“One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it.” – Peter Drucker
By Bill Roberts
NOW THAT WE HAVE TWO major mergings of BDUs and large national broadcasters underway, plus an inclination to enhance non-Canadian ownership potential, perhaps there is just cause and fair reason to review the recent 9.1.h. decision by the CRTC.
This is especially critical for the diverse voices and ownership structures of the smaller and independent broadcasters within the Canadian broadcasting system.
In the first instance – and seeing now how fast the landscape morphs – the extent to which the CRTC makes rules to be…
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TORONTO – Citing the CRTC’s genre exclusivity policy and a nearly identical programming schedule, Pelmorex Communications says Corus Entertainment’s application for a category 2 specialty channel providing community news, information and weather in Western Canada should be denied.
The Corus service is “a thinly disguised weather specialty channel which would duplicate completely the programming service that The Weather Network already provides to Western Canadians,” Pelmorex (owner of TWN and Météomédia) tells the Commission in comments filed on September 7. An appendix to its submission shows that about 90% of Local1’s programming would be “similar, if not the same” as…
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TORONTO – Bell Canada’s announcement this morning that it will spend $1.3 billion for all of CTV looks like a bid to protect and power a lot of its asset engines with a lot of superb oil and fuel.
The deal comes with $1.7 billion in debt, and factoring in Bell’s 15% ownership of CTVglobemedia, places a total value of $3.2 billion on CTV. The Globe and Mail newspaper has been carved out, as the Thomson family will take majority ownership of the paper.
If approved (and this doesn’t look to ring any Regulatory warning bells) the new company will…
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MONTREAL – Bell is buying 100% of CTV in a deal worth $3.2 billion, the telecom giant announced Friday morning.
Bell currently owns a 15% equity position in CTV and will acquire the remaining 85% for $1.3 billion in equity value from The Woodbridge Company Limited, the Toronto-based holding company of the Thomson family; Ontario Teachers Pension Plan; and Torstar Corporation. Including the value of Bell’s present stake, the transaction has an equity value of $1.5 billion. Together with $1.7 billion in proportionate debt, the total transaction value is $3.2 billion. In a separate transaction, Woodbridge will acquire ownership of…
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GATINEAU – Canada’s major cable companies and telcos are squaring off against MTS Allstream and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre over the CRTC’s authority to mandate broadband as an essential service.
Comments filed with the CRTC in late August show that Bell Canada, Telus and all of the large cablecos are, not surprisingly, opposed to any Commission intervention on this matter, while PIAC and MTS firmly believe that the CRTC can make broadband essential.
The issue has become a central theme in an ongoing proceeding on a broad variety of telecom matters, generally referred to as the obligation to…
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GATINEAU – Leave it to CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein to set the record straight.
In a letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail on Wednesday, von Finckenstein strongly denied that the Prime Minister’s Office was in any way trying to pressure the CRTC on a decision around Quebecor’s application for its SunTV News channel.
“I would like to categorically state that no one at any level of government has approached me about the Sun TV application, the appointment of the CRTC’s vice-chair of broadcasting, or my own mandate”, he wrote. “Quebecor’s application is being treated according to the CRTC’s…
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EVERY TUESDAY AFTER Labour Day, because it’s a fun analysis of our year and lets us have the weekend off… we re-publish the top stories from the last 12 months.
Why a “Happy New Year” now? Simple. September is the “new year” for broadcasters. The new fall shows are coming out and speaking from a regulatory perspective, the 2010 broadcast year ended August 31st and we are into a new year for them.
(Ed. Note: Not so incidentally, we’re now less than a year away from the analog shut off – which was a popular topic this year – and there’s…
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TORONTO – Canadian author Margaret Atwood is contributing to the hype around Quebecor’s proposed new Sun TV news channel – whether she means to, or not.
Earlier this week, Atwood tweeted that she’d signed a petition called “Stop Fox News North” at avaaz.org, and encouraged others to join her. The petition, among other allegations, accuses Prime Minister Harper of “trying to push American-style hate media onto our airwaves, and make us all pay for it”, and calls on him to “immediately stop all pressure on the CRTC on this matter”.
This sparked a swift, and sharp, opinion-editorial piece…
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TORONTO – With one saying it “verges on abuse of regulatory process,” several independent broadcasters are mulling their next steps in light of the CRTC decision to delay considering applications made under section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act to June 2012.
On Friday the Commission finally released its new criteria for assessing applications for mandatory distribution on digital basic service made under that section, which guarantees carriage for any such license holder on all Canadian BDUs as well as a wholesale rate will be paid.
While the broadcasters are somewhat concerned about the seven criteria now set out which focus on…
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GATINEAU – On November 19th, the day after the CRTC is set to wrap up its look at the DTH satellite TV policies, the Regulator will hear Quebecor Media’s request for a SunTV News category two digital specialty service license.
With much fanfare back in June, the company made public its plan for a new news channel featuring “hard news” during the day and “straight talk” at night. In its original submission to the Commission, QMI proposed to shutter its money-losing SunTV station in exchange for a category one digital license, which would make the channel a must-offer…
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