OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC introduced a new policy for community and campus radio stations on Thursday which, among other revisions, will provide the sector with stable funding.
The Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC) will see its annual funding increase by over $700,000, which will be distributed among the more than 140 community and campus radio stations across the country. The CRFC is a not-for-profit organization that supports the development of non-commercial, community-based broadcasters.
The funds will be supplied by commercial radio broadcasters through a reallocation of the contributions they must make each year toward the development of Canadian content, benefitting the…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has nabbed two more companies for violating the national do not call list (DNCL), and has slapped them each with $20,000 in fines.
Between July 21, 2009 and January 19, 2010, the Commission said that it received numerous complaints in relation to fax telemarketing telecommunications made by Roofing by Peerless Mason Ltd. After issuing a notice of violation and a fine of $20,000 to the company on February 15, 2010 and receiving no reply, the Commission imposed an additional $20,000 administrative monetary penalty on Wednesday. The fine plus any outstanding amount is due by August…
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OTTAWA – A decision released this week by the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) denying a Telus Corp. appeal of two CRTC rulings related to the ongoing Department of National Defence (DND) telecom contract dispute is only a minor setback, the company says.
“It’s a small part of the larger picture and in no way impedes, or in fact, affects in any way our larger concern which is frankly the state of, and the prognosis for, a competitive market in the enterprise segment,” Ted Woodhead, Telus’ VP of telecom policy and regulatory affairs, tells Cartt.ca in an interview….
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is gearing up for the projected telephone number shortage expected to affect Toronto within the next five years.
The Commission said Tuesday that it will establish a relief planning committee to evaluate various options and make recommendations for the area in southern Ontario currently served by area codes 416 and 647.
The Canadian Numbering Administrator, which is the authority that administers the distribution of phone numbers in Canada, told the CRTC that this area is expected to run out of telephone numbers by July 2015.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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GATINEAU – After having been told by CRTC staff on Friday that the Regulator would not consider adding wireless to its look at regulatory symmetry in the telecom world when it comes to the handling of customer cancellations and transfers, Rogers Communications has again pushed the issue back into the lap of the Commission.
In a story on Cartt.ca last week, we told you Rogers wrote the Commission saying it didn’t make any sense to be looking into so-called regulatory symmetry for broadcasting, telecom and Internet while skipping wireless – and that the communications giant wants the notice of…
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TICK, TICK, TICK. There are 407 days left until the end of analog over-the-air television in the major markets the CRTC has identified as must-switches (just look up and to the right to see our countdown clock).
Last week the CRTC, as we reported here, said 857,000 households in major markets will be left without viable TV signals because they use older analog sets fed by rabbit ears or some other sort of antenna because they continue to receive their television off-air.
It also okayed a "Freesat" type of alternative (free service for a small package “local” stations, after…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will hold a public proceeding in November to review its policies for direct-to-home (DTH) satellite distribution.
Tuesday’s call for comments invited proposals on its regulatory framework for DTH satellite distribution, particularly with respect to the conventional television stations that DTH distributors are required to offer to their subscribers, and the manner in which DTH distributors perform simultaneous substitution.
Comments and interventions are due before September 8, and the hearing is scheduled to begin November 16, 2010 in Gatineau.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – Don’t expect the government to take the lead or to extend the digital transition deadline beyond August 31, 2011.
That appears to be the message behind a short statement issued by Heritage Minister James Moore on Friday, hours after the CRTC released its guidelines on the process. Referencing his speech at the annual conference of the Canadian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications in December 2008, Moore said that he “expects industry-led solutions that will ensure a smooth transition for consumers”.
"The transition to digital is inevitable”, Moore said in his speech. “The CRTC has set a deadline of August 31,…
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OTTAWA – While the Commission has been prepared to consider applications for competitive news specialty services since last year, it is unmoved when it comes to considering them as a new category 1 must-carry licenses.
That’s what Quebecor Media was told earlier this month by the CRTC in a letter saying the company’s application for a category 1 cable channel license for Sun TV News will not go forward in Gatineau. As Cartt.ca noted when QMI made the very public announcement of the new news channel it plans to launch in January, the CRTC had already said in March…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – With some 400 or so days to go until Canadian over-the-air broadcasters must transition to digital, the CRTC has weighed in on a few of the many issues.
For starters, the Commission agreed to modify its regulation to allow television distributors to offer “a free alternative” to affected viewers in smaller markets where local stations decide not to convert to digital. These companies will be able to offer a package of local and regional stations at no charge to viewers, however, in order to receive the free local package, the CRTC acknowledged that some of those consumers may have to…
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