OTTAWA – The Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, François Champagne and Minister of Health, Patty Hajdu sent a letter to the CRTC in January asking the Regulator if the telecom industry could come up with a three-digit phone number Canadians could dial for suicide crisis support, similar to how you can dial 911 for emergencies or 411 for information.
The FCC in the United States last year approved 988 as the number for those experiencing a suicide crisis to call. It will begin in 2022.
In a March 9 return letter to the ministers, CRTC chair Ian Scott…
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GATINEAU – On January 19, 2021, WildBrain Television, which owns kids and family-focused specialty services aimed at children filed an application with the CRTC against Cogeco Cable, claiming the BDU did not follow the principles of the TV Wholesale Code and the standstill obligations which forbids the discontinuation of service carriage during negotiations.
However, an intervention filed in support of Wildbrain’s complaint explores a deeper issue: The code is broken because large distributors like Cogeco hold too much power over smaller broadcasters like Wildbrain, which owns Family Channel, Family CHRGD, Family Junior and Telemagino.
Wildbrain’s complaint is a central…
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OTTAWA — On the one-year anniversary of the CRTC’s denial of a request by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the National Pensioners Federation (NPF) to require Telus flanker brand Koodo Mobile and other wireless service providers to provide paper bills upon request, the federal cabinet announced today it will not rescind the Commission’s decision nor refer it to back for reconsideration – because the Regulator is actually studying the matter already.
After the CRTC denied their joint application on March 3, 2020, PIAC and the NPF filed a petition to the Governor in Council on June…
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And is about to make the biggest financial mistake in its history
By Barry Kiefl
THE CRTC, APPOINTED BY THE government to safeguard our broadcasting system, in January completed a three-week long public hearing into how the CBC should be spending its $1.7 billion annual budget over the next decade, where CBC executives told the Commission they want to spend close to $400 million annually on internet services by 2022-23 and effectively reduce budgets of traditional radio/TV to accomplish this.
CBC radio already has a smaller budget than CBC digital.
The Commission’s decision on CBC’s licence renewals will be based mostly on unsourced…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear a big telecom appeal about the alleged incorrectness of the CRTC’s decision to reduce the cost for internet capacity purchased by smaller service providers.
The decision, announced Thursday, exhausts the legal routes for a challenge of the August 2019 rates that dramatically reduced the amount that smaller providers would need to spend to purchase network capacity from the larger players. The rates were never implemented because it was almost instantly appealed to the federal government, the courts, and the CRTC, which granted a pause on its own decision…
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OTTAWA — Seven in 10 Canadians listen to commercial radio on at least a weekly basis, with 39% saying they listen daily, according to a new report prepared by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of the CRTC.
In comparison, 39% of Canadians surveyed for the report said they listen to streaming music services on a weekly basis, while 32% said they listen weekly to CBC/Radio-Canada. The next two most-popular audio formats were podcasts (22% said they listened on a weekly basis) and satellite radio (17%).
According to the report, a car radio is by far the most commonly used device to…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – During last month’s CRTC hearing on the renewal of the CBC’s broadcasting licences, Commission chairman Ian Scott and commissioner Claire Anderson asked numerous times for the CBC to file the “mission metrics” public opinion survey which the corporation uses to measure the fulfilment of its mandate.
“In terms of perception about the corporation’s programming, my understanding is that the corporation has been conducting the mission metrics public opinion survey for well over a decade, and it was designed to measure whether Canadians believe that CBC/SRC is fulfilling its mandate under the Broadcasting Act,” the Chairman asked…
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TORONTO – ACTRA National announced today the hiring of Raj Shoan as general counsel, effective February 16, 2021.
Shoan “brings with him a solid understanding of Canada’s regulatory framework after having spent the past 18+ years working in our broadcasting, telecommunications, and entertainment sectors,” reads the announcement sent to members from ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) executive director Marie Kelly. “Raj’s extensive knowledge of entertainment law and regulatory policy and compliance will help support our union’s objective of improving the working lives of Canadian professional performers.”
Shoan held various roles with the CRTC over the years, including…
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GATINEAU — While renewing the broadcasting licence for Bell Media’s AM radio station CKGM Montreal (TSN 690) today, the Commission denied Bell’s request to reduce the amount of local programming the station broadcasts each week.
TSN 690 wanted to cut its local programming from 96 hours to 63 hours per broadcast week. The sports station’s condition of licence regarding local programming dates back to 2013 when the Commission approved Bell’s acquisition of Astral Media’s broadcasting undertakings, which included Montreal radio stations CJAD, CHOM-FM and CJFM-FM Montreal. Bell already owned CKGM Montreal, and in approving Bell’s acquisition of Astral Media’s stations,…
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But, Ajax/Pickering in Ontario lacks capacity to support a new station
GATINEAU — In two separate decisions released today, the CRTC has decided the community of Salt Spring Island (located about 85 km west of downtown Vancouver and 50 km north of Victoria) has the market capacity to sustain a new radio station, but the market of Ajax and Pickering (located east of Toronto) cannot support the addition of a station at this time.
Salt Spring Island (pop. 10,500) currently has no radio station of its own. The region is reached by various radio services serving Vancouver and Victoria. The only…
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