OTTAWA – The CRTC has tweaked the linkage and distribution rules for BDUs.
The revisions, which impact class 1 and 2 licensees and direct-to-home satellite operators, are designed to allow more flexibility in the packaging of Canadian specialty services with non-Canadian-originated services, including authorized U.S. superstations, to ensure that all BDUs are competing on a level playing field.
The Commission’s old regulations mandated that a Canadian pay television service be packaged in a given discretionary tier with no more than five channels containing any of the non-Canadian-originated services specified in either Section A or Section B of its list of Part…
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OTTAWA – As Bell gears up to launch its new IPTV services this year in Toronto and Montreal, the telco is asking the CRTC to change rules that it claims have long favoured cable companies when it comes to signing up new subscribers.
"Decade-old rules that have ensured a competitive advantage for cable companies need to change, never more so than now as Bell prepares to enhance competition and consumer choice in television in Canada’s largest urban markets," said George Cope, president and CEO of Bell Canada and BCE, in a statement. "We expect the CRTC to apply regulatory symmetry…
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OTTAWA – After issuing its new policy on advertising in the local availabilities of non-Canadian services, the CRTC has agreed to hear Media de Novo’s plans to do just that.
The Commission said Friday that it has re-scheduled the company’s non-appearing hearing for July 7 after postponing its appearance last February.
Led by former CAB president Glenn O’Farrell, Media de Novo has applied to sell ad time on US specialty channels’ local avails in Canada and direct the majority of the revenues to Canadian programming.
Click here for more on the company’s plans on targeted advertising.
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OTTAWA – The CRTC appears to be trying to clear up the loose ends around advertising in video-on-demand content.
After releasing its decision last March to allow ads in video-on-demand content, the Commission issued a letter to all VOD licensees on Thursday advising those licensees currently prohibited from advertising by their existing conditions of licence may do so after they have applied for an amendment
“However, it has been decided that the application of the existing VOD conditions of licence will be suspended, pending receipt and Commission consideration of applications for amendment to such conditions of licence from…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor Media’s vice-president of regulatory affairs, Édouard Trépanier, is retiring after 16 years with the company.
Of course, with an opening at the CRTC for what’s expected to be a Francophone Quebecker, many are wondering if Trépanier might be a candidate for vice-chair, broadcasting at the Commission, since the term of the current vice-chair, Michel Arpin, is over at the end of August.
However, in an e-mail to Cartt.ca, Trepanier wrote: “I really am retiring.”
“I had 16 wonderful years at Groupe Vidéotron for the first half and then with Quebecor Media. I don’t think it’s possible to get…
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OTTAWA – Earlier this month, the CRTC withdrew an application by Fight Media to effect a corporate reorganization so that the new company could acquire category two digital specialty channel The Fight Network from The Fight Network Inc.
For those not familiar with media company re-orgs, that sentence may sound a little weird, but these types of alterations to media company ownership structures are not all that unusual and can be done for a number of reasons.
But this time, the Commission withdrew the application prior to the May 5th hearing because of a lawsuit brought by Mike Garrow, the founder…
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OTTAWA – CTV has asked the CRTC for permission to broaden the focus of its specialty channel MuchMusic so that it may air more than just music videos.
The network has applied for amendments to the broadcasting licence of the English-language music channel, including a change to the condition relating to its nature of service. The channel wants to air music-related and lifestyle programming for young adults, pledging that “the inclusion of lifestyle programming in its nature of service will better position MuchMusic to adapt to the business realities of audience fragmentation and changing technologies”.
The application also says “that music videos…
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OTTAWA – Bell Canada and Bell Aliant plan to appeal a recent CRTC decision not allowing them to implement usage-based billing (UBB) on their wholesale customers until they do so for all of their retail customers.
“This aspect of Decision 2010-255 will be the subject of a forthcoming application to review and vary that decision, which the companies expect to submit in the coming days,” states comments filed to Telecom Notice of Consultation 2009-261.
Bell argues that the Commission’s decision to adopt an all or nothing approach to UBB runs counter to provisions in the Policy Direction…
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OTTAWA – The time has come to eliminate wholesale regulation of retail Internet services, two of the countries largest communications companies tell Cartt.ca. They say intermodal competition – cable versus DSL versus wireless – has rendered the need for a wholesale access regime unnecessary.
The comments come as the CRTC prepares to hear oral arguments in a very broad hearing dealing with wholesale access to certain broadband facilities. The proceeding, launched with Telecom Notice of Consultation 2009-261 begins on Monday.
“I don’t think wholesale is going to help the future of broadband in Canada. I think it could…
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OTTAWA – In addition to requests for a number of new television channels, the CRTC will also consider two applications for new BDUs at a hearing this summer.
Montreal-based ISP Colba.Net Inc has applied for a broadcasting licence to operate a Class 1 terrestrial BDU to serve Montréal Island.
Atop Broadband Corp. , located in Woodbridge, ON, has asked to operate a Class 1 terrestrial BDU to serve the majority of the greater Toronto area, specifically bounded by the city of Oshawa on the east, the city of Oakville on the south, the city of Orangeville on the west; and the…
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