THUNDER BAY, ON – A future Liberal government will ensure that high-speed Internet is available across the country plus expand mobile phone coverage for rural and remote Canada, all within three years of being elected, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Tuesday.
Using proceeds from the upcoming spectrum auction slated for 2011, Ignatieff said that his party would target connectivity of at least 1.5 Mbps for all Canadian communities, followed by “a more ambitious goal for 2017”, Canada’s 150th anniversary as a country.
“Too many rural communities can’t access essential services like education, healthcare or economic development because we don’t have the digital…
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OTTAWA – Rogers’ testimony at the CRTC community TV hearing may not have been entirely accurate, according to the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
In a statement on Tuesday, CACTUS noted that Rogers TV VP Colette Watson said that "close to 60%" of the programming on Rogers’ Ottawa channel was "access programming", or made by members of the public. But a review of Rogers’ Ottawa schedule posted on-line reveals that almost all the daily shows on the programming schedule list Rogers employees as producers, CACTUS maintained.
The group also expressed concern over the number of community station closures, and said that part of…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications has bought Canwest Global Communications Corp. for $2 billion, the companies announced early Monday morning.
The deal includes 100% of CanWest’s over-the-air and specialty television businesses, including all of the equity interests in CW Investments Co., the CanWest subsidiary that owns the specialty television channels acquired from Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. in 2007.
The Calgary-based cable giant also announced that Paul Robertson will have overall responsibility for CanWest, including the Canadian Television Limited Partnership and the CW Media Group subsidiaries. Robertson, who was most recently president of Corus Television, will report to Shaw CEO and vice chair…
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OTTAWA – The CBC received CRTC approval Wednesday to operate a new French-language regional television station in Toronto.
The Commission also approved CBC’s requests to amend the broadcasting licences for CBOFT-TV Ottawa and CBOFT-DT Ottawa in order to transfer certain analog transmitters to the new station. The original CBLFT-TV station was closed in 1991 and converted to a rebroadcasting transmitter for CBOFT-TV Ottawa.
CBLFT-TV Toronto must broadcast a minimum of five hours per week, on average on an annual basis, of local programming intended for television viewers in Toronto and a large part of Ontario.
At the CBC’s request, the Commission…
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TORONTO – The CRTC is incorrectly interpreting the BBM statistics on television viewership numbers during its examination of community television policy, says Rogers.
As part of this proceeding, the Commission issued a report on April 8 which Rogers says has been used by some critics of cable-provided community television to "prove" that Rogers TV is not often watched. The report states that in the 2008-09 broadcast year, Rogers’ community television stations generated a 0.2% share of the Canadian English-language television market.
But according to a Canadian Media Research Inc. (CMRI) study commissioned by Rogers TV, that figure is deceptive because BBM share…
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MONTREAL – Add Cogeco Cable to the list of cable companies who feel that their community TV channels are working fine as is.
At its appearance Wednesday at the CRTC community TV poilcy hearing, Cogeco offered up independent surveys by Environics Research Group and Cible Recherche that found that approximately 41% of its Ontario households watch TVCOGECO on a weekly basis, and that 90% of the people served said that they believe that the channel “provides a valuable service to the community”.
In Quebec, 57% of Cogeco’s customers watch TVCOGECO every week, a rate that is higher than the 65% observed in…
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OTTAWA – Two acts and three regulators overseeing the Canadian communications world just don’t make sense any more, according to the chairman of the CRTC.
With the differences between what’s a cable operator and what’s a telco nearly gone, from a services provided perspective, and the trend towards distributor-content owner consolidation continuing, maintaining the legislative differences between the various communications companies in Canada no longer makes any sense, says CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein.
“The current piecemeal approach is outdated and no longer up to the task,’ the chairman said Friday during the Law Society of Upper Canada’s biennial conference on…
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GATINEAU – After watching day one of the CRTC’s hearing into its policies on community television, we settled on couple of key takeaways.
1) It would appear unlikely the Commission will adopt the CACTUS plan where the estimated $130 million already devoted to cable community channels via 2% of subscriber fees would be redirected to a new fund backing dozens of new independent, not-for-profit community channels/multimedia centres across the country.
2) The CRTC commissioners do seem to want a higher level of access, accountability and transparency from the cable companies who already offer their own community channels.
First into the live CPAC.ca…
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GATINEAU – The tenure of CRTC vice-chair, broadcasting, Michel Arpin draws to a close at the end of August. According to sources, Arpin has already been officially notified by the Prime Minister’s Office that he will not be offered a renewal, so the big question in Gatineau is who will fill his shoes come September 1?
Arpin, a well-respected broadcast policy veteran with a long history in the industry, was appointed August 31, 2005 and prior to that was senior regulatory and governmental affairs advisor for Astral Media. Before that he worked for Radiomutuel. He had a prior stint with…
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THE TRANSITION TO DIGITAL television in Canada is officially Heritage Minister James Moore’s to deal with, but Industry Minister Tony Clement doesn’t want to see the August 31, 2011 deadline moved.
That was the word we received directly from Industry Minister Tony Clement on Friday during an interview (which you’ll read below) in his Parliament Hill office.
Cartt.ca readers will know we’ve been prodding the industry and the federal government about their inaction on the transition to digital broadcast television. Using our bully pulpit here and directly with the ministers on Twitter (they are @TonyClement_MP and @mpjamesmoore).
In a…
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