undertaking either. And let’s recall that cable operators employ IP protocols to deliver all content – including that “requested” stuff.
Two lessons hopefully learned here: First, the expert CRTC should not delegate tipping point policy decisions to narrow, interpretive and thin-knowledge based courts; and second, the only logical step now is to refine and amend the definition “broadcasting undertakings” in the Broadcasting Act.
And please, no more whining…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has upheld a ruling by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council over questionable content that aired on Corus-owned radio station CFNY-FM (102.1 The Edge).
A listener appealed to the Commission in February after the CBSC determined that comments made during the March 20, 2009 broadcast of The Dean Blundell Show did not violate any broadcast codes, as Cartt.ca reported.
The complaint concerned an approximately 10-minute segment entitled “Wha’ Happened?” which aired at 8 a.m. The segment is a recurring contest in which callers are asked to share bizarre stories about things that have happened to them…
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OTTAWA – A small Ontario radio station has asked the CRTC for permission to be sold, but only if it can drop its Christian music for rock.
CFWC FM in Brantford, ON, has asked for a transfer of control to an Ontario numbered company in a sale worth $265,000. After alleging that “the station has been unprofitable for the past several years”, the applicant asked that the Commission revise its condition of license by deleting the condition that it air a minimum of 95% of all musical selections drawn from subcategory 35 (non classic religious).
The licensee said that the…
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