TORONTO – Bruce Claassen didn’t want to be the bad guy. He wanted to be the white knight who saved CKX-TV Brandon and used it as a springboard to build another national TV network.
With the market for smaller TV stations set in the $1-range (and with Shaw Communications having backed down from its much-ballyhooed calling-of-CTV’s-“bluff”) Claassen announced in July that his investment vehicle, Bluepoint Investments, would purchase the beleaguered station from owner CTVglobemedia as the start of Bluepoint’s grander plan to become a major media player.
But, after “trying everything to make it work,” Claassen said he made…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down YTV’s request to remove percentages relating to programming for specific age groups, and to lessen the restriction around airing feature films in the evening.
However, the Commission did agree to amend YTV’s condition of licence relating to the broadcast of a certain percentage of programming that must be devoted to programs from non-North American sources.
YTV submitted the requests on September 8, 2008, saying that the licence conditions which were first imposed more than 20 years ago in its original licensing decision are “unduly restrictive and no longer appropriate”.
Owned by Corus Entertainment, YTV is…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is asking for comments on a revision to its licensing framework for over-the-air digital television (DTV) services.
The current policy requires transitional licences for DTV undertakings, consistent with parallel provisions in the Commission’s policy for digital radio. But in preparation for the shut down of over-the-air analog television signals on August 31, 2011, the CRTC is proposing to authorize the simulcast on a broadcaster’s digital transmitter of the programming aired on its analog transmitter by way of an amendment to the analog service’s licence.
Comments are due by November 2, 2009.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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TORONTO – A coalition of some of Canada’s biggest TV service providers have teamed up on a campaign to tell their side of the story on the contentious issue of fee for carriage.
Bell, Bell Aliant, Cogeco, EastLink, Rogers and Telus have joined forces on ‘Stop the TV Tax’ which they say is designed to ensure “that Canadians hear the whole story”.
"Cable and satellite subscribers have united to stop the broadcasters’ costly proposal because it amounts to a tax, pure and simple”, said Rogers vice chair Phil Lind, in a statement. “This tax will hit viewers for stations that have always…
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PETERBOROUGH, ON – The CRTC must protect consumers instead of allowing carriers to inflict fraud-generated fees on victims, says the president of telecom expense management firm Gill Technologies.
According to George Gill, sophisticated attacks on voice mail and other incidents of “telehacking” can leave consumers owing thousands of dollars in charges. He is calling on the Commission to investigate the issue and develop tougher regulations.
“Beyond basic, user-centric precautions such as strong passwords, responsibility for secure telecommunications obviously rests with carriers”, Gill wrote in a letter dated September 21, 2009. “Under the current regime, carriers suffer a conflict of interest where…
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GATINEAU – The hearing the federal government asked for into fee-for-carriage will happen December 7th, the CRTC announced this morning.
The Commission is considering whether local television stations should be allowed to negotiate compensation from cable and satellite companies for their signals, and the industry’s hearing – BNC 2009-411 – on the matter (and group licensing) will go ahead on November 16th, but the consumer hearing looks to ask more questions.
“We are examining various facets of the Canadian broadcasting system as it adapts to an environment that is rapidly changing,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the CRTC. “We are discussing a…
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GATINEAU – The fact that Globalive Wireless has altered its governance structure to mitigate CRTC concerns is just distracting everyone from the fact that its purse strings are tightly held outside of Canada.
And that means it can’t be a Canadian telecom operator, the three Canadian wireless incumbents told the Commission this morning.
During the final day into a hearing that began last week over the proposed structure of Globalive Wireless (which intends to come to market before year-end under the Wind brand name), representatives from Bell Canada, Telus and Rogers each played different verses of the same tune: Globalive…
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OTTAWA – This morning at 9 a.m., new wireless carrier Globalive will present to the CRTC its new corporate structure, governance, shareholder rights and financing arrangements.
After a two-day hearing last week into the company’s ownership and control, which was spurred on by the incumbent operators’ complaints, Globalive (which does business on the wired side under the Yak brand) has heeded the Commission’s stated fears and believes the alterations will soothe those concerns, allowing its to launch its wireless services under the Wind brand name before Christmas.
“We are confident that these changes will satisfy the CRTC,” said…
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EDMONTON – Perhaps recognizing that calling for a boycott of an important supplier is not the best thing for its pay channels, Super Channel has distanced itself from a group calling for consumers to dump Rogers Cable.
In its own press release sent out late Wednesday, Super Channel tried to smooth over some of the relationship issues it has with Rogers Cable that were surely exacerbated Tuesday when a release from “The Friends of Super Channel”, signed former employee Nic Wry, went out calling for the boycott while also calling the big cableco a weasel.
“Although much of the content…
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EDMONTON – Using some of the most inflammatory language we’ve seen in a press release (invoking both a rodent and the seal hunt), supporters of pay TV service Super Channel are calling for people to boycott Rogers Cable.
The must-carry pay channel is currently operating under creditor protection and the Allard-family-owned service recently won a victory at the CRTC, where the Regulator said Rogers wasn’t marketing the new service fairly, as we reported nearly two weeks ago.
Super Channel also has a civil case pending against Rogers.
But the press release, issued Tuesday evening by “The Friends of Super Channel”…
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