OTTAWA – The CRTC received more than 10,000 complaints from consumers about Bell Canada’s telemarketers, many of which described the calls as “aggressive and abusive”, according to a report in The Toronto Star.
The story says that the calls, which continued for about a year, allegedly included one death threat. Both the CRTC and Bell Canada have declined to say how many complaints were received from the public.
As Cartt.ca reported, Bell was fined $1.3 million in December for calling tens of thousands of consumers on the Do Not Call list.
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GATINEAU – In the CBC’s application to the CRTC for a new digital transmitter for CBAT-TV in New Brunswick, the Corp proposes to cease over-the-air television broadcasting in Saint John, N.B.
“The analog transmitter associated with CBAT-TV is located on Mount Champlain and provides service to both Fredericton and Saint John,” notes the Commission’s summary of the CBC’s application. “The proposed digital transmitter would be located in Fredericton and would provide service only to that market. The proposal would therefore result in a loss of over-the-air television service to the residents of Saint John.”
The city has a population of about…
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GATINEAU and TORONTO – “Let me repeat that. We do not traffic shape downstream traffic,” said Rogers Communications senior vice-president, regulatory, Ken Englehart, told Cartt.ca on Monday.
Englehart was responding to a complaint letter sent to Rogers from the CRTC over the company’s network traffic management practices. The Commission cited a few complaint filed by Rogers customers over recent changes made by the company to its traffic management practices that affect the downstream flow – and that the company was not complying with the Commission’s disclosure requirements when it comes to ITMP (Internet traffic management policies).
The complainant said Rogers did…
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TORONTO – A growing subscriber base combined with an increase in average monthly subscription revenue per Subscriber (ARPU) helped to drive up revenues at XM Canada by 12.6%, the satellite radio company announced.
Revenue for its first quarter ended November 30, 2010 was $15.4 million, up from $13.7 million in the same period last year. Despite the increase in revenues, the company’s adjusted operating loss grew to $2.2 million from $1 million due to absence of the $1.2 million credit on reversal of CRTC Part II licence fee realized in the first quarter of 2010 plus some one-time marketing credits.
ARPU was…
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OTTAWA – An attempt by Axia SuperNet to overturn the CRTC’s decision on Telus’ deferral accounts has failed.
The Commission said that Axia was unable to “demonstrate substantial doubt as to the correctness” of its determinations in Telecom Decision 2010-639 which gave Telus the go ahead to use its deferral account funds to expand broadband services to 159 communities in Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec.
Click here for more on the decision.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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TORONTO – Score Media saw a slight uptick in revenue, but a drop in net income for its first quarter of 2011.
Revenue for the quarter ending November 30, 2010 was $11.9 million, up 4% from $11.4 million year-over-year. But net income was down from $1.1 million in fiscal 2010 to $839,000, though last year’s results did include a one-time gain of $800,000 from the CRTC Part II fee reversal decision.
“Our business continues to evolve quarter after quarter and this quarter is no exception,” said chairman and CEO John Levy, in a statement. “Our growth in both revenue and EBITDA…
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OTTAWA – CTVglobemedia Inc. says that it stands to lose up to $6.5 million in advertising revenue just by airing two public service announcements (PSAs) about the impact of the upcoming digital transition on over-the-air TV viewers.
According to the CRTC’s proposed regulations for the digital TV transition, broadcasters must begin airing the two PSAs no later than March 31, 2011. The first, which must will air six times per day to start and eight times daily beginning one month prior to the shut off, will inform viewers that analog OTA signals will cease on August 31, 2011. At least 25% of the PSAs must run…
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TORONTO – Corus Entertainment said that it will oppose Astral’s applications challenging the CRTC’s approval of the sale of Corus’ Quebec radio stations to Cogeco.
Corus said Thursday that like Cogeco, it “considers that the applications filed by Astral are without merit”. It also confirmed that it will continue with the process to effect the closing of the transaction on February 1, 2011.
As Cartt.ca reported earlier this week, Astral Radio is appealing the CRTC’s decision to allow Cogeco to maintain a third radio station in the Montreal market, an exemption to the Commission’s common ownership policy. It filed a…
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CALGARY – The acquisition of CanWest plus some one time CRTC fees battered Shaw’s first quarter profits, driving them down 82%.
Shaw said Thursday that its net income for the three month period ended November 30, 2010 plunged to $20 million, compared to $114 million for the same period last year. The current period included a $139 million charge for the discounted value of the $180 million CRTC benefit obligation related to the acquisition of CanWest (now Shaw Media), plus a one-time CRTC Part II fee recovery fee. Consolidated revenue of $1.08 billion was up 19% over the comparable period last…
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TORONTO – Canada’s largest accessibility organizations are calling on the CRTC to divert a portion of vertical integration transactions – like Bell and CTV – to a fund that would help broadcasters make their content 100% accessible.
The Access 2020 Coalition has proposed that 1% of all TV ownership transactions from 2010 until 2015 be allocated to accessibility research, including standards development and systematic, third-party monitoring of progress towards full accessibility in terms of captioning and described video.
“The tools to make TV accessible were invented more than thirty years ago,” said Beverley Milligan, on behalf of Media Access Canada which is…
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