TORONTO – Glassbox Television has completed its acquisition of the Category 1 specialty channel Travel + Escape from CTV.
Under a transitional services agreement, the physical broadcast operations of the service will continue at CTV through Fall 2011. The CRTC approved the $10 million transaction late last month, as Cartt.ca reported.
www.glassbox.tv
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A GRASSROOTS INITIATIVE designed to stop incumbent ISPs like Bell, Rogers and Shaw from implementing usage-based billing seems to be quietly gaining momentum.
Led by the consumer group OpenMedia.ca, the campaign launched a petition late last week which calls usage-based billing “a blow to consumer choice, to access, and to free expression” and “devastating not only for the user experience, but for all innovation and entrepreneurship online”.
Using an image of a parking meter whose red ‘expired’ tag reads “Too Much Internet”, the petition had over a thousand names in less than 24 hours. This prompted the OpenMedia.ca network to kick off an…
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OTTAWA – Shaw has received another short term renewal of its Class 1 cable licenses in Western Canada to help the CRTC keep tabs on its compliance.
In its decision on Friday, the CRTC said that short-term renewals allow it “to review at an earlier date the licensees’ compliance with the Commission’s regulatory requirements and policy provisions”.
Shaw systems serving various locations in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are set to expire on November 30, 2010. They have been renewed from December 1, 2010 through August 31, 2015.
www.crtc.gc.cawww.shaw.ca
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REGINA – SaskTel is voicing its firm objection to a proposed 50% increase in local telephone rates in rural Canada, at least without an opportunity for residents in those areas to weigh in.
The Regina-based telco said in a statement that rate proposals made last week by Shaw, Rogers, Telus and Bell during the CRTC’s local telephone service hearing failed to address “the sharp inequalities in employment and incomes across the country”. SaskTel also suggested that the majority of “rural and northern residents do not understand the magnitude of the impact this public hearing could have on them”.
“We believe that these…
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BRACEBRIDGE, Ont. – It’s taken a while to dole out the millions of dollars the federal government set aside to fund broadband expansion to rural areas in Canada.
That has led some telecom industry insiders to tell Cartt.ca Industry Canada, which is in charge of the Broadband Canada fund, is having difficulty finding enough places which remain unserved by Canadian broadband providers upon which to spend the money.
However, after Saturday’s announcement of the third wave of funding, $152 million of the $225 million available has been spoken for and Minister Tony Clement told Cartt.ca in an interview Saturday the…
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BRACEBRIDGE, Ont. – One day after the CRTC wrapped up its hearing into the potential for more obligations, money and higher speeds for rural broadband (among other items), Industry Canada announced 21 new projects to be funded through the Broadband Canada: Connecting Rural Canadians program.
These 21 latest projects will cost $29.1 million and soon connect 30,184 households in four provinces and one territory to broadband Internet networks, announced Industry Minister Tony Clement, who spoke at the Muskoka Bean Cafe in Bracebridge on Saturday morning.
This announcement brings total spending so far from the $225 million Broadband Canada fund to $152…
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TORONTO – If Canada is going to deliver broadband nationwide – connecting a growing plethora of products – we need to move forward immediately on the next wireless spectrum auction, Rogers Communications CEO Nadir Mohamed said on Wednesday.
In a speech at the Economic Club of Toronto and later speaking to reporters, Mohamed implored the federal government to move the auction of the 700 MHz block of spectrum especially with greater alacrity. He also asked Industry Canada to make sure the auction is without the set-aside rules favouring newcomers which was used in the last spectrum sell-off in 2008 that…
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GATINEAU – Bell Aliant Regional Communications says that if the obligation to serve subsidy regime isn’t fixed, it may have no choice but to cut off certain services to some of its most costly markets.
The revelation came under questioning from CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein when he asked Bell Aliant executives what the company would do if the Commission didn’t accede to its wishes and change the local subsidy regime.
Dennis Henry, VP of regulatory affairs for Bell Aliant was blunt in his response that some of the more expensive regions to serve may lose some telephony services….
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GATINEAU – The small incumbent telcos in Ontario lashed out at the cable companies during the rebuttal phase of the obligation to serve hearing Wednesday, telling the CRTC that it has no business taking any advice from them because they have never had an obligation to serve any community.
Tracy Cant, director of finance and regulatory matters at Ontera, told commissioners that the small incumbent local exchange carriers (SILECs) have respected the regulatory bargain that their costs would be covered for serving their communities. The cable companies, he noted, have not had an obligation to serve for “one single…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a request from Super Channel parent Allarco to amend regulations in Francophone markets with a significant English-speaking minority community to distribute all English and French-language pay television services.
Allarco said in an application to the CRTC that despite its best efforts, Class 1 BDUs in Quebec have refused to negotiate the distribution of Super Channel in their markets. It argued that by refusing to distribute the pay-TV movie network where there is a significant English-speaking minority community, these BDUs are contravening the government policy put in place to encourage and facilitate access to the…
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