GATINEAU – With a light dusting of snow outside and a grey beginning to yet another week of talking about paying for conventional television signals, you’ll hopefully forgive us for feeling just a little like this.
This is the fourth hearing inside of two years (and the second one in the past month!) whose focus is on compensating local TV broadcasters for their signals). This one, as CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein pointed out right at the start, will not set policy, but instead will inform a report to be filed in the new year with Canadian Heritage Minister…
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OTTAWA – The CEOs from three of Canada’s biggest broadcasters have thrown their support behind the skinny basic concept, calling it a “consumer-first solution”.
In a press release issued after their appearance at the CRTC hearing Tuesday, CBC, CTV and Global said that a pared down basic television programming package will provide “affordable, accessible, and sustainable TV services for all Canadians.”
"Canadian consumers and TV viewers deserve a choice, and a new affordable bundle of basic TV channels is a start," said CBC president and CEO Hubert Lacroix, in the release. "With a regulated capped rate, Canadians will be protected from fee hikes with…
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OTTAWA – In what could be a first for a Canadian BDU, Rogers Cable has asked the CRTC if it may carry the digital multicast signals of a U.S. broadcaster.
In its application, Rogers requested that the Commission amend its Class 1 and 2 regional broadcasting licences in Ontario, and its Class 1, 2 and 3 regional broadcasting licences for its terrestrial BDUs in New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Specifically, Rogers has asked for the addition of the following condition of licence:The licensee is authorized to distribute, at its option and on a digital basis, the multicast service ThinkBright and Well Television…
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OTTAWA – Calling Canadians’ local television needs “fundamentally important objectives of Canada’s broadcasting policy”, the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) said that the upcoming analog-digital transition could breathe new life in to community television.
In a statement issued prior to its appearance at Monday’s CRTC hearing, CACTUS said that independent community TV organizations, such as those in Valemont and Ash Creek, BC, could help remote private and public signals remain available over the air to all communities, regardless of size.
The group also contrasted the amount of original, local TV programming produced by independent community TV channel NACTV in…
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I AGREE GREG.
I have been in the UK last month as a guest of the BBC and Granada TV – then last week to NYC for business with Hallmark Channel and Hearst Corporation.
In both important venues, I was asked by senior media executives “What the heck is going on back in Canada? We read that piece in Variety and it seems like kids fighting in a sandbox! Is your broadcasting system that messed up?”
Indeed.
If we don’t learn to pull together and stop pulling apart, all of us (producers, broadcasters and BDUs) risk doing some serious and possibly…
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GATINEAU – The next hearing into whether or not we’re going to adopt a new revenue model for conventional television broadcasters begins Monday and judging from the very few of the nearly 200,000 submissions we’ve read, Canadians are, well, ticked off.
Some are mad at their TV broadcasters, some at their cable or satellite companies. Some are mad at the Commission. Many are mad at any combination of them. Not many of them want to pay more for TV.
So at BNC 2009-614, the hearing into value for signal (yes, we hear you folks sticking to the “fee-for-carriage” terminology getting…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has caught and fined another telemarketer accused of violating the national do not call list (DNCL).
Infax – services d’informations sur demande par fax inc. has been fined $9,000 by the Commission for initiating three telemarketing telecommunications on its own behalf to telecommunications numbers registered on the national DNCL, when it was not registered with the national DNCL operator, and without having subscribed to the national DNCL.
The CRTC issued a notice of violation to Infax on September 22, 2009, which the company disputed in October. The Commission reviewed and dismissed Infax’s complaints on Thursday.
Infax has…
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I LOVE GOING TO confabs like NextMedia. As Telus’ SVP Michael Hennessy tweeted earlier this week: “Finished 2 days at #nextMEDIA looking to future of digital media. No discussion of #FFC, #CRTC. Met real digital entrepreneurs. Awesome.”
Hennessy told me Monday at that conference that when it comes to the debate over value for signal for over the air broadcasters, he’s done. Telus won’t be appearing at next week’s hearing into the issue, the one ordered by the feds.
Indeed, two days at NextMedia (built off a backdrop of my four days in Denver at Cable Connection Week in October,…
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OTTAWA – Parliament must assume leadership of the issue of net neutrality in order to safeguard consumers’ rights, says a new report from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC).
In the report “Staying Neutral: Canadian Consumers and the Fight for Net Neutrality” released on Tuesday, PIAC calls on federal legislators and policymakers to protect consumers’ rights to “use their Internet connection to access the lawful content, applications or services of their choice without discrimination, modification, interruption, or delay of their internet transmissions by any party, subject to law”.
It also recommends that the federal government set minimum speed standards for…
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DARTMOUTH – Newcap has received CRTC approval to sell its two FM stations in Thunder Bay, ON, to Acadia Broadcasting.
This transaction, which was announced in July, is expected to close within the next 30 days.
Newcap president and CEO Rob Steele said previously that there was limited opportunity for the company to expand its presence in the Thunder Bay area. It currently holds 79 radio broadcasting licences across Canada.
www.ncc.ca
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