TORONTO and MONTREAL – The sale of Corus’ Quebec radio stations to Cogeco Inc. was completed on Tuesday as planned, the companies announced.
Cogeco acquired Montreal stations CKAC-AM, CFQR-FM, CHMP-FM, CKOI-FM and regional stations CFEL-FM and CFOM-FM in Quebec City, CHLN-FM in Trois-Rivieres, CHLT-FM and CKOY-FM in Sherbrooke, CIME-FM in St-Jerome and CJRC-FM in Ottawa-Gatineau.
To comply with the CRTC’s decision and the common ownership policy limiting the number of FM radio stations that can be operated by any one owner in a given market, Cogeco confirmed that it will sell the two FM stations in Quebec City, plus 104.5 FM in the Sherbrooke market. The three…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Media wants to take a crack at sports broadcasting, while Astral hopes to add two new French-language services to its roster, according to 19 new broadcasting applications made public by the CRTC on Friday.
Shaw Media Sports will be an English-language category two channel airing competitive mainstream sports specialty programming, reads the application. Astral has asked for a channel called Investigation that will be devoted to exploring justice and forensic science, legal and police investigations, fraud and swindling, espionage, major trials and forensic pathology. It has also filed an application for a channel called Tendances which promises programming on fashion,…
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BURLINGTON, ON – Crossroads Television System (CTS) has dropped religious talk program Word TV from its schedule after claiming that the show breached the network’s code of ethics.
Word TV producer and host, Dr. Charles McVety, said last week that CTS was being pressured to censor Word TV. In a statement on Monday, CTS called those comments “inaccurate and misleading”, and said that not only did Word TV fail to keep its agreement to comply with the CTS code of ethics, it indicated a refusal to comply in the future. The broadcaster also said that “numerous attempts” to work with Dr. McVety were…
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TORONTO – It’s all in the wording, or perhaps the lack of it. According to Globalive, parent company of wireless upstart Wind Mobile, the real problem with Canada’s telecommunications foreign ownership rules is that their lack of clarity leaves them open to interpretation.
“The (Telecommunications) Act, as it is written, is very confusing if you’re not living it and breathing it every day”, said Globalive and Wind chairman Anthony Lacavera, in an interview with Cartt.ca. “The Act is unfortunately worded with a double negative – ‘a company cannot be controlled by non-Canadians’. That needs to be clarified.”
Lacavera was responding to…
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TORONTO – A coalition of some of Canada’s largest accessibility organizations is accusing BCE of ignoring Canadians with disabilities.
Access 2020 says that Bell’s response to interventions filed in regards to its pending purchase of CTV “failed to address the issue of accessibility – or even mention the word”. In fact, the group continued, not only did Bell’s reply not respond directly to the coalition’s suggestions, paragraph 111 of its response says that “all Canadians with access to television can view the programming”.
Not so, said Beverley Milligan, executive director of Media Access Canada, which is heading up the coalition.
“Over 800,000 blind Canadians…
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OTTAWA – Citing BCE’s monopoly over the distribution of Montreal Canadiens content in the Quebec market, if its acquisition of CTVglobemedia is approved, Quebecor Media Inc. (QMI) is asking the CRTC to adopt a new regulatory framework for sports programming.
In the comparable Toronto market, there are four entities that hold the rights to distribute Toronto Maple Leafs games: Sportsnet, TSN, CBC and team-owned Leafs TV. QMI wants the Commission to ensure that Quebec viewers have a similar choice by implementing a system where the Canadiens broadcast rights would be divvied up by a number of distributors.
QMI argues that…
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THE CRTC MUST ENSURE that independent broadcasters have sufficient access to distribution in the wake of the BCE Inc. proposed acquisition of CTVglobemedia, say those ‘casters.
As well, the Commission has to force BCE to pay the full benefits to producers in the form of 10% of the transaction’s entire $3.2-billion value, say some of those producers. These are two of the critical issues that the CRTC will have to stickhandle once it begins hearing arguments on the proposed transaction on February 1st.
Generally, Bell’s fellow distributors are in favour of the transaction. But they say that safeguards need to…
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OTTAWA – The complexity – some might say silliness – of Canada’s telecommunications foreign ownership rules were on full display last week as the Federal Court heard arguments on a petition to overturn Cabinet’s decision to approve Globalive Wireless’ ownership structure.
According to people at the hearing, Globalive Wireless’ lawyers argued that because the Telecommunications Act says Canadian telecom firms can’t be controlled by non-Canadians doesn’t mean they must be controlled by Canadians. Therefore, a telecom company can find itself in the situation of being controlled by neither Canadians or non-Canadians.
Globalive, of course, is in business under the Wind…
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“COME WITH ME. I’LL show you why I wanted to be president of the CBC.”
Those were CBC president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix’s first words to me last week as we sat down in the meeting room overlooking the Montreal skyline and St. Lawrence River at Radio-Canada’s headquarters. I jumped to my feet and followed him into his office.
Just inside his door is a headless mannequin dressed in a whimsical suit, topped with a bowler cap. “It might be a bit before your time but do you know who this is?” he asked me, excitedly. I wrack my brain…
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TIMMINS, ON – The NDP is calling for tighter net neutrality rules after describing usage-based Internet billing (UBB) as unfair and anti-competitive.
New Democrat digital affairs critic Charlie Angus, who is also the MP for Timmins-James Bay, said that the CRTC’s decision to allow useage-based billing will unfairly drive up Internet costs for all Canadians, rather than for just “the so-called bandwidth hogs”.
“We’ve seen this all before with cell phones”, Angus said in a statement. “Allowing the Internet Service Providers to ding you every time you download is a rip-off. Canada is already falling behind other countries in terms of choice,…
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