THE BIG BROADCASTERS and BDUs fought this, but by September 14th, those companies had to file their aggregate financial data from their 2008 fiscal years with the Commission.
On the weekend, the CRTC posted the figures on its web site and since the industry it currently roiling over the continuing fee-for-carriage debate, we looked at the numbers largely through that prism.
After spending several hours examining a lot of the data, I can tell you the most lucrative place to work is Bell TV – which paid its 1,398 employees an average salary of $90,136 – or CTV, whose average…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has sided with Videotron in a complaint made by Bell TV regarding advertising opportunities.
Bell TV alleged in a complaint dated April 9, 2009, that “certain practices” between TVA Group and Videotron, both owned by Quebecor, conferred an undue preference on Videotron and subjected Bell TV to an undue disadvantage.
In particular, Bell TV argued that TVA’s refusal to allow it to buy ads on certain of its highest rated programs, and Videotron’s refusal to provide any of its allocated advertising spots on these programs, was contrary to the Canadian broadcasting policy objectives set out in section…
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OTTAWA – The Campaign for Competitive Broadband is setting its sites on Canadian consumers in its quest to overturn a CRTC decision that it claims will stifle competition in broadband Internet, Ethernet and other next generation communications services in Canada.
The group has launched the website www.consumersforinternetcompetition.com to educate consumers on the issue, as well as provide them with links to share their opinions with Industry Minister Tony Clement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, and their local MP.
The business-oriented site www.competitivebroadband.com, which debuted on September 10, has already generated more than 7,000 emails…
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Greg O’Brien
MONTREAL – There will be more consolidation in our industry, Corus Entertainment CEO John Cassaday told a group of investors on Wednesday at CIBC’s Annual Eastern Institutional Investor Conference.
When asked about the potential for more merger and acquisition activity, Cassaday said it’s just a matter of when. “We think there’s going to be considerably more consolidation in Canada on the distribution and programming side,” he explained.
However, this is a small market – complete with foreign ownership restrictions – that largely tie M&A moves to the funds that can (or can’t) be raised in Canada. So, the Corus CEO…
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MONTREAL – The International Institute of Communications (IICOM) has chosen ‘Trends in global communications: wrestling with unpredictability’ as the theme of its 2009 annual conference.
Held October 26 – 27, 2009 at the Centre Mont-Royal in Montreal, the 40th anniversary conference will facilitate the sharing and exchange of empirical data, specialist knowledge and accumulated insights, and help to identify future trends.
Key speakers, who include Heritage Minister James Moore and CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein, will address issues such as:
– The relative weight of technology and user choice in shaping content-creation and distribution, and the communications sector at large;
– The imprint the global financial and…
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DELTA, B.C. – Shaw Communications trucks have rolled into Delta, B.C. as Shaw Communications has launched an overbuild program in the region.
Shaw president Peter Bissonnette told Cartt.ca Monday afternoon that it began expanding its network about three weeks ago after receiving approval from the CRTC to grow its cable territory into Delta, Ladner and the surrounding areas southeast of Vancouver.
“We’ve got our cable up one side of the street and theirs on the other,” Bissonnette said when asked about the existing company already there, Bragg Communications-owned Delta Cable.
“We’ve been receiving calls from people there saying they would like to…
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DELTA, B.C. – Shaw Communications trucks have rolled into Delta, B.C. as Shaw Communications has launched an overbuild program in the Delta, B.C. region.
Shaw president Peter Bissonnette told Cartt.ca Monday afternoon that it began expanding its network about three weeks ago after receiving approval from the CRTC to grow its cable territory.
“We’ve got our cable up one side of the street and theirs on the other,” Bissonnette said when asked about the existing company already there, Bragg Communications-owned Delta Cable.
“We’ve been receiving calls from people there saying they would like to get Shaw,” said Bissonnette.
More to come.
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OTTAWA – Astral Media Radio has offered to donate $750,000 to make up for a 2008 Canadian content development (CCD) contribution shortfall impacting 65 of its commercial radio stations.
According to Astral’s application to the CRTC on Monday, the shortfall for the 2008 broadcast year amounted to $659,752, and was due to “a misunderstanding of its transitional CCD conditions of licence”.
Astral has proposed directing $450,000 or 60% to MUSICACTION and $300,000 to the Community Radio Fund of Canada to be paid out over the next seven years.
The deadline for the submission of comments and/or interventions is October 13,…
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GATINEAU – Rogers Cable has been subjecting new pay TV service Super Channel to “an undue disadvantage” in its marketing, the CRTC ruled this morning.
Contrary to section 9 of the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations, which say all channels have to be treated equally, the Commission has directed Rogers to file, by October 19th, written documentation “setting out the steps it will take to ensure that, in future, its marketing of Super Channel does not result in the service being subjected to an undue disadvantage,” reads the decision.
The Regulator, however, said there was insufficient evidence to establish that Rogers has…
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HOLDING A HEARING ON fee-for-carriage one month after a hearing on fee-for-carriage sounds stupid to the extreme, on the face of it, anyway.
However, in a very political move, Heritage Minister James Moore yesterday told the CRTC it must hold a hearing into the issue of fee-for-carriage so that consumers can have a chance to participate in the process and make their voices heard.
Of course, mobs of consumers (more than 12,000 submitted form letters supplied to them by Rogers) are already participating, or have already participated, in BNC 2009-411, and November’s hearing into group licensing and fee-for-carriage is…
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