This is part two of a three-part feature. Please read part one here.
By Doug Barrett, adjunct professor in the Arts, Media & Entertainment MBA program at the Schulich School of Business
In my last piece, I suggested that the critical definition of Canadian Content was that set out in the Income Tax Act and Regulations and administered by the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO) and asked why the ongoing debate focused instead on the definition used by the CRTC.
In this piece, I’d like to look a little closer at the CAVCO role. In my…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Google is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to allow it to argue that the CRTC should have included in its new broadcasting fee regulations an explicit exemption for advertisements that are placed on user-generated content.
The CRTC ordered in March a new way it was going to calculate revenues and collect fees for its operations, lowering traditional broadcasting obligations with the transfer of some of that collection to online platforms in line with the new Online Streaming Act that will bring the latter services under its ambit.
During the intervention phase of that 2023 proceeding,…
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Quebecor said it will rethink pricing strategy as a result
By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor will need to accept Telus’s rate to connect to its wireless network, the CRTC ruled Monday, eliciting a scathing response from the Montreal company that included a promise to reconsider its low-cost pricing and suspend the launch of certain plans in Manitoba.
Telus and Quebecor could not come to an agreement on the price-per-gigabyte component of that access, so they each presented their respective prices and asked the CRTC to make that determination via final offer arbitration.
While it said both offers would allow Quebecor’s mobile virtual network…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Bell will argue before the Federal Court of Appeal that the CRTC was not right to rely on the government’s policy direction to order telcos to provide interim access to their bundled transport and last mile fibre facilities because it is inherently contradicted by the Telecommunications Act.
Section 10 of the 2023 policy direction to the CRTC requires the commission to mandate the provision of an aggregated wholesale high-speed access service. At the same time, section 8 of the Telecommunications Act provides the government with the ability to order the regulator to make decisions of “general application on…
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Access Communications Co-operative announced last week the membership of Regina’s only community radio station, 91.3 FM CJTR, voted overwhelmingly in favour of transferring ownership of the station to Access in a vote held during a special meeting on April 16.
Several months ago, the non-profit organization that runs the station, Radius Communications, presented Access with the opportunity to own the station to preserve community radio, says an Access press release. CJTR was facing financial hardship and was looking for an alternative operating model, the release explains.
“We extend our sincere appreciation to…
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By Doug Barrett, adjunct professor in the Arts, Media & Entertainment MBA program at the Schulich School of Business
It is well known that the Canadian government has directed the CRTC to review its definition of Canadian content, and that the Commission is currently wrapping up a vast series of Canada-wide and industry-wide consultations on the topic. Everyone is treating this as an important and vital process.
But the CRTC is not the principle Canadian content certification authority. That role belongs to the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO). CAVCO is an office within the Department of Canadian Heritage which certifies the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Telus is proposing an additional recurring charge for the implementation of a new feature for its next-generation 911 system that will allow smartphones to provide more accurate location information to emergency dispatchers.
The Emergency Location Service (ELS) is a Google location service that allows Android-based devices – relying heavily on Wi-Fi sensors, but also using GPS and cell towers – to provide enhanced location data directly from the device to the public safety answering point (PSAP) where 911 calls are received. The result, it is said, is accuracy, speed and reliability of location information for emergency calls.
The ELS…
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Videotron has filed a Part 1 application asking the CRTC to force the city of Ottawa to reimburse it for being made to reallocate its telecommunication line to make way for city construction projects.
The city had requested that the telecom move its transmission lines and equipment at two locations, one at Montreal Road and another at Woodroffe Avenue, less than five years after it installed the equipment on Hydro Ottawa poles.
When Videotron went to the city in early 2022 to get reimbursed for the $300,000 move, it was denied on the basis that the request to reallocate came from…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Cogeco is still working toward securing a deal with the national carriers to launch its mobile virtual network operator business on their networks, the telecom’s senior vice president and chief financial officer said Friday.
“Where we are right now is we’re still in negotiations…at the same time building what is required to launch as well,” Patrice Ouimet said during the company’s fiscal second-quarter conference call with analysts. “I would say the situation is not that different from what I said last quarter. That being said, we are making progress.”
Ouimet said he couldn’t go any deeper because these are…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Corus is urging the CRTC to hurry up and make a decision on a proposal to grant the media company temporarily relief on its financial obligations to Canadian content and pandemic back pay.
Next Friday will mark exactly six months since the CRTC proposed granting the pure-play media company “exceptional” relief by reducing its spending to programs of national interest from 8.5 to 5 per cent of previous year’s revenues and by extending the time to pay back what it already owes the regulator from the pandemic relief period.
In the days after the decision, Corus…
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