I BELIEVE IN LOCAL NEWS. I have been producing it all my career.
From my student paper, to the community weekly newspapers I’ve worked at, to the various trade magazines and web sites which have employed me, they have all been, in a way, strictly local news.
Friends and acquaintances sometimes think of me as a new media guru of sorts, that because I run a news service which is distributed online only, I know something they don’t. The truth is I’m not doing anything now I wasn’t doing back in 1989 when I was a sports writer for the Ontarion,…
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WHEN IT COMES to the billions of dollars Canadians pay for television every year, the main numbers which are poured into everyone’s spreadsheets for regulatory analysis are basically the same.
Thanks to the public documents available through the CRTC or via the companies which are publicly traded, the folks in the TV biz have a pretty good sense of how much money consumers willingly fork over (or which is pried from our bank accounts, depending on your point of view) for television, our primary form of video entertainment, and how it is divided.
But once dumped into those spread sheets, those…
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OTTAWA – Add the Canadian Association of Internet Providers to the list of organizations unhappy with the government’s decision not to overturn the CRTC’s decision on broadband competition.
CAIP says it is “profoundly disappointed”, and questioned whether the Federal Cabinet understands “that competition, innovation and choice for consumers hinges upon fair and equitable access to telecommunications infrastructure by competitors".
"To grow and flourish in a manner that benefits Canadians, the competitive Internet industry needs continued regulatory oversight of wholesale services", said CAIP chair Tom Copeland, in a statement. "Without this oversight Canada will continue to have only two dominant sources of Internet…
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OTTAWA – The Federal Cabinet has missed “an important opportunity to promote competition and innovation in Canada”, according to MTS Allstream.
By refusing to vary the CRTC’s "essential facilities" decision as it relates to local broadband network inputs, MTS Allstream said the Federal Government has “ignored the clear concerns” of thousands of Canadian consumers and businesses.
“This decision is a setback for Canadian consumers and businesses”, said CCO Chris Peirce, in a statement. “By refusing to act immediately to provide reasonable access to essential broadband network components, the Federal Government has further delayed vigorous competition in broadband and has stepped back…
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OTTAWA – Mediac Inc. is urging the CRTC not to “abandon” hearing- and visually-challenged consumers.
“With revenues shifting to multi-platform content distribution, the CRTC bears a duty to ensure that all Canadians’ ability to access the communications system is improved and strengthened, not reduced,” said Mediac president and CEO Beverley Milligan, in a statement. “As one of the central issues for hearing- or visually-challenged people with disabilities, and for those learning Canada’s official languages, accessibility will become meaningless unless the CRTC’s report to the government considers the benefits of encouraging and ensuring accessible content going forward.”
The company, which specializes in measuring…
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TORONTO and OTTAWA – Globalive could launch its Wind-branded mobile service as early as next week, chairman Anthony Lacavera said Friday after learning that Industry Canada had overturned the CRTC’s decision barring his company from entering the Canadian wireless market.
Amid cheers from staff, Lacavera thanked the government for its decision which he called “testament that this country needs (wireless) competition.”
Industry Canada declared Globalive a Canadian company that meets the Canadian ownership and control requirements under the Telecommunications Act early on Friday morning, contrary to the CRTC’s decision in the Fall which determined that the company was not sufficiently Canadian-owned…
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OTTAWA – Globalive is free to launch its wireless service after Industry Canada overturned the CRTC’s decision Friday.
In varying the CRTC decision, which determined that the nascent wireless company was not Canadian-owned and controlled, the Government said that it is not “removing, reducing, bending or creating an exception to Canadian ownership and control requirements in the telecommunications and broadcasting industries”, rather it’s decision is “specific to the facts of this case”.
“Globalive is a Canadian company, and meets Canadian ownership and control requirements under the Telecommunications Act,” said Industry Minister Tony Clement, in a statement. “We take this decision…
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GATINEAU – The Shaw Communications legal team and the Commission share a difference of opinion.
Qu’elle surprise, you’re thinking.
However, the one that arose Wednesday as Shaw faced the Commission during 2009-614 (the hearing forced by an Order-In-Council that will inform a report to the Heritage Ministry on establishing a value for signal regime for local broadcasters) was a different conflict than some of the others we’ve followed between Shaw and the Regulator.
In its opener on Wednesday afternoon, Shaw’s SVP regulatory, Jean Brazeau, insisted that the CRTC can not issue a policy ruling on the hearing held last month on setting…
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QUIETLY POSTED TUESDAY on the CRTC’s web site were the 2009 aggregate financial data of the large Canadian broadcasters and BDUs. And, as we all knew, the BDUs are doing pretty well. The broadcasters, not so much.
CTV EVP Paul Sparkes tried to quickly introduce some of the data during its Q&A session Tuesday during the ongoing hearing into a broadcaster compensation regime because of the dramatically different bottom line numbers for his company compared to the big carriers. However, he was interrupted by Commission chair Konrad von Finckenstein before he could spit out the admittedly huge profit before…
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GATINEAU – For those of us who have been to a few of these CRTC get-togethers, Marjorie Lemieux will likely stick in our minds for a while.
Dressed in a bright purple sweatshirt, the Rogers Cable customer was on the first consumer panel of the day (a group pulled together from submissions via the “Stop the TV Tax” campaign) for hearing 2009-614, the one called by the CRTC in response to cabinet’s call for a report on the implications of paying a fee for conventional TV.
“My name is Marjorie and I want to stop the TV tax,” she began, adding…
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