OTTAWA – Earlier this month, the CRTC withdrew an application by Fight Media to effect a corporate reorganization so that the new company could acquire category two digital specialty channel The Fight Network from The Fight Network Inc.
For those not familiar with media company re-orgs, that sentence may sound a little weird, but these types of alterations to media company ownership structures are not all that unusual and can be done for a number of reasons.
But this time, the Commission withdrew the application prior to the May 5th hearing because of a lawsuit brought by Mike Garrow, the founder…
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OTTAWA – CTV has asked the CRTC for permission to broaden the focus of its specialty channel MuchMusic so that it may air more than just music videos.
The network has applied for amendments to the broadcasting licence of the English-language music channel, including a change to the condition relating to its nature of service. The channel wants to air music-related and lifestyle programming for young adults, pledging that “the inclusion of lifestyle programming in its nature of service will better position MuchMusic to adapt to the business realities of audience fragmentation and changing technologies”.
The application also says “that music videos…
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OTTAWA – Bell Canada and Bell Aliant plan to appeal a recent CRTC decision not allowing them to implement usage-based billing (UBB) on their wholesale customers until they do so for all of their retail customers.
“This aspect of Decision 2010-255 will be the subject of a forthcoming application to review and vary that decision, which the companies expect to submit in the coming days,” states comments filed to Telecom Notice of Consultation 2009-261.
Bell argues that the Commission’s decision to adopt an all or nothing approach to UBB runs counter to provisions in the Policy Direction…
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OTTAWA – The time has come to eliminate wholesale regulation of retail Internet services, two of the countries largest communications companies tell Cartt.ca. They say intermodal competition – cable versus DSL versus wireless – has rendered the need for a wholesale access regime unnecessary.
The comments come as the CRTC prepares to hear oral arguments in a very broad hearing dealing with wholesale access to certain broadband facilities. The proceeding, launched with Telecom Notice of Consultation 2009-261 begins on Monday.
“I don’t think wholesale is going to help the future of broadband in Canada. I think it could…
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OTTAWA – In addition to requests for a number of new television channels, the CRTC will also consider two applications for new BDUs at a hearing this summer.
Montreal-based ISP Colba.Net Inc has applied for a broadcasting licence to operate a Class 1 terrestrial BDU to serve Montréal Island.
Atop Broadband Corp. , located in Woodbridge, ON, has asked to operate a Class 1 terrestrial BDU to serve the majority of the greater Toronto area, specifically bounded by the city of Oshawa on the east, the city of Oakville on the south, the city of Orangeville on the west; and the…
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TORONTO – As Canadian broadcasters shop for U.S. programming this week, ACTRA said that it will press for higher spending requirements for Canadian content and the imposition of exhibition requirements for Canadian programming during the 2011 licence renewal hearings.
Noting that private broadcasters spent “a record amount” on U.S. and foreign shows in 2009 – $846.3 million, or 59% of all of their programming expenses, the organization said Friday that it blames the current CRTC policy for giving “Canadian broadcasters free rein on their exhibition of TV drama and doesn’t require that they air any of those programs”.
“Our Canadian broadcasters are…
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KELOWNA – There might not be any buy-in from the country’s largest BDUs for Pelmorex’s new Emergency Alert Service yet, but governments are excited to finally have something like this in Canada.
During a session at the CommTech Trade Show and Seminars here in Kelowna, Capella Telecommunications’ representative Dave McCreath outlined the decades of public service American broadcasters have provided (at the behest of their government), first by the Emergency Broadcast System and now with its own, ever-changing, EAS.
Despite numerous calls over the years to create our own or copy the U.S., Canada has never had such a system.
Over the…
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OTTAWA – Bell Canada must either credit or reimburse its residential rotary dial customers who were charged in error for touch-tone service that they didn’t have, a practice that the CRTC called “inappropriate”.
The Commission said Wednesday that it received an application by consumer groups the Consumers’ Association of Canada and Canada Without Poverty last December, alleging that Bell was charging a monthly rate of $2.80 for touch-tone service to the company’s grandfathered rotary dial customers. The groups called the fee "an unauthorized rate increase".
Bell Canada acknowledged that some grandfathered customers were affected by its revenue assurance program, which was supposed to be limited to…
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OTTAWA – It is possible to open the Canadian telecommunications market to greater foreign investment without sacrificing cultural sovereignty in the broadcasting world, Industry minister Tony Clement said last week.
Speaking to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, Clement acknowledged that it won’t be easy, but it’s doable.
“Is that going to require some stick handling? There’s no question. We are in shades of grey,” he said in response to a question from fellow Conservative Peter Braid. “But I think that we can, with good public policy that is clear with its intent and…
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OTTAWA – The federal government has pledged over $200 K towards a new French language radio station in Ottawa called radio communautaire francophone d’Ottawa (RCFO).
In an announcement on Friday, Heritage Minister James Moore said that the $224,531 in funding came from his department’s Strategic Funds of the Community Life component, and will be put towards the station’s startup costs.
"Our Government is a leader in this country in supporting the development of official-language minority communities," Minister Moore said in a statement. "RCFO will contribute to the growth of the Ottawa Francophone community by fostering a sense of identity among its members. The…
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