TORONTO – Media Access Canada (MAC) has asked Industry Canada to use the pending 700 MHz spectrum auction to top-up its accessibility fund initiative.
MAC, on behalf of the Access 2020 Coalition, MAC is urging Industry Canada to include a 10% buyer’s premium on successful bids for the 700 spectrum, and apply a portion of the funds collected to the accessibility fund. MAC and Access 2020 are committed to financing a business model to achieve 100% captioning and description by 2020. Currently at $5.7 million, the fund’s establishment is conditional on the CRTC approval of BCE’s acquisition of CTV.
“The Accessibility…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The value-for-signal issue may not be a fait accompli just yet.
Cartt.ca has learned that Rogers plans to appeal Monday’s Federal Court decision which confirmed that the CRTC does have the authority to permit broadcasters to negotiate a fee from BDUs for their off-air signals.
The appeal would head to to the Supreme Court, if the court chooses to hear it. No word yet if any other BDUs will jump on board, but stay tuned.
Continue Reading
CHATHAM, ON – TekSavvy Solutions said that it is “encouraged” by Industry Minister Tony Clement’s opposition to usage based billing (UBB), and cheered his stance on the need for competition in Canada.
The independent ISP applauded the Minister’s comments made earlier this week that described UBB as “inconsistent with good public policy”, and agreed that the best way to provide consumer choice is through “vigorous competition”.
“Minister Clement has a deep understanding of the complex issues that need to be addressed to ensure Canadians have the benefit of robust competition in Internet service,” said TekSavvy CEO Rocky Gaudrault, in a…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Usage-based billing (UBB) threatens to limit the benefits that innovative and creative businesses such as those involved in cloud computing could bring to the Canadian economy, Industry Minister Tony Clement told a Parliamentary committee Tuesday.
Speaking to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on Tuesday, Clement argued that the CRTC’s UBB decision is not consistent with good public policy and “is quite simply the wrong way to proceed.”
“Independent ISPs must not be forced to adopt the same retail pricing strategy as the incumbents. To do so is to limit consumer choice and…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – While the massively confused usage-based billing issue gets all the attention these days, another media issue that will affect tens of thousands more Canadians than UBB is still receiving scant notice: the transition from analog over-the-air TV to digital.
Granted, most Canadians won’t notice a thing come September 1 of this year as most of us are plugged into a cable, satellite or telco TV subscription. When the analog TV transmitters are turned off in the mandatory markets, it will be a non-issue as our carriers will continue carrying and distributing as before.
But for the 900,000 estimated households…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – TV and film production stakeholders are urging the CRTC to not lose sight of its Canadian programming expenditure (CPE) benchmarks when considering the group-based licence renewals of the large, vertically integrated, broadcasters.
The Canadian Media Production Association tells the Commission that it shouldn’t acquiesce to any demands to deviate from its proposed 30% CPE requirement and argues that the CRTC should reject outright broadcasters’ demands to have CPE requirements lower than 30%.
“Since the broadcaster groups all compete for the same types of programming (both Canadian and foreign) and for the same advertisers, they should all be…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The merger of XM Canada and Sirius Canada is one step closer to fruition after the Competition Bureau proffered its blessing to the proposed union this week.
Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings (CSR), the parent company of XM Canada, said that it was “pleased” by the Competition Bureau’s announcement that it does not intend to make an application to the Competition Tribunal to challenge the proposed acquisition of Sirius Canada by CSR.
"Coming on the heels of last week’s CSR shareholder approval, (the Bureau’s) announcement is another exciting step forward in the process towards the proposed merger”, said CSR executive…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA and TORONTO – Another complaint from an unhappy Rogers Internet customer prompted the CRTC to question the company’s Internet traffic management practices (ITMPs), the third time in as many months.
In a letter dated February 23rd, the Commission asked Rogers to respond to a customer’s allegation that its “ITMP incorrectly identifies time sensitive traffic generated by inter-active games as P2P traffic, subjecting such traffic to the ITMP and rendering the games unusable”. Section 2009-657 of the Telecommunication Act dictates that ITMPs that result in a noticeable degradation of time sensitive audio or video traffic require prior Commission approval.
When contacted by…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – With nothing happening in the marketplace to inform Canadians that they will no longer be able to get an off-air TV signal without some new digital gear come August 31, 2011, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has called CRTC officials to appear before it on Monday.
Executive director of broadcasting, Scott Hutton, ED policy development and research Namir Anani and senior general counsel John Keogh are scheduled to appear.
Canadian broadcasters have been told by the CRTC to get cracking on letting Canadians know that for most of them, their analog TVs with rabbit ears will receive nothing…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – The Federal Court of Appeal has refused to hear an appeal by Astral Media to halt the now completed sale of 11 Quebec radio stations to competitor Cogeco.
According to a Canadian Press report, Astral spokesperson Hugues Mousseau expressed disappointment with the move, and accused the CRTC of “flouting its own policies and rules of procedure”.
Astral filed a motion with the Federal Court of Appeal last month seeking to overturn the CRTC’s decision to allow Cogeco to maintain a third radio station in the Montreal market. The move relaxes the Commission’s common ownership policy limiting…
Continue Reading
